Short course - no way I swam a 1:45 pace! I'm not complaining, though.
No chance for practice, my wave was tardy and I entered the water with only 15 seconds before the start.
Had the pull to the right early, so I lost confidence in my navigational abilities and "over-sighted" the rest of the race.
Overall I felt pretty good. Breathed every 3rd stroke the entire race. Found a decent groove during the last third of the swim, except when some guy grabbed my ankle - twice. Got water in my goggles twice and had to swim on my back and clear them. Goggles fogged during second half of swim.

More OW practice.

Kind of weird landing. You crawl up a ramp with Dry Deck tile on it and then up a flight of stairs.

Pretty happy with T1, except I forgot to get a stick of gum for the ride.

Flat 0.25mi out of T1. Got flat changed, but unsure of how long it took. I'd love to know for the "What could've been..." factor. I can only guess it took 5-10 min.
Traffic slowed the race three different times - twice on uphills(!) and for a long time through Port Deposit. I'd like to know how many racers encountered this amount of traffic.
Stood up on almost every hill, and was passing alot of people, so I kept at it - even the big hill outside of Port Deposit. Quads were sore for days after, though.
Had a gel right before Conowingo. This course was hard to take nutrition on, because you're always doing something (turn, climb, descend, brake), not just pedalling away on a straightaway.

Try to practice mor on hills and more flat changing.

Had trouble finding my bag without a bright red Felt next to it. Fortunately the rows were labeled by race number.

Get a better feel for where my stuff is without the bike.

Where did that come from???!!! I've never run this fast!
On the verge of cramps in my quads practically the whole race.


Nothing.

Water, Endurox. Walked around with family - great to have them there. Stretched a little, talked with Lynda. Lines for porta-pot were finally short enough, so I relieved myself.


Flat tire, very little hill practice, not enough open water swim experience, not finding my stuff soon enough in T2.


Eventhough my time was much worse than I had hoped, I was happy with my performance in my first Olympic distance race. I prepared well and my time was hampered by a factor that was beyond mt control. Despite the flat, I felt really good after the race (I guess that PR run didn't hurt). I met Joel after the race, so it was good to put a face with a name/avatar. Before the race I wasn't really looking forward to it after I had previwed the bike course. It turned out to be much better than I had feared, and I'm coming back next year more prepared - mentally and hopefully physically.