Good Lord, will this swim never end. I swear the bouys are moving AWAY from me! Took it steady and tried to keep an even stroke pace, much easier to do with the time trail start. Breathing stayed steady throughout the swim, no gasping. I did not feel slow, yet I'm about 4 minutes off my usual time for this distance. I did hear from others who had done the course before that it was long this year, by about 150-200 meters.

Was going well, good pace running up the slight hill and into T1, until I stepped on the big, sharp rock in transition. Ouch, direct hit to the left heel! Slowed me to a walk. Tried to shake off the pain and just get my shoes on so I could get off my heel and on the bike.

Look where I'm going better so I don't step on rocks.

Very happy with my pace on the bike for that distance and amount of hills. I haven't been traiming long distances lately, so I was pleased to get done and feel as strong as I did. Averaged 17.3 MPH. Same as IronGirl, which had similar hills, but was shorter.

Train more at distances over 25 miles.

Felt good coming off the bike. Ran all the way in and out of T2. Heel pain (from rock) not too bad.

First mile was slow, around 12 minutes. I thought to myself I need to pick it up or this is going to take forever. I was able to push the pace for the next few miles and make up the time. I was feeling very strong by miles 5 and 6. Very little walking overall. Only walked the 2 steepest hills, probably totaling 2/10's of a mile at most. The rest was running, with my pace increasing over the whole run.

Major improvement over Turtle Crawl, which was 1:13 and mostly walk with a little run. Contributors to improvement: better fitness thru running in the heat all summer and lower temps at Tug vs Turtle.

Felt very strong at the end, which means I probably should have run the first half of the 10K faster.

"The usual" - walked over to the food table and loaded up! Sat down to eat and talked to a cute guy. It's good to be a triathlete!


Overall, 30 minute improvement from Turtle to Tug, can't complain about that! Next year's goal: sub 3 hours!


Good selection of food post-race and plenty of places right near the water to sit and eat.