Normally I start at the very back of my wave swimming slowly, but I am trying to gain more confidence swimming among the masses. Today I placed myself in the middle of my wave and started off hard. All that did was serve to make me breathless. A lot of people chose to walk nearly all the way to the first buoy which threw me off my rythym. Took me past the first turn before I settled down.

I think the race was really 400m/440y. There is no way I swim this fast.

Figure out the best place to seed myself. I don't want to spend the rest of my tri life in the bottom third of the swim, ugh!

I actually ran through transition but it was a long way. I never know why it takes me so long here.

Have a better game plan?

The bike was the highlight of my day. I love being able to go as hard as I possibly can without worrying about blowing up. Starting in the last wave afforded me the opportunity to pass a lot of people, especially on hills (my one advantage as a 99lb female). No one passed me or passed me back. Blew into T2 happy as a clam.

Absolutely nothing.

By the time I got back to the racks, there was crap everywhere. Someone had thrown their stuff all over my transition area and bike rack area. Threw it to the side and went about my business.

Put my shoes on faster!

Turned on my GPS and never looked at it which is my normal mode of operation for sprints and Olys. My plan was to run this hard, but controlled given the terrain. Having done the TREK 100 yesterday and having High Cliff HIM next week I wanted no set backs with my recently healed stress fracture. I sounded like a total asthmatic and people probably thought I was sucking every ounce of oxygen available. I passed a load of people so thought my pace was pretty decent. Crossed the finish line and was suprised to see how very slow it was, well over 4 minutes slower than normal for me.

In retrospect, I wouldn't have changed my strategy. It was the right thing to do given the circumstances and terrain. Give me pavement anyday!

Stopped, grabbed a 1/2 banana, some H20, got the low down on how everyone was doing from Chris. I was cold so I grabbed my stuff and left.


Overall, I was super happy with this performance. Never expected an AG win. Just need to get better and more confident swmming, plain and simple. I've worked hard at it, but obviously not hard enough. I hope I dont end every race report with the same whining about the swim :)


Love the fact we have a race like this right in Middleton. Endurance Houe does a great job putting this on and I highly recommend it. The run course is TOUGH, but a good challenge!