First open water swim, first swim in wetsuit. Swim was great! Got run over some, drafted a bit, but overall great. I did start out way too fast, trying to draft everyone. I'm not a good enough swimmer for that, so I was wiped out by 1/4 mi. Thought to myself, "What the HECK am I doing out here? I'm gonna get killed in my full IM (1 month later)!" Took a minute to settle down, then just started swimming smoothly. Really got into a groove, and swam 2nd lap faster than the first.

Wave start was small, so no problem with rough swimming. Start at a proper pace, and just get into a good rhythm.

Relay handoff to friend biking.

N/A

Friend rode this as relay. She bikes to work, and did STP, but that has breaks. This was, by far, her longest single ride. Tough as hell for her, but she made it.

We meant to do a few long rides together, but never materialized. I should've helped her train.

She was crying as she came in, but I reassured her - "You know what they call the last person over the line? 'Finisher'." I'm glad I took that time, rather than sprinting away, because she really pushed herself to her best.

N/A

Great run - dropped 16 min from previous best 1/2. Ran to each water station, then walked 10-20 sec. Ate 3 or 4 gels. Trail was yucky, but otherwise great run. Great pace, could've gone another 6-8 miles without slowing.

This was as good as I can run, so no changes. Just being able to do this for 26.

Walked a bit


2 person relay - each teammate did as well as we could, so this was a great race.


Mostly great race. Post-race food was gone by the time we finished.
1 huge problem - parking was 5 mi away, so they ran a shuttle bus. Well, after the race, everyone tried to leave at once, so we had to wait almost 2 HOURS for the bus. And, even then, it was just one person crammed on, who then drove back for the others, so it took over 2 and a half hours to leave. Root cause: bus driver was allowing bikes on board, so could only fit 10 or so people per run. Solution would be to only allow people on bus, with someone watching bikes in parking lot (like am dropoff). Bus back to car, then come pick up bike and leave.