My goggles broke right before my wave started. I patched them up as best I could, but they were an annoyance the entire time. Basically, I did as well as I could with what I am, which happens to include being someone who spends a good deal of time gagging on gross lake water.

Not played with my goggles & make them break! I maybe should also have tried a mantra just to keep me focused on "okay, you're done gagging, time to swim for real again".

At the time, I actually thought I was having a good transition! I did jog to transition area as fast as I could considering I was dizzy & wobbly. I probably could have skipped spraying my feet and just wiped them with a towel instead. Yes, I did HAVE to sit down. And have those drops of St. J's.

Since I was still wobbly and probably really did need to walk my bike, I could have used the exiting transition area time to drink water and eat shot blox, which I should have snipped ends of pack so I could easily remove them with my teeth. Replace, just for the bike, my metal water bottle with an easier in/out plastic bottle. Forget about trying to eat a bar - it's just not gonna happen with a belly full of lake water. Maybe I need to bring my transiton stuff in a 5 gallon bucket so I have a seat.

Wow! I really surprised myself, and on my ancient mountain bike, no less! All those spin classes must have done something to me that I wasn't aware of!

I could prob have done better if I had more of a pack around me to motivate me. Whenever I saw someone ahead of me, after the joy of realizing that the big hill was over, I rallied and passed them! But sometimes, if no one was ahead of me, I was enjoying the scenery so much that I forgot I was racing.

Again, I thought I was doing great at the time!

Again, have the shot blox handier and eat them while exiting transition. Pick up pace, even if it's still a walk, it could be a fast walk. Skip water - there were plenty of hydration stations on the way out.

Also, DON'T FORGET TO PUT ON RACE BELT!!! HANG IT ON RACK NEXT TO BIKE SO YOU SEE IT TO REMIND YOU!!!

I did manage to muster up enough to run that last tenth of a mile to the finish. So happy to see Johnnie and the Schwartz family there! Yay! I finished!

More brick training! This was mostly blown off since April. In fact I hardly ran at all most of the summer, and it showed!

Bottle of water, fig newtons & watermelon, a jump back in the lake (where I did my stretching), and a Victory Beer!


Just didn't train hard enough! Also, could have improved time with:
-better transitions
-wetsuit
-racing appropriate bike


This was my first triathlon ever, so I don't really have anything to compare it to, but it was a lot of fun! The volunteers were so AWESOME!!! The course was also really well marked, and I loved the little smiley faces all over. Running up to the falls was so cool!! Overall, I did as well as I could, finished the race, and had a great time, which was my goal.