First Olympic distance! I'm new to open water swimming as well as new to wearing a wetsuit. I decided to do this swim slow and easy so as not to end up hyperventilating out in the middle of the lake. Breathing was good and I felt calm and relaxed the whole way. I pulled right and rounded the buoys too wide adding some distance to my swim. Also, on the way back we were headed directly into the sun and I could not see the buoy at all (but the sunrise was beautiful!). I just followed other people and then all of a sudden there was the buoy! I swam front stroke the whole way other than a couple of times I breast stroked just to get better sight of the buoy.

At one point I was swimming straight for a buoy and a guy crossed horizontally in front of me. I tapped him and said, "Wrong way!" He said, "What?" I said, "the buoy is that way!" and pointed to the buoy. He just said, "My bad!" I also saw a guy swim head on into a buoy (that was kind of funny.)

I felt like Dory on Finding Nemo singing, "Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. What do we do? We swim, swim!"



Practice sighting and keeping straight; and of course work on speed.

HUGE smile on my face coming out of that water and a few people commented on it. I pulled off my cap and goggles and remembered to let go of them inside my sleeve and I was pulling arms out. Was a little hard to run but I did run/shuffle/hobble or whatever it was into transition. Not too bad getting out of wetsuit, but I did have to sit down. I had planned on wearing my jacket, but now that I was warmed up I had second thoughts. So I dug into my transition bag for my long-sleeved shirt and tried to put in on over wet skin. Or course it stuck. But in the end I was glad I went with the shirt instead of the jacket. I fumbled around a lot more than usual, mainly because my fingers were so cold I could not get them to work.

Just be more organized and not fumble around so much.

This was a limiter for me and I know I'm capable of better. I tried to stay in the aero bars but the course was hilly, curvey, and had a lot of bad pavement to dodge, so I was out of them a lot. I had water bottle issues, so I didn't drink as much as I had planned.

I had one GU towards the beginning of the bike and anotehr towards the end. I also had Nuun in both of my water bottles. I drank plain water on the run route.

When I came back in on the bike, my son was there with a cow bell! He goes to school at NC State, so he's not far from the race sight. He could not get up in time for race start but showed up before I finished the bike route.



Train alone more so that I'm relying on myself rather than pacing with someone else; push harder.

I fumbled in this transition too and actually sat down again after fighting with my shoes. Removed helmet, changed shoes (sitting down), took off the long-sleeved shirt, grabbed run belt and ran.

Same as above. I certainly should not be sitting down in T2. I had the wetsuit as an excuse in T1; but no excuse in T2 other than I was clumsy.

Legs felt like shin splints. At one point I stopped and rubbed my legs but I could not think of any stretches for that shin splint feeling so I started running again. It was very uncomfortable and difficult to run with this feeling and I wondered if it would go away. After about 3 miles, it did go away and I felt much better. I was at a comfort pace and really should have pushed harder. I found myself chattering a lot with other people and too myself. I needed to just shut up and run!

My hair fell out of the twisted up bun I had it pinned in. At one point a lady coming from the other direction held out a band and asked me if I need a hairband! How cute... only another woman would think to do that. But I didn't have time to grab it so I went without.



Wear garmin and push harder. I did not put my garmin on and I really wish I had. I would have paced better with it.

I normally have to walk immediately after finish; I cannot stop short and just stop. But today I did. I felt pretty relaxed at finish and realized I simply did not race hard enough.


The main thing that limited my performance was being too relaxed with the race. I've never gone this distance before, and wasn't sure how to pace it out. But I definitely had room to push more and will next time. It was a great learning experience.


This was a great race and I had FUN. I would definitely do it again as a season opener.

Not very many participants or supporters for this race which was likely a good thing since there were no port-a-pots! We had to stand in line at the changing room building. Also, I did not see many kayaks out in the water and certainly not around the buoys. I noticed people rounding the buoys to the wrong side which would have cut some distance for them.