I actually felt pretty good during the swim. I distinctly remember swimming too hard at first last year and made a conscious effort not to let that happen again. At times I felt like the stroke was good and I was making headway. Last 100 meters I actaully swam with some of those who caught me from later swim waves. Still not the greatest at sighting but also felt that was better than last year. Rounded the bouys well.

LEARN HOW TO SWIM! Hang on to Jeff Bostic, anything to get better in the water. After all the swimming I have done over the last year (far more than my entire life) and I am still no more efficient or faster. Can anyone spell C-O-A-C-H? I also need to find out whay it takes me sooo long to warm up swimming.

T1 took a while because I felt like I was going to blow. I had to bend over for a few seconds and just breathe. Other than that no problems. Got helmet and shoes on no problem.

Learn how to swim so I do not feel like puking in T1.

According to the time I rode this course 5.5 minutes faster than last year. I know how that happened. Last year I was afraid to get into the big chain ring whereas this year I never came out of it. Also, this year one of my Tri Team training partners caught up with me. I have ridden with him and knew if he caught me I was not riding fast enough. It seems like that is always a problem for me on the bike - knowing when I am going fast enough. After getting caught I rode with the group he was in. There was not any real drafting, just a bunch of slicing and dicing as we caught slower riders. After about the 3rd time of getting boxed I pulled into the left hand lane (other side of the road) and told my team member "Come on". We rode like crazy for the next 7 miles and passed everybody we could see until turning into the entrance road for T2. I learned a little something on the bike. Why do I have to get mad to get with it?

Hammer like a wild man the whole 15 miles instead of the last 7. I should have easily had a 45 min. bike time. Had some side stiches for a good deal of the run and probably should have drank more HEED on the bike. I just did not pay attention to much after I got mad.

I knew I had left alot on the bike course. I was not really in a hurry in T2 since I knew my run time was not going to be anything stellar.

Nothing

I am really surprised the time was as fast as it was. I just loped along for the first half of the race trying to get rid of the side stiches. After getting some water at a couple of aid stations it felt better. Strange thing is I would have felt better if the run would have been a 10K. I really felt bad during the first part. I was not happy with the run time but was so happy with learning what I did on the bike I cannot complain. If I do not learn how to swim the bike and run are not going to matter anyway.

Nothing

Hung out with other Tri Team members, family, and got some water.


Working my tail off in the swim. Goal was to beat all time by 10% over last year. I could have done that easily if I did not leave so much in the water.


Race is well supported. If not for the tough run course I would give it a 5. The best thing about this race was finally getting to meet up with Jeff Bostic (jkbostic), Denise (BonBonNeaser) and family. We had a great time just hanging out. I have met so many awesome folks in this sport and Jeff and Denise rank up at the top. It was really cool to have all our kids there as well. Hopefully some of the discipline and camraderie will get passed on to them from our involvement. I was not so happy with my race but felt great afterwards anyway.