The swim was a very short pool swim with an awkward start. Everyone was asked to seed themselves at registration but the race did not do anything with the seeded times. They just asked everyone to use the honor system and line up according to expected 300 yard swim time. My background from childhood is swimming so I knew this would be my strong point. I registered with a 4:30 expected time but actually timed myself 2 weeks before the race and swam a 4:11. Since this was my first race I decided to stick to my 4:30 and ended up being grouped with about 7-8 people at the front of the line, all claiming 4:30 times. As Experior stated in his report, there was one young child that claimed a 4:30 but was much slower than that pace. Luckily, I started just in front of her and was not caught in the log jam. I did notice halfway through the pool swim that I was a good two laps ahead of her and she started right behind me. I got lucky to start ahead of her but I will remember to be confident in my swim time next time.

The start was awkward because you had to run across the timing mat to start your time just as you jumped in the pool. Since I started 3rd and they were allowing you to give the person in front of you a good half to 3/4 of a lap between you I knew I wouldn't catch the guy in front of me until the very end as long as he swam his pace. Unfortunately, I must have gotten too close to the timing mat before I was ready to go. I was still a good 5-10 feet behind the mat when the race starter yelled at me that my chip had already been triggered and I had to go immediately. This put me jumping in right on the toes of the guy in front of me. I am sure I could have done a faster swim but I don't think it was right for me to swim over a guy actually swimming the pace he said he was going to simply because I was an idiot and had to start right on his toes. Next time I will stay WAY behind the timing mat.

My goal was to actually take my time as much as possible in T1 since I had never actually done a race transition before. I would rather use an extra 10 seconds than do something really newb like run out without a helmet. I knew I was not going to win the race so I accomplished my goal of smooth transition.

As much as swimming is my strong point, biking is my weakness. It was made even tougher given the fact that I was 3rd out of the pool and onto the bike do all of the really strong triathletes were moving by me like I was standing still. I had done the bike a week before the race so I was at least somewhat familiar with the hills. There are 3 or 4 pretty good climbs so I should have been ready for them.

I found myself getting caught up in trying to keep pace with guys I have no business keeping pace with. The first 3 miles or so I was going out of my comfort zone trying to keep up with the guys averaging 20-22mph on the bike. I settled down and rode my own pace over the last 6-8 miles but I need to accept my pace from the beginning. Going out too hard really hurt me on later climbs.

This transition was much quicker and went very smoothly. I racked the bike and had my shoes on much quicker than any practice run I had done at home.

The run course had some rolling hills but nothing too steep. The problem was it was not marked so I had no idea what pace I was keeping. I knew I was sub 9 min miles but really wanted to be closer to 8 flat miles than 8:30. At one point I knew we had to be getting pretty close to the finish but assumed we probably had a mile or more to the finish. We rounded a corner and I asked the flag girl how far we had. She pointed up the hill and there was the finish, about 1/4 mile ahead.

I saved a little too much on the run because I thought we had further to go than we did. My legs also suffered from going too hard at the beginning of the bike. With a better paced bike ride I can run closer to my 8 min or below miles.

gatorade and some snacks.