The swim started off well. I was with the pack and drafting fairly well until the first turn buoy. Once I made the turn, I went for a breath and got a lung full of water instead. I had to stop and cough it out. I watched as the pack left me behind while I tried to breath normally again. I started swimming again, but was never able to catch back up. I ended up choking 2 more times. And my sighting was terrible coming back in after the last turn for some reason. I normally swim more to the right, but I kept going to the left for some reason - I am assuming the current was pushing me that way. I was having to fight to stay to the right of the buoys and ran right into one of them!

I need to work on my sighting. I still have a hard time sighting without slowing down too much.

I left my shoes on my bike, so I didn't have to run in my bike shoes. Most of this transition went well. My wetsuit got stuck on my timing chip and slowed me down a bit but not too much. What really got me was my arm warmers. Since it was so cold, I decided to wear my arm warmers for the bike. I had tried putting them on a few times in practice and they slide right on. But I have apparently never tried it while wet. They would not go on! I struggled with them for what felt like an eternity!

Skip the arm warmers. It was chilly at first, but I could have put up with it. I was warm enough to take them off within a few miles anyway.

This was a tough bike course. I had decided to do this race without my Garmin (or a watch of any kind). That meant no bike computer too since I use my Garmin as my bike computer. So, I was completely blind on this ride. I never had any idea where I was on the course (how far I had gone or how far I had to go). I thought they would have mile markers so I could have some idea, but they didn't. After the race, someone told me they had marked the road at a couple points, but I didn't see it (I was looking for signs at the side of the road - no paint on the road). I think I would have done the ride a bit faster if I had my computer or saw the mile markers. I held back because I never knew how much farther I needed to go. It was also windy. It felt like we rode into a headwind for most of the ride!

Nothing really. I didn't wear my Garmin because I wanted a stress free race where I raced by feel instead of being a slave to my HR or pace. It would have gone better with mile markers, but oh well.

I took my feet out of my shoes as we turned off of Linden Rd. I rounded the turn and jumped off my bike. And ended up right behind the slowest man in the world! He was walking his bike back into the transition area and I couldn't get around him. So, my dismount had turned out to be a compete waste of time!

Nothing. It would have been faster if I could have actually run into transition. But I have no control over the other racers.

I have done this race 2 times before. The run always gets me. It is very hilly. My goal on the run this year was to not walk at all (I have walked a couple of hills the other 2 times). This run went much better. I ran the entire time. The first 4 miles were tough because that is where the worst hills were. Then I came up on a 65 yo man wearing a Kona jersey. I asked as I was passing if he did Kona. He said he had done it 4 times. I slowed to his pace (it wasn't much, he was running a good pace) and we talked for the next 1.5 miles. When we come out of the neighborhood, with just under a mile to go, I thanked him for the company and took off.

Nothing. I could have run a minute or two faster if I hadn't slowed to talk. But it also distracted me from the pain and kept me running.

I walked around with Pete watching for Maria to finish.


Desire. I signed up for this race after IMKY just so I could see if I could do better on the hills after all my hill training this year. That was the only reason I was doing this race - so I really had no drive today to do well. A lot of the time today, I felt like I was just going through the motions.