This swim was sooo slow. I hadn't been swimming much the past few weeks (my own fault) so I wasn't expecting much but I was really disappointed at this time. My sighting was okay and I felt like a relaxed enough into the swim that I was able to focus on my form: floating hips, really pulling through the water, etc.. but it still ended up really slow.

Oh, and I was surprised that I didn't get mangled and beat up at the start. I started further back in the crowd which I think was just about the right starting place for me.

Swim, swim, swim

I decided to do the shoes-on-bike that I tried at Columbia and went seamlessly - not so much this time around... I put one foot in then the other shoe caught on the pavement and I started to fall to the side - in the process unclipping my partly inserted foot which flew the shoe off to the side of the bike. So I had to stop, get off the bike, hold it up while I put the shoe on, and then clip into the pedal.. so essentially I got to practice both shoes-on-bike and clip-in-go for this race. The run from the water to the transition area was really long - hence the long T1s. (7th fastest in AG)

Practice the shoes-on-bike running start EVERY time I start to ride!

Over a minute of this time was my "getting on the bike" fiasco! But I stayed calm and once I got rolling just put it all behind me and had a great bike leg :) I passed tons of people - some girl I passed commented after I rode by "Could you legs be any longer!?!?" I started cracking up :)

I really pushed it up AND down the hills. Pedaling pretty much the whole time - and I think this gave me a big advance in speed.

I had the 9th fastest bike time out of the women - even w/my delay getting on the bike :)

Nutrition: 1 waterbottle & 1 accelerade (2 scoops).

Bike specific training instead of random rides. I think I could really improve my speed if I did interval training (that's one of my new training goals).

Helmet off, socks and shoes on, nothing too noteworthy.

Have feet made of steel so I can get away w/o wearing socks at an Oly :)

This was a great run! It was hilly and hot but my body held up really well. I had a sweet negative split (8:30s on the way out, 8:10s on the way back). I poured water on me at every water station and took the ice cold towels too. I think the week of training in FL and the mid-day long runs really gave me an advantage on the run. I never though I would have a relatively comparable ranking on the run as I did on the bike!

Took a gu at mile 1 and 4.

Nothing - just be able to run faster :)

Cheered on all the other BTers as they came in from the course. It was a HOT day!

Then got rear-ended on the way home from the race.. with my bike on the back of the car.. and can never be ridden again.. and the guy who hit me is claiming I waved him down and he never hit me (the impact to the bike was absorbed by his bumper and there is no "damage" to his car).. so I've been dealing with all that crap for the last 4 days... so the joy of the race unfortunately quickly eluded me. It was a great time though and I love knowing so many people at the races to hang out with and cheer on - it makes it so much more of a social sport :)