I was really nervous before the race when I realized I was one of few people without a wet suit. But, I don't feel like I needed it. The water felt warm. The ocean could not have been more perfect for this race! Nice and smooth! The only problem was the sun which was in our eyes trying to sight the first 2 buoys. My goggles also fogged up when I started to swim so had to fix that.

I need to work on sighting. I think I swam a lot further than I should have because coming back in I kept drafting to the right instead of going straight. Next time I need to pick a taller object to sight. I chose the finish line to focus on but it was too short my visual kept getting lost in the waves. I also had to pee for most of the swim! I never realized how difficult it is to pee when swimming hard. Lesson learned - pee first!

I need to improve on this but don't know how! I felt like I was going as fast as possible. Need to practice more?

At about halfway back, a huge pack of cyclists passed me. They were so nice! They made sure to stay out of the way and kept telling us we were doing great. One guy even gave me a pointer to go up a gear which I did and it made a huge difference! Maybe cyclists don't hate triathletes...

I realized at the turn around that going out we had been riding with the wind. Going back we were against it. I think I would have gone faster going out to compensate for the wind coming back. I also need to get my bike re-fitted. My butt hurt so bad I had to stand periodically to rest it. And, I need to make sure I am in the correct gear, like the cyclist said. I expected to avg. at least 20 mph on bike so am slightly disappointed with my performance on this portion.

This was my best run to date! I have never averaged below 8 min/mi before. I trained perfectly for getting my run faster and ran way faster than I expected! This is the first race I have held my place in the run. I started the run in 4th for women and ended it in 4th!

Absolutely nothing!

Stretching, FOOD! Went home, laid down on couch, and finally caught the cold I'd been suppressing for 2 days. Was it worth it? YES!


It will be interesting to see if being sick had any effect on this race, but I don't think it did, at least not physically. Mentally I felt a little cloudy.


All the volunteers were so enthusiastic and helpful. It made for a great time! I was very impressed at the organization because 3 races were going on at once: sprint, oly, and HIM. I will do this race again next year but might go for the HIM instead!