Swim felt good. The water was about pool warm here in NE OH. I have never done an open water mass start so this was something new for me. I had a couple people swim up the back of me a little but got out of their way easy enough. I thought I sighted well and picked good spots to pass. It was a simple out and back along the lakes swim boundary. The swim waves were limited to 60 people I think so it really wasn't too bad. I felt very good coming out of the water.

Get more open water swimming in. I also feel like a stood up and started walking too early, but was following what the rest of the people were doing. I would swim it all the way in next time.

Being my first tri, I wasn't sure what to expect from transition. I didn't really practice this part at all. I should have. In the end both transitions probably cost me several places and I might have been able to go under 1:10 with better transitions. I was 136th out of 200 in this first transition. Oh well, I was looking at this as a training day anyway.

Run, as soon as I got out of the water I should have been running to my bike. I might see about riding sockless too. Maybe I'll start triyng that here soon. Not really sure about any other specifics, I just know that I was too slow. Practice, practice, practice.

Bike was what I would consider my weakest link right now. I wasn't quite sure how I would do. I drove the course the previous weekend and was a little surprised at the little hills that were there. Those would prove to be no real problem though. One thing I was a little worried about was the bike start, let's just say that I'm not the most graceful and have had a little trouble with the clip-less pedals. I have had some trouble clipping in without holding onto to anything and almost decided to just ride in my running shoes. I did some more practicing on Saturday and decided to just give it a go. Turns out clipping in was no problem and I was off for the ride. I made a rookie mistake for the ride however, my water bottle was one with a cap you had to unscrew. As soon as I was riding I knew that I wouldn't be able to drink while riding (I got a new bottle after the race) being only a 12 mile ride it wasn't going to be a huge problem. Nothing really exciting to report on the ride, I was happy with time on the bike. I had a very outside goal of under 36 minutes there and came up just short.

Obviously a different bottle, that's already fixed for next time though. I need to practice holding my speed through turns a little more. That will come with an increase in my riding I suppose. I just need to ride more.

Again this was slow. Not exactly sure on the time, it was just lumped in with my run time. I had an issue with my right shoe. Felt like something was under the insole so I took it off and pulled it out to check. Nothing there. The other thing was the race number, I need to get a race belt to attach the number to. It was a PITA trying to pin that to me while running out of transition.

Race belt, and some sort of speed lace system, yankz, lock laces, etc. Practice, practice, practice.

T2 was lumped into the run time, I'm not exactly sure what the exact time was. The run was ok. I thought I could probably go a little better, I was hoping for somewhere right around 22 min, hard to say if I was there or not, my T2 might actually have been 2:34. I think I needed to a little better hydrated to run my best. Coming out of transition I should have grabbed some water that they were offering. I did get some to start lap 2, I even stopped so I could drink the full dixie cup. That seemed to help a little. I was able to run hard through the finish.

Taken water on that first lap.

Grabbed some water and a few snacks. Walked around a little.


Not drinking enough on the course


Good race for a first tri. I will probably do it again next year. I was happy with my first race. I think the newness of it all took a little away from my actual performance. I really don't like to do any of these races to just do them, I actually want to and try to race them. It was fun and I can't wait for August 8th to do my next.