They did 30 seconds in-between swimmers....this worked out pretty well, but in such close quarters, buffoonery is inevitable. My brush with silliness came when I started to hunt down a guy who seeded himself insanely wrong. The poor dude was probably 3 minutes slower than he claimed. Which is totally fine, no worries, but as he was hanging on the side he saw me coming and instead of letting me pass, he took off again...slowed me down which then put the two dudes behind me on my feet. So at the next wall, I stood up, did the den mother thing, and shoed those two around me and promptly got into a nice little draft...but dude stayed in their way for the whole swim...

The whole thing was minor, really...it was my first pool swim, so I didn't know what to expect...actually I was prepared for much worse. I think the 30 second delay really helped the swim go smoothly.

I should have seeded myself further back, but I wasn't terribly out of place. I have basically been resting on my swim laurels for a month and a half so I need to get back in the pool if I want to maintain my swim fitness. Imagine that!

This was the world's tiniest transition area...some movie stars have shoe closets larger than this transition area. The race organizers were all happy because they actually had bike racks this year.

I didn't realize that they didn't have mount and dismount lines, so I could have hopped on as soon as I hit pavement. I guess some course recon would have been a good idea...as always.

First race on the new bike. Stayed aero for most of the race which really made a difference for me in the wind...made it easier. I actually think I averaged faster than this, but it might be slightly long course and I got lost on the bike in, so that slowed me down a bit.

Attack the hills early on...I was being wimpy for a while...next time it's attackattackattack. Races are won going up hills and into the wind. Not get lost coming in to the bike finish. Just rode around in a circle in the parking lot until they waved me in the right direction.

Normal T2...no chip timing so not sure how long it was...I timed myself around 1:15.

Not hop off the bike at the timing line which I thought was the dismount line...I think I could have ridden right up to my transition spot and nobody would have cared. Run out was fine...no bike gloves this week, YAY!

Got myself some pace booty. Stuck with a guy who passed me on mile one...just traded positions with him and when we realized we were staying together, we started working together...kind of encouraging and trading the lead now and then. I led up the hills and he led down, kept us both going faster.

I still am struggling with my run pace. I think I settle into a slower pace at the outset and never reset when I get my run legs back...not for the Oly, but for the two sprints, this seems to be what I am doing. I think more experience will help here...I just don't have that aha moment when I crank my pace back up to my 5k pace...

Kind of switched over to marathon training after the Oly two weeks ago...hard to run that much and keep up with the pool/bike. Not sure that had much of an impact. If I was going to race sprints only, I would definitely gear my training towards quality type of workouts in all three...lots of hills (ok maybe not for swimming), intervals, speedwork, etc...


Great race. Very tiny, well organized, nice people, nice course. I enjoyed the day very much and would do this race again. It would be a perfect first triathlon for someone. In fact it was my husband's first tri, (despite his 10:45 swim, he won his age group...Daddy can cycle and run! He'll be a real threat if he can ever learn how to swim...what a freak)