I was more than just a little disappointed with the time for this swim. I was expecting to come out of the water in the 10-11 minute range. I felt good the whole swim, no panic, smooth stroke, etc, etc. After analyzing things I think I can attribute this time to a few things. (1)I was trying to have a nice relaxed swim so maybe I just took it a little too easy. (2) On the registration we were asked to rank our swimming ability. As a 2min/100meter swimming, I ranked myself as average. Triathletes are notoriously bad at ranking their swimming ability and the swimmers that went at the same time as me were NOT average. They were below average. (Who wants to call themselves "below average". I'm guessing not many folks like the sound of that and just rounded up to "average".) In the first 100 meters I ran into people floundering on their backs, breaststroking, doggie paddling, you name it. I had to navigate around a lot of folks. (3) My navigation skills are poor. I was zig-zagging too much. Actually, my navigation was fine. I just couldn't swim in a straight line.

I should have choosen a better line and just stuck with it. I spent too much time either boxed in or going around. Trying to change my line all the time meant I was sighting all the time. Head up = ass down = slow.

Rank: 154

Just an average transition. I set all my things out neatly and was able to grab and go. I still haven't learned to get into my shoes on the go so, once again, it was a clippity, cloppity run to the mount line.

I thought I pushed pretty hard on the bike but I still ended up with a less than stellar time. I had to sit behind some slower traffic a few times to let some faster riders thru. I had to come out of aero and brake on some of the faster, curvy downhill sections because my handling still isn't the best when I'm in aero. I'm a slow climber. I just threw it into a smaller gear and spun to the top. All that being said, I'm still happy with my bike performance. I feel like I rode at the appropriate RPE and left myself with enough for a solid run.

My official listed time for T2 was 2 seconds which is off by a couple two or three seconds. I'm guesstimating my T2 based on last year's time. I was racked in about the same spot as last year and the in/out spots were identical. It was a loooonnnggg run in my bike shoes from mount line to rack made just a little bit longer because I forgot how to count, ran one rack to far, and had to back it up. After that it was a smooth transtion.

There's two possiblities with my T2 time - it was either added to the bike or to the run. If it was added to the bike then I raced at a respectable 18.7 mph and had an abysmal run. If it was added to the run then I had a meh kind of bike and a meh kind of run. I picking option two because it's my race report and I'm the decider. So there.

The run headed out the same way as the bike - uphill. It was hard to get the legs churning to the top but after that it was a fairly flat run. It was starting to get hot out there so I just suffered along as best as I could knowing that it was only three miles. Again, I was hoping to be a little faster than this but in retrospect I think I ran at the right pace.

I was not as fast as I hoped I would be but I still ran a solid race. I was happy to find that I wasn't sore the day after so I know, at the very least, that I raced within my ability. This was not an A race so I'm just going to shrug it off and move on. I had fun. I learned a few things. I saw lots of hotties in lycra. All in all, not a bad day.