This is the only part of the race where I almost died. I had not focused on the swim training and intended to muddle through it. After about 300 yards, I realized that maybe this was not the best plan. On two separate breaths, I got a direct splash in the mouth from another swimmer and had to tread water to recover.

Train harder. Focus more on technique rather than trying to survive the swim and make up for it on the other legs. Also, I forgot to hit my watch when I went into the water, so I had no idea what my time was while on the course.

T1 went pretty smoothly, not stellar, but good for my first event. Went as I had practiced. I did lose the two shot blocks that were pressed to my bars. Had to squeeze through two bikes in the mounting line that were having trouble...navigated it well. No real issues since I was not pulling off a wetsuit, just throwing my jersey on with the tri shorts that I was wearing.

A small stool would be great.

The bike segment went well for me as it is my strongest event. The course was not as flat as I had heard, and I overworked myself on a few of the hills. Didn't hydrate enough on the bike and started to cramp on the run.

no issues.

Again, a stool for shoe changes would've been good. In the future I may attempt riding with feet on top of shoes and jumping off while moving.

My calves began to cramp immediately upon hitting the run course, so I started hitting the water stations as much as possible. Had to stop 2 or 3 times to stretch my calves out. Overall, I was spent by the time I got to the run, and was pretty slow.

Better nutrition and hydration leading up to run. Since I forgot to start my watch from the beginning, I had no idea what my total time was. I though that I was way over my 1:45:00 goal. It turned out that I only finished 2:12 over my goal, so if I had known this, I probably could've picked up the pace a little and made my goal.

Collapse.


not enough training.


Race was a great event, well run, and smooth (other than being about 15min late on the start).