My first triathlon. I did several open water swims prior to the event, but none where I was timed or had to navigate around people. I heard so many horror stories about getting kicked, etc., so I think my concern on that had me being too cautious to avoid people. That led to me going a bit to hard at the start, which led to a little hyperventilation which led to a lot of hyperventilation at the halfway mark. Which led to a slight panic. I did a bit of side stroke for about 20 seconds, did back stroke for another 20 seconds, got my composure, and then found my rhythm (also thought about things other than swimming and just let my swim instinct carry me through the rest of the swim). Found my groove so well, that I kicked it into high gear for the swim finish.

Pace myself more at the beginning and keep my mind on things other than swimming so that I don't panic.

The run up the stairs following a hard swim finish had my heart rate soaring. Took me a bit to find the cord to unzip the wet suit, but had it all set by the time I reached the TA. Wet suit came off real quick, put glasses on, put helmet on, and headed out. I figured I'd let me heart rate come down on the bike versus taking it slow in the TA. Had shoes on the bike, jumped on while running and was moving in no time.

Nothing really.

Once on the bike, my heart rate was around 175, way too high for this early in the race, so I kind of took it easy until my HR came down to the 150s, then I hit my groove. Felt pretty good, probably could have gone harder, but this was my first tri and wanted to make sure I didn't become a huddled mess of humanity laying on the side of the road. Had a bit of congestion in one of the corners that caused me to break hard and took me off my pace.

Probably go a bit harder, rear derailleur was rubbing a bit, so I should have adjusted that accordingly before the race. Kept having to play with my gears to get them into smooth shifting.

Had shoes off before TA rode with feet ontop of shoes. Got behind someone walking in TA and couldn't get around them, so that slowed me down. Other than that, helmet off, hat on, socks on, shoes on, and go. My T1 time was quicker than T2. That was odd (blame it on the slow guy and the socks).

Pass the guy in the TA and say "on your left". Probably only cost me 5 seconds or so, so not a huge deal.

Had a good amount of fluid coming off the bike and was concerned about side aches or cramps, so took it a bit slow at the start. The grass was alright and a bit bumpy in some places, I found lower grass and smoother ground on the right of the hill and stayed on that. My slower start worked out well since I wanted to do a reverse split anyway. Decent run, not my best 5K ever. Considering that I don't run so well in the heat, it wasn't that bad.

Maybe train more for the run. My 5K times were great in January before I really focused on swim/bike. I backed off the intervals and speedwork for the past two months and the run time shows it.

Walked for a cool down, got some water, a banana, and stretched a bit.


Panic on the swim slowed me down. Also, being my first tri, I went a bit slower just to make sure I had enough in the tank for the finish.


Being my first tri, I don't have too much to judge it by. The weather was great, the race was well organized and the volunteers were very helpful. I really enjoyed it and look forward to doing many more this summer. If I can handle the sprint swim without any panic issues (I'll try next week at Wendy's), I'll try to get an olympic in by end of year.