I entered a faster seed time than last year, which was much better, and helped avoid passing as many inexperienced swimmers. I took this moderately paced with steady, strong, long strokes.

I could probably kick up the speed a little, maybe 30 seconds or so faster overall.

I put on layers to save time for the run: tri shorts over suit, tights over those, t-shirt, and jacket over that. I put socks and bike shoes on sitting on the ground after drying off.

Worry less about drying off. It feels like I wasted time doing that.

I had only been riding this bike for about three weeks, and the bike shoes/clipless pedals are still very new to me. I walked up the big hill at mile 4-ish, but toughed out the rest. Also, I was lucky enough to have been stopped by a train on the way back to the TA...

Be more aggressive and up the intensity. I definitely felt like I could have gone faster afterwards. Riding up that first large hill would probably have been a good thing, too.

I removed my bike shoes and tights, then put on running shoes and grabbed my ipod. Yankz laces are seriously amazing.

I was definitely not accustomed to the new bike yet. My calves were on fire after the bike and I could not get into the run. I ended up having to walk... Running is the worst part for me by far.

Get some brick workouts in and work more on running distance. I need a lot of help with the running by itself, so I see a lot of running in my future.

Walked around a lot, had fruit and a giant protein shake.


My running abilities are really not there yet. Not being accustomed to my new bike did not help either.


I left the race feeling like I could have pushed a lot harder, which is disappointing. I need to work A LOT on running and somehow get myself stronger mentally and physically. I did worse than last year, which was a huge let down because I am much more in shape now and have a bike which is newer than my last one by at least 20 years. The timing system had some snags again this year, but at least not as bad as the previous year.