My big goal was to not panic and swim the whole course as crawl. I was guessing that if I met those two goals, I would drop a minute from last years' time. I was right on. After a few bad choices, I finally found a good person to follow. I stayed right on his feet except for the one time as we were passing someone in the first wave when I got a little messed up and lost him for about a minute. This guy was the right pace (maybe I could have gone a tad faster) and he did a decent job of navigating so I didn't have to sight the buoys as often. His turn at the first buoy was too wide and I tried to leave him to take it closer but that didn't get me anything so I just stayed with him for the rest. There was a short little chop that caught me a few times, but other than that I was very happy and relieved with my swim.

nothing. It was a good swim for me even though I know that it is a poor swim overall.

T1 is counted in swim time so I have no idea how I did. I think I did OK, I didn't do a good job at getting my shoes on and had to redo the velcro as I got on the bike.

My goal was to drop a minute off of last year's time. I dropped 5! I loved this ride. I loved reeling in people, but it was a bummer when a woman reeled me in. I stepped it up after that and re-passed her but she got me again on the final hill. On one hill, the drummers were there again this year. I had been going back and forth with a young guy. He knew these people so they gave an especially energetic drumming for us. That was inspirational! I dropped him after that.


cadence avg was 77 to Dallas Hill Rd, and 80 after that.
speed avg = 14.8 to Dallas Hill
speed avg = 13.9 after Dallas Hill


Not much, I upped my bike training (at the expense of run training), and I dropped a few pounds. A really fun ride.

T2 is counted in run time but I felt I did well with this. I think I picked up a little time on the people directly in front of me.

nothing.

I wanted to drop a minute from last year's run and I did not achieve that. My strategy was to push hard on the downhills and flats and do the same on the hills. I found a woman with a similar pace to run the first 2 miles but once the hills started, she faded. Perhaps I would have gone a little faster without her, but she was no nice that I don't regret running with her.

I passed quite a few people on the run and was only passed by men. I caught quite a bit of distance on the women ahead of me but couldn't catch them. The last slog is long, and I could see a woman in my age category ahead of me about half way up and walking as I just started the hill. My run was three minutes faster than hers, and I think I caught at least 1 or 2 minutes of it on the last hill. I ran all of that hill.

I was a little confused on the route because the mileage markers were for kilometers rather than miles. Last year, they were miles, so my memorized splits did me no good on the course, 'tho they did help me pass the time converting them.

1 k = 4:57 (7:57 m/mile converted pace)
2 k = 5:46 (9:16 m/mile converted pace)
3 k = 6:29 (10:26 m/mile converted pace)
4 k = 7:31 (12:05 m/mile converted pace)
5 k = 6:49 (10:58 m/mile converted pace)
6 k = 8:54 (14:19 m/mile converted pace)
finish = 13:51 (22:17 m/mile converted pace)

There is one particularly steep hill which I walked a portion of last year. This year, I turned to walking earlier and I think that cost me my minute. I should have pushed to the first switchback before walking.

water, change clothes as I was chafing under my left armpit. My face was bright red at the finish. Hang around and chat and wait for my family to show up.


3 weeks ago, I should have been working on running hills and speed but it was too hot and muggy, so I focused on biking. My swim and bike were improved at a cost of running. Hey,that is triathlon!

Note for next year:
Swim the day before the race. Swim with wetsuit in the lake on the morning of race

Carry 20 oz. bottle of gatorade-water mix on the bike.

Carry 6 oz. bottle of water on run to help with downing gu/shot blox

Ate endurlyte 15 minutes before race start
Ate shot block 10 minutes before race start.

Ate one Gu during bike ride
One gulp of gatorade in T2
Alternate between Heed and water at stations on run.
Eat one half shot block at about mile 2, and other half of shot block at about mile 4.


Tons of happy smiling volunteers, the roads were swept so there was no glass anywhere.