First open water swim (ex-some training in the Caribbean--doesn't count as that's crystal clear water), so I learned a lot. I was mostly worried about getting kicked or grabbed, but not seeing where I was going turned out to be the bigger issue. Sighgting was a challenge and I was off course several times. About half-way through the swim I finally relaxed and realized I would just have to work my way through--no big deal, I can swim this distance. I still had navigation issues, but I calmed down quite a bit. One exception was after getting my ankle grabbed. It felt oddly different afterwards and I was affraid I had lost the timing chip band. Had to stop and make sure it was there (not that I could have done anything about it of course :)). Came out of the water and saw my mom & sisters yelling for me. OK, hard part's over now...

More open-water practice. Remain calm and maintain better focus on long smooth strokes.

Had to sit down to get the wetsuit off, but I don't think that cost me too much. Other than that, went okay. Used a small towel to wipe my feet and got my socks & shoes on--waited until I was on the bike to tighten the shoes. Grabbed a couple GUs and put them in my pocket. Put on sunglasses & helmet and ran out towards the mounting area. Saw Kathy & the kids this time too--high fived them. Got passed the mounting area, hopped on and got going pretty easily.

Work on quicker wetsuit removal. Get up to full speed and out of the start area congestion before tightening the shoes.

Other than the first or second place woman who motored past me early on the ride, I spent most of the time doing the passing. I felt good and was holding above 20mph for most of the first half of the ride. About half-way through, I used one of the gels. There was some cross-head winds for much of the second half which slowed my speeds to high-teens to low-twenties, but I still felt good and just geared down when I needed to. This was a very flat course--no hills to speak of.

A few miles from the transition, I heard the dreaded hiss. Sure enough, I had a flat on my rear tire. It was a small, sharp puncture (glass, sharp stone?) that I could see on the tire as it was losing air. Worked reasonably quickly (for me--need to get better at this) in getting the wheel off, tire unseated and old tube out. I took a glueless patch I had and put that inside the tire to cover the puncture and got a new tube in. I decided to use the hand pump since I had never tried a CO2 before. But I didn't think that the tire had enough pressure and I couldn't remember how far I had to ride from there. So then I took out the CO2 and used it--obviously I should have gone with this first--easy as pie. Looking at my HR data, it looks like this (mis)adventure cost me about 12-13min. I'm sure I should be able to cut this in half.

Passed a few people heading home--probably wasn't more than a couple miles back to transaition. Also took my second GU to fuel up for the run and finished the rest of my drink bottle (used 1 full bottle of GU2O for the ride which was most of my hydration for the day).

Oh, had a few words of encouragement from riders passing me while working on the flat, including a "Nice uniform!" call. Go Team Javelin! I would later high-five him going opposite directions on the run--cool.

Not pop the tire? ;) Use the CO2 from the start. Continue to work on being more efficient overall on changes.

I had originally planned to take my feet out of the shoes on the bike and go to transition in socks, but we had to run a few hundred yards over sand, dirt & stone. I didn't want to do that in my socks, so I just ran with the shoes on. Only cost me a few seconds probably. Had to unload my pocket which had the blown tube stuffed in it, but other than that the transition went smooth.

Maybe leave the sensor on my footpod turned on at the start of the race. I had to stop briefly heading out of transition because I remembered I had not turned it on yet.

The run was on packed dirt and sand. It was a little rough in spots--not consistently level--but not too bad. Basically a flat course, with a gentle upward bias on the way out and down on the way back. Passed a lot of the people who had passed me after my flat and felt pretty good. Thought I would be able to pick up the pace at the turn, but it was sunnier and hotter now so I think that drained me some. I really didn't change my pace until maybe the last half-mile.

Maybe try to drink some at the turn instead of just dumping water on my head.

Walked around to see my family and cheered in my sister a few minutes after me. (She had a great day too. Finished just over 2hrs despite breast-stroking the whole swim--panicked worse than me in the OW.) Finally went to get something to drink and then cheered in our friend Greg before partaking of the post-race food.


The flat tire--even getting one, I could learn to fix this faster. And the swim--I can do a better navigation job and will work to calm myself earlier in the race.


This was the first year this race was run. I'm told the organizer usually runs a pretty tight ship on his races, but this one seemed a little sloppy in the pre-race stuff. We got off late, but only about 20min or so. Overall, I think they did a good job and hopefully will iron out the "kinks" for the 2nd Annual.

Despite the flat, I met my time goal and had a great time. Even the flat I felt I handled as well as I could given my experience (or lack thereof). Hopefully I learned a few things that will help me in the future.