Had my usual 100 meter panic attack and existential crisis, i.e., "What am I doing here? Why am I doing this?" Once I got over myself, I tried to remember all the great stuff I learned over the winter from the coach, and tried to catch water and reach and roll. Although not fast, it's the fastest I've ever been able to swim in open water. Hoping to see more improvement as I get more OWS in this summer.

Not panic.

Umm...really have to get better at this. In my defence, I had a bunch of stuff in plastic bags to keep it dry, so that meant some digging. Still...spent some time making sure everything was done...perhaps a little too much time.

Speed up...duh...

Absolutely the worst bike split ever. Hmmm...where do I begin? The hills were nasty and I actually had to walk a bit just before the crest of the 6th line hill - I've never done this in my life before. I just didn't have the legs for this race. Then my brand new double water bottle holder collapsed and I was so afraid that the one water bottle that was in there would fall out and take someone out, that I had to stop and drop my other water bottle and put the new one that I just bought on to the down post holder. Then the bloody water bottle holder rattled the whole way, and because of the way the wind was blowing or something, it sounded like the noise was coming from my front wheel. I stopped a couple of times to ensure that I didn't have a flat or that my wheel wasn't coming off. So irritating. I will talk to my little bike shop folk...they forgot my valve covers and didn't tighten this thing well enough when they installed it...argh...

Check that my bottle holder is secure. I guess train more on big hills on my road bike.

Fine...tore my race number as I was leaving T2 - had to tuck half under my race belt...irritating.

Great run, actually. Felt so comfortable. Found an awesome pace bunny and just annoyed the hell out of him by following him for about the last three km. Thanks, pace bunny, whoever you are!

Maybe not attack that downhill quite so agressively. I've done something nasty to my knee, and I think that might have been the old straw.

Cleaned up transition. Walked to the food with a very nice woman from my AG and we chatted. Best part of the race, really. Got some food - but the pig on the spit kind of made me lose my appetite. ick. Hard to find food at races that is wheat free, but that's to be expected, of course. Ate a Lara bar in the car and an apple.


Stupid water bottle holder. Not enough hill training on bike. Bad attitude.


This is a good race - the Subaru people do a great job of organizing things, and the course is really challenging. They couldn't help the weather which really put a literal damper on things. I think I needed to be more prepared for the climbs - I thought I liked climbing hills...I guess not so much. I'm pretty disappointed with my bike on this, actually, but stoked about my run split. Maybe I should just stick to running...