It was overcast and hard to spot the square white buoys. I sighted for the Morrison bridge span and worried about the buoys when I got closer. Current didn't feel too strong, and it wasn't quite as sloshy wave wise as it was on Thursdays practice swim. I pulled away from the wave pretty quickly and then picked through a few people in the wave ahead. Back towards Hawthorne bridge it became a bit of a clusterf*&* as the sprint waves were just beginning to do their turn back. Tried not to swim over people, but just kept plowing through. Definitely slowed me down some. Felt like a decent swim overall, the ladder was a bit hard to climb after swimming. Really liked that they had most of the women in their own wave.

Not much, swim more... I haven't been able to get in >2500 yd workouts because of the weird summer pool timing, but will be piling on the yardage in prep for the HIM - have to gain time wherever I can. I think the longer workouts will help bring down the time again. I'm not sure what role current has in this swim either - it felt lower than Thursday, but there was a definite pull.

Seemed even slower to me. There was a long run uphill from the dock to the transition area. I walked up the ramp and jogged the rest of the way. HR was way up. Had a little difficulty getting wetsuit off, and had a bitch of a time getting socks on... One day i'll start running without socks...maybe.

Just go faster.

Coming out of transition it was gradual incline to flat to steep incline for four miles. Started out slowly trying to work up to a good cadence without blowing up as HR was quite high. Whole first lap I felt dead (maybe not enough breakfast) Seemed to be standing still on the uphills and being passed like crazy. The final four miles were mostly screaming fast downhill, threw it up gear and flew by people. Totally fun & challenging course. I die on hills so by the third lap I was toast, but I was also pushing it a little too hard thinking I had to make time in case I had to walk a lot of the run. I saw a few people walking the hill after the first sharp turn. On the last lap I hit a hole on the downhill @ 25mph bounced hard and cracked my right armrest so I was having trouble staying in aero comfortably the last 2 miles. The one section of bad road near the turnaround was rifled with launched bottles/computers, and other crap. That first lap coming in to turnaround was a little challenging with all the congestion. Fun ride overall though. Took one 27oz bottle of water with 2 gels mixed in, bout 1/3 bottle per lap (220 cals), plus ~8oz of gatorade. Perfect amount of fluids. It was in the 60s so really pleasant racing conditions.

More hills & be at ideal racing weight. I need to lose that last bit of weight NOW!

Hamstring was tight tight tight after the ride and hip was niggling a bit. I tried to stretch it out while I was on the bike, but didn't help much. Was feeling rather jello like and was having a hard time getting my sh7t together. I need to work on transitions and get yankz or other elastic on my shoes. Grabbed my hat, race belt, and gel flask and took off.

Go faster! :)

Been having hip and hamstring issues and both were tight and sore after pushing it on the ride. I knew I might have to walk a significant amount of the course. I did end up running quite a bit of it - shortened stride to lessen hip issues. Walked when I needed to. I really should have stuck to a 5:1 run/walk, but I ended up starting at 10:1, and gradually became less and less as miles went by. About 1.5 miles in my "lady time" cramps really struck... ouuuwieee not fun. I just wanted the run to be over and be filled with pain dulling ibuprofen. Walked up a fair bit of the ramp to Steel Bridge each time. I am going to have to discipline myself during the half to a proper run/walk strategy. Faded at mile 4-5 but then felt better after mile 5 into finish. I'm happy I was able to run more of this than I thought. I was not DFL in the run - but DFclose ;) Had 1 gel mixed in h20 in the flask (flask is the way to go for sure!), a couple sips of Heed twice on the course (YUCK, heed is so gross), and a couple sips of water right before the last mile. Perfect fluid and nutrition. It was awesome seeing Mary at the finish - first time anyone has come out to see me race!

Not much. My run still sucks - I can run longer, but not getting any faster. Oh well, I did what I could, ran more than I thought possible, and finished!

Caught my breath, walked around, stretched a bit, grabbed some food, sucked down some juice and water and the rest of the gatorade from my bike bottle. We watched the first few minutes of the awards and then took off for home. At home Ed made us DELICIOUS pancakes. I pounded three and went upstairs to read, but napped for about 3-4 hours. I don't like getting up early!


Hip/hamstring issues, lady-time cramps, bad at hills, lack of long-distance swims... Didn't have the peepee problems I did at the last Oly - 1 bottle+few sips of electrolyte seems to do the trick on the bike when the temp is lower. I'm just glad I finished!


65/81 women...

I loved this race. Each course was just right in terms of challenge vs. ease. Only complaint was they needed orange/yellow or different colored buoys for the swim - on overcast day the water reflects gray... and with white buoys they were really difficult to sight on.

The swag was awesome (especially the finisher steel bottle - way better than medal!). The volunteers were great. Wasn't too into the post-race fixins as my appetite was completely gone - I didnt even go for a beer I was that shattered. I was looking forward to some gelato though - where was it? Gone? :( Great race, fantastic conditions, highly recommend and will be doing it again next year.

Great training race for me. Hopefully I can get this hamstring/hip issue under control and I'll be ready for Black Diamond.