Why can't my pool times translate to open water??!?!?! This is getting frustrating.

The water was too warm for wetsuits and that suited me just fine. I had debated not bringing mine regardless since my lower back has been hurting when I wear it.

I was in the second wave which I liked. I hate getting to T1 and having everyone gone. It was very windy out there with a lot of chop. My sighting was fine but I just can't hang with the group. In the last 700 yds the men from the wave behind me started to catch up. :(

The course was marked with only 2 triangle buoys and so was the map, however, once out on the course you had to make a 3rd turn around a sighting buoy before heading back to shore. I miss marked this a little and started heading towards the wiggly man after the second turn, so I had to correct a little there, but not much.

THIS IS VERY FRUSTRATING!!!

I wish I knew! Just keep practicing I guess.

Wouldn't you know it, my Garmin was D.O.A. I wasted time putting the darn thing on my wrist since I don't have a bike mount on the TT bike yet. Plus I had to rinse off my feet. But overall it was okay. Paul would have been disappointed with my mount but I haven't mastered the running mount with the shoes on the bike yet so that is for another race.

Keep working on the mount.

With the Garmin down I was racing totally blind. Not a very comfortable feeling. I was going purely on R.P.E. and memory feel on the cadance. It was very hot and windy so I was trying to monitor my fluids and nutrition intake carefully. For a five mile stretch there was a strong headwind. I'd be surprised if my speed wasn't down to 15mph. Reminded me of White Lake, pedal pedal pedal and not go anywhere. Strong side gusts too. Had to catch my stearing a few times.

Geared down to climb as usual. On a series of rollers I would get passed by big guys on the first hill but I'd catch up on the descent and pass him on the flat and then stay ahead on the next climb. I LOVE MY EQUINOX!!!!

Nutrition: finished the 16oz of Cytomax; took a gel before their water handoff and one as I re-entered the park for the run. I took their water and chased my gel then poured the rest on me.

Have a computer that worked.

The racks were placed way too close together which made it difficult for people to get in/out of them. The guy in front of me knocked a bike down while entering the rack. I had to carry mine in just to fit. Plus who ever put the number range signs on the inside racks faced them out so you couldn't read them as you ran down the center. Consequently I ran down the wrong row.

Once I finally got to my bike rack some rude gentleman put his bike in my spot so I had to fit my bike in further down the row and then work underneath his bike to get to my gear.

Not my best T2.

It was already in the 90's at this point and crowded, but I like being on the course with lots of runners. I started off slow (that is a relative term when you look at my overall pace) just to get my legs back under me. Probably slower than I should have but I didn't have my Garmin and was more concerned about overall time, not race pace. The course was a double loop so I used the first lap to get the lay of the land and assess how I as feeling. On a good day a 10K takes me a little over an hour but I knew that wasn't happening today. I was cool with that though. I walked through the aide stations to refuel and focused on staying cool and just doing my best. The heat was really getting to lots of people; those needing medical attention and yacking on the side of the road. No Thanks. After mile 4 I had 25 minutes to meet my time goal so no more walking breaks. I picked up the pace some and focused on the job at hand. It wasn't a ground breaking run but for once it was nice not to be a suffer fest either. Injuries were all gone and it was simply a matter of maintaining temperature and assessing my fitness level at this point.

The aide stations were great, lots of water, HEED and cups of ice. I drank water and poured it on myself and put the ice in my hat and down my sports bra at every station. The ice would rattle around in my top and it sounded like dice. One guy even laughed and said, "hey baby what's shaken?" The last aide station switched to handing out orange slices and whole water bottles. That was great.

About 2 miles in I noticed I had nasty friction burns on my lats/arm pits. Ouch. Use Body Glide next time. I could laugh and say my lats are getting so big and that is what caused the burn, but to be honest it was probably spend extra time on the swim and being soaking wet all day.

Goal was 3:15 and my time was 3:14:56 so not bad. Overall I had a great time and am very pleased with this race. After my last few races being such unqualified dissasters I'd forgotten how much fun Olympics can be. I'm in a pretty good place to start Augusta training. I know what's been working well and where I need to focus more. Overall I set a new Olympic PR as well as a bike PR. Just imagine what I could have done if I'd had my bike computer.


Heat, lack of running base.


This was a great race. Clean water, fast bike course, good run, well stocked aide stations and nice volunteers. Post race there was a misting tent and Feshly made subs with fruit, chips and soft drinks. My only complaint was the bike rack rows were too close together. I'm looking forward to returning next year.