First open water swim and first swim in a wetsuit (I know, I know... you don't need to say anything!) So overall I'd say all went OK. I noted most parts of the swim were below average simply because I couldn't get into any type of rhythm. My breathing sucked, which made my form suck, which made me drift all over the place and overall I felt like I had a horrible swim. I was honestly surprised that it was under 20 minutes. I think if I was able to get into a groove i could have came in close to 16 minutes (still not fast, but about what I was originally projecting)

Get a few more pre-race OWS in.

4:01 wow... really?? I felt like it was slow, but 4:01??? Wow, just wow.

I had a dickens of a time getting my wetsuit off. Out of the water was good, sleeves came off fine, pulled the cap and goggles into the sleeve on the way to my rack, but that's when the trouble started. I tried the step on the legs trick to get my suit off, but my feet were having none of that. I ended up plopping on the ground to pull the suit off my feet with my hands. That cost me time. Then, because it was so muddy in the transition area, my feet were a mess. I decided to wipe them off, figuring a twig or stone in my shoe would cost me more time out on the bike or run. Tick, tock, tick, tock. Then for the same muddy reason and the 100 meter or so run through the muck to the mount line my cleats were caked with mud so I had a hard time getting clipped in. More time down the tubes.

Oh well, like I said this was a learning experience for me, and learn I did!

Practice taking the wetsuit off, maybe try some of that wetsuit glide stuff. I used regular body glide on my ankles, but that didn't seem to help.

Bike was pretty good, I felt like I was pushing but not too much. After the swim and lovely T1 it felt nice to feel good on the bike. The road conditions were pretty good... a few rough spots but overall not bad at all.

The only issue I had was once mounted and finally able to clip in (see T1), I was about 5 or so meters behind someone who started to turn left out onto the road so I was following him. Problem is the course is right out onto the road. I knew that, so why I followed him I'll never know. Wasn't too big of a deal since the course marshals got us right away and turned us around, but that did cost me some time with the stop, unclip, turn bike around (not enough room with the run course to turn around riding), and fight to get clipped back in.

Not much really. I might have been able to push a little harder, but again, as my first race I wasn't sure if I was going to kill myself for the run. In the end I think I could have gone a little harder and still had a decent run.

I do still need some more bike training to improve my ability. I've only been ridding since December last year, so I was pretty happy with the overall results.

The same muddy mucky run to the mount line was followed by a muddy mucky run back to the rack from the dismount line. I went pretty slow because of the conditions I didn't want to face plant or tear an ACL! The run out of transition was pretty much the same... a slow trot trying to avoid the worst of the muck and mud. Overall I think I did as well as I expected given the conditions, but not as well I think I could do under better circumstances.

Not much I think that I did OK all things considered. I'd like to see how things go in a race where I'm not so worried about my footing... I think that slowed me down the most.

The run was pretty good overall. I was projecting around a 21:30 but given the run though the woods and fields at the end I think it went about as fast as I could expect. Also, it was a bit tight at the start. They had the cones (to separate the bike/run course) set up so tight, that in some spots there was barely enough room for one runner on the run side. This held me up a couple of times waiting to pass folks, but that might have only cost me 10 or 15 seconds total.

Not much, running is my background, so I feel pretty comfortable on the run. I think for shorter races like this, I need to work in some more speed work to get the run times down.

Walk around a bit and did some light stretching.


I think the swim and transitions were my biggest limiter. I need to get more OWS in so I can become more comfortable in the water. I've only been swimming (training) since February so I don't expect to be "fast" anytime soon, but given my pool times, I could have done better... lack of OWS training is why I didn't.

My transitions were a total show, T1 was a nightmare I need to work on this. I probably lost 3-ish minutes just in my horrible transitions.


I don't have any tri races to compare this too, but overall I'd say this was a good race. It was well run and I had no issues that could have been controlled by the event management.

For my first tri, I'm happy with the overall experience. I did fairly well in relation to what I was projecting based on my training (about a 1:25) and found the areas that I need to work on for future races.