Good swim for me. Made the mistake of forgetting the BodyGlide for the speedsuit and paid for it. Managed to draft a little bit but ended up being faster than most of those I tried to draft off of. The underwater grass was extremely dense. Would surprise me to hear that they had to save a few people in the spots where the vegetation was extra thick. Google "Swamp Thing" and thats pretty much what I looked like coming out of the water!

Unless there is a way to practice swimming through extremely thick underwater vegetation not much I can do except train a little more consistently on my swimming.

Still a super slow transition but managed to take over minute off my T1 time from Columbia (same transition).

Practice transitions.

Should have ridden the course beforehand. Thsi ride just confirms my biking needs work, my hill climbing needs A LOT of work. Still managed a 41.7 top speed. I knew within the firt couple of miles that it was going to be a long ride. Managed to get chicked by a girl on a mountain bike on the first uphill on Homeward Rd and it never got any better from there. Failed miserably at keeping hydrated.

Train Train train!

Did the flying dismount perfectly only to nearly bite it due to a literal wall of people who decided to line up next to each other as they casually got off their bikes and blocked the entire entrance to T2. 3 of the guilty were so kind as to make sure they flew pass me going into to T2. A$$hats.

No excuses though, still need to improve on my horrid transition times.

Practice

I hate running. Running hates me. Its a mutual thing. This reace was no different. Doing the DC tri the weekend before caught up to me here. On the upside, it was a nice leisurely stroll around the lake in brutal temps. I think the temps set a record at nearby BWI at 104°F Sunday!

Learn to come to a compromise with running to let me run at decent pace.

Drank water, rubbed ice over me. Contemplated jumping back in the lake to cool down but the water was 84° so it wouldnt have been much releif.


Lack of training. Inability to completely quit smoking.... just one here and there wont hurt right? Wrong.


The volunteers and fans were great. Lots of support from a lot of fans there supporting first time triathletes. Sprints are so much better than the other distances for this reason. IMHO.