The chop made it very hard to see. It didn't bother me; i.e., I swam in it fine, but I couldn't see where I was going at all, so I kept sort of stopping to look. Or doing several breast strokes. Then, on the cross side, the rolling around actually made me slightly dizzy. I also really messed up my start. My swims of late have been totally sucky, so I didn't want to get into the first hundred yard sprint and then lose it. I decided a nice, liesurely start was in order. But I ended up too much in the mix and had a difficult time making forward progress...liesurely or otherwise. So, between the chop and my bad decisions, it was an ugly swim. Surprisingly, though, it was faster than last years by several seconds.

Find a better place to start. Maybe trust that I swim in a relatively straight line and don't need to sight that often?

I was a bit discombobulated after the swim and did not get through transition as quickly as I should have. Also, new shoes took a little longer to put on. Definitely need more practice.

Practice so I can get through this more smoothly and with deliberation.

This is the only part of the race that felt like I did good. It was windier than last year and we had a headwind/cross winds on the return. When I heard that some of the faster guys went 2 min slower this year than last year, and I was only about 1 min slower, I felt pretty good. I mostly pushed it, which showed itself on the slight hills on the course where I didn't have as much power as I would have liked. I weenied out on the hairpin turn and actually got off my bike. I got so nervous getting to it, I didn't want to cause an accident, especially with all the other bikes around me. But, wow. That's the first time I've done that. I really need to practice those turns. Don't know why they scare me so much...I've never fallen doing them. But I have gone off the road.

Not get off the bike at the turnaround.

This is a pretty fast transition for me and probably what put me in 4th place rather than 5th in my age group.

Just grab and carry my hat rather than taking time to jam it on my head.

Run was comfortable and effortless. And that was the problem. I should have put some effort into it. It was like a long run pace. La-di-da. I never felt loose and my quads were quite heavy feeling, but based on my RPE, I could have picked up the pace.

Run fast.

Showed off my pretty bike.


Attitude. I just didn't have a good one for this race. I am mad at my swimming. I was mad about being tired and not getting all my workouts in this week. I was just pissy and cranky going into it. But I loved my ride on my pretty bike with the more aggressive fit, and I, as always enjoyed the camaraderie of the local tri scene. With this race under my belt, my head's on straight(er), so I will be ready to tear it up at Heart O Dixie next month.