Beginning was hard because I was stuck behind slower people (this ALWAYS happens to me. I need to learn how to seed myself!) so I paddled along trying to find an opening for awhile. Caught a draft and hung onto her for a minute or two, then lost her. I was having a lot of trouble navigating -- I kept veering off to the right (away from buoys) then I would overcorrect and end up inside the buoy line and have to swim back out again. Very inefficient. The people I tried to draft behind were pretty bad navigators too, which was part of the problem. That was why I eventually gave up the draft.



Seed myself farther forward in the pack. In addition to being more efficient, that would also keep me from having a weird, choppy stroke as I try to pass people and not get kicked in the face. I had to keep my head up a lot to watch where people's feet were, and that's a bad way to swim.

This was a great transition! Last year at this race, my T1 time was 4:38! So I took off over two and a half minutes here! Yay!!! Ran to my transition area, removing cap and goggles as I ran. Sat down and dried the sand off my feet with a towel, put my socks (rolled mostly inside out so I could just stick my toes in and roll them up -- GREAT idea) on, put on my bike shoes (haven't practiced leaving them clipped in.....and as hilly as Innsbrook is, I'm not sure that would work so well), fastened my race belt, put on my Camelbak, sunglasses and helmet, and ran my bike to the mount line.

I still need to practice transitions, because this one could be faster, but overall I'm pretty happy with it. It was a HUGE improvement over last year. :-)

Crashed about two miles in! I was putting my bottle back in the cage and was being very careful to ride on the far right side of the road because people who block REALLY tick me off, and I got a little too close and my front tire went off the road. I fought it and skidded and went down on my left side. Caught myself with my hands, which was DUMB, but just got a bloody scrape on my elbow and a patch of road rash on my left hip. Bike was fine.

On the roads outside, I took corners too wide and slowly, being afraid to skid out. I should work on that. Was good about watching my gears and cadence, trying not to cross-gear, rode in my aerobars for most of the ride. I think I pushed just the right amount.

Drank most of my Camelbak of water, 3/4 of my bottle of Gatorade + Accelerade + NaCl (1/4 tsp) + KCl (1/4 tsp).

My calves were threatening to cramp during the last mile or two, and then into the first mile or two of the run. I had to exaggeratedly pull my toes up every time I struck to stretch my calf so it wouldn't cramp.

Work on cornering. Not run off the road. :-)

Another good transition! I am so proud of myself! This one was around 2:00, and I ran my bike to the rack, took off my helmet, took off my Camelbak, switched shoes, and was off! I could have gone a little faster, I think a good T2 time is around 1:00, but I'm happy with the improvement.

Get Yankz or something similar so I don't have to tie my shoes. That wasted 20 seconds, probably.

I was pretty unprepared for this run (the whole race, actually) having been not running due to a heel injury for a couple of months, and being in kind of a training funk as a result. I've just been slacking, is what it comes down to. So I was not in running shape, especially for these hills. I walked up all the hills, which I think is a good idea even if you ARE in shape because they're so steep that I could walk up them almost as fast as people ran up them, and then I was MUCH less tired at the top and passed the people who had run up.

I had problems with side stitches, which was the main problem. Oh -- first of all, just like last year, the muscle between my glutes and hamstring but closer to my inner thigh was KILLING me when I got off the bike. Hurt to run a little, hurt more to walk. Also, that giant gross blister I got at the Liver Run was acting up a little bit, nothing too bad; and my heel was bothering me after a couple of miles. But the side stitches were the main thing: I stopped at mile 1 for water and a quarter of a banana, and almost immediately got a bad side stitch. Had to walk while it subsided. Stopped for liquid at the turnaround (mile 3+) and was okay with that. Around mile 5 I stopped for an orange wedge and water, and this time the stitch was so bad that I couldn't really run again for the rest of the race! I'd run 50 feet and be in so much pain that I'd hobble along bent over for the next few minutes. As a result, I got passed in the CHUTE by a girl I'd been way ahead of at mile 4. GRRRR.

Overall, it was a pretty bad run. I averaged 8:00/mile last year, and **9:40** this year. That's atrocious. Part of the problem may have been that I pushed harder on the bike, but I don't know. I also think the course was short last year and I didn't really run that fast, and it was a little long this year, I would bet. But still -- I was definitely significantly slower this year.


Well, apparently eating fruit was a bad idea. It's never bothered me in races before, but maybe next time I should try eating more on the bike and less on the run.

Also, um, TRAIN.

Stand around waiting for friends to finish, ate half a PB sandwich, got my elbow cleaned and gooped up in the medical tent. Had a bag of grape Energice hydration drink, which was GREAT!!! I love that stuff!

Stretched a little, went for a quick dip in the lake to rinse off, changed into dry clothes, loaded up the car, ate a baked potato with chili, cheese, broccoli, and bacon -- YUM!!!


Lack of training. Pure and simple. I wasn't really keeping logs on BT last summer, but if you look at my paper-based training log from last summer, and my log from this summer, they're like two different people's logs. I've had chronic running injuries for the last three or four months, which has severely limited my running, and partly due to that I've just been LAZY. Nothing is keeping me from swimming and biking, I just haven't been doing it.


This is a really good race. I highly recommend it to everyone. The Livesays put on a very well-organized, smoothly run, high-quality event, and of the four different triathlons I've done so far (including the Spirit of Racine Half last summer), this is by FAR my favorite. The run course is very difficult, and really requires hill training. But the swim is great, and the bike is very nice too.