Water was REALLY choppy out there. THANK GOD FOR MY WETSUIT. Really. Without it, I don't think I could have finished the swim. Once we got a little ways out, it got pretty bad (at least for me)... but in the wetsuit, I did a pretty good impression of a bobber out there. Just kept sighting and swimming. Took a quick break, hanging on a lifeguard buoy to catch my breath, but that was more of a thing where it was right there, so I decided to take advantage of a short rest, as opposed to really needing it.

Not sure how I could have handled this better, other than by being a stronger swimmer. I wasn't really freaked out (surprise!), just found it difficult to get anywhere.

Oh - for most of the race, there were about 4 other girls who seemed to be at about the same pace as me (which, by translation, means that none of them were very good swimmers either), and we spent a lot of time bumping each other around. I kept trying to get around them, or ahead of them, or to the side of them... I'd find some open water, and then wham! there they'd be again.

There was a bit of a run from the beach up to the transition area. The swim completely wiped me out, and when I started running up the beach, I got about 10 steps into it, said "%$#% it!" and walked. Just too tired to run. On the upside, the wetsuit came off pretty easily - kind of an unknown, since I hadn't really practiced that!

Run a little more.

The "out" part of the course was nasty. Against the wind, ending with a long incline up to the turnaround. The "in" part was my only saving grace... started with a downhill and a tailwind where I could pick up a little time.

Second time around the loop, started feeling pretty ill. That Mickey D's bagel coming back to haunt me, I think. Not a good thing.

No McDonalds!! :)

Just gotta keep working at the bike.

Here's my big mistake. Forgot my race number. Doh. I usually put it on before the bike (because that's where my gels usually are), but wore a new shirt today that had a back pocket where I could stash the gel instead, so I didn't already have the race belt on.

Uh.... maybe remember to grab my race number?

Since I had already passed the timing pad, I couldn't go back into transition... so I flagged down a volunteer, and asked him what to do. He offered to get my race number for me (this probably considered outside assistance?)... while I was VERY appreciative of his willingness to help, if there had been any way I could have instilled a sense of urgency into him, that would have been nice. :) But - he was in no hurry, and by this time, I knew that this wasn't going to be a PR for me, so I wasn't too worried.

HOT. VERY HOT. Just about melted on the run, it felt like. Never really could get it going. But - first mile time includes almost 2 minutes of waiting for my race number.

Only choose races where it's not so friggin' hot outside.

Water, water, gatorade, and more water. Sat down in the shade and tried to get the world to stop spinning for a minute. After that, headed to the picnic area to get some food, and sat around with Marcie and Brenda and Brenda's friends (the 3 of them took second in the relay!).


The heat, the wind. My mistake in T2.


Post-race picnic was good -- nice spread. Lots of raffle prizes as well, though I didn't win anything. Fairly well organized, I thought. Lots of volunteers. Two downsides: the first was no race day packet pickup - very inconvenient for those of us on the other side of the city. The second was that there really could have been an earlier start. 8am in the middle of the summer is TOO LATE! Start at least by 7am to mitigate some of the heat.