was pretty calm heading in, and seaded myself in the middle, nearer to the front of the wave. at our horn, I started off and went WAY TOO HARD!! I made it to the first yellow turn bouy and had a mini freak out. I couldn't get my face in the water and had about 1 min of breast stroking while trying to calm my breathing. Seemed like forEVER, but finally got it under control and started in. Other than that, the swim felt pretty good i guess. I just wish I was faster. It did seem long for some reason. After the turn towards shore I felt faster - wish I coulda swam the while dist at that speed.

felt ok. I was super close to bike out - so that's good, but I did have a very long run to my bike out of the water. The wetsuit stripper was NOT very good...I probably coulda done it faster myself...can't predict that though, and in the future, if they're there, ill use them.

I can't go sockless so learn to get my socks and shoes on faster...

I always get passed alot in the beginning of the bike...grrr. The beginning felt ok - good. I did notice that it was getting windy though as we were heading into sturgen bay - coming at us about 15 degrees to the right, so not quite a head wind - but close. I REALLY had to pee (good hydration before the race I guess) and CANNOT do it on the bike so i stopped in sturgen bay for a 1'30"ish potty break - felt much better after! After that, I felt pretty good and was passing some people. At one point though a girl wearing a donky top passed me - tried to stay with her but couldn't without my HR getting too high. Then near the end of the loop it started to rain - medium hard - enough to soak me (and my socks! squishy!) I was looking forward to a tail wind but after the rain, wind pretty much went away - bummer! I was eating and drinking well the whole time :) once we got out of sturgen bay and were heading back - I felt GREAT! passing lots of people!! (even passed the donkey that blew past me!) I was very happy with the bike - even though I'm not that fast. mostly I'm happy that I stayed consistent throughout, had good nutrition and didn't feel blown up at the end.

get faster in general - so I guess that means improve bike fitness.

my socks were soaked! So i changed them! that took extra time but made my run more comfy - good trade off i guess. grabbed my visor and was off - putting it on while running. I think it was pretty fast, even with the sock change :) my T2 was 7th in my age group! great!

suck it off and not change the socks!

I. Am. Slow. OK captain obvious! Anyway. I started off feeling great! ate a gu at T2out and got on my way. even ran with Josh and Fletcher for a couple hundred yards - cute!! I think my first 3 miles were under 10 min. Around the time of the first hill (I think that's around mile 5-5.5) is when I started feeling crappy. i walked up the hill - and met a nice girl who I ended up running with for 4 miles or so. ran down hill and to the next aid station. walked through that and ate a gu. Then ran to the base of the bluff and walked up that and through that aid station at the top. Ran to the next aid station, walked through it, ran to the last aid station and walked through that. So total I walked through 3 aid stations and up the 2 hills. This probably screwed up my average minutes/mile - by how much...who knows (I'd like to think at least 30 sec to 1 min per mile...) By the time I got to the top of the bluff - with about 3 miles to go - i felt bad - just achy and very very thirsty. Just tried to put my mind somewhere else and follow those running in front of me. Actually, I even passed a couple within the last mile! Dad was on top of the bluff cheering for me just like last year - That was so AWESOME! (actually - i kept running because I though he's be there and didn't want to get caught walking!! :P ) ran fast down that hill (which kinda hurt because it's so steep) and finished pretty hard down the shoot - even passed a guy right before the shoot too. man, I'm slow!

I really need to improve my run fitness. My goal for a half IM is under 6 hours - I know I can do that if I can get my run to average 10 min miles...

I was achy when I finished and had NO appatite - so I gave Josh all my fool/drink tickets. Walked to transition, and packed up then back again. headed to the truck, to the house on the lake, to the shower then to the bed! napped for a couple hours then went to a fish fry for supper - I sure was hungary by the time we got there!!


not being a fast runner.


I love this race!!! great pre race, great help during race, great post race - live band and everything!! If I could, I'd do this as my half IM every year!! I'm crossing my fingers that I'll be able to do this as my A race next year (instead of using it as a training day/race for IMWI)