Even though the time is slow - it's about what I was aiming for. The problem was that at about the 200m mark, I was gassed and got a big lung-full of lake water - which took a lot of the fight out of me. Swam the remaining 100m alternating between breast stroke and free-style (more breast stroke). The fact that I still swam under 7 minutes with roughly 100m of breast stroke tells me that I went out way too fast for the first 200m.

They're not kidding when they tell you to practice OWS's before your race.

Go slower at the start, and find the time to practice open water.

This took a little more time than I would have liked, but I'll cut myself some slack since it was my first.

I walked a little since I was still gassed from the swim.

It took me longer than I wanted to wash all the dirt off my feet before I could put my shoes on.

Be quicker getting to the bike and getting my stuff on.

I was actually very happy with this time. I don't yet have a tri bike and I rode this on my Haro mountain bike. 19 mph was more than I'd been able to do in training. It was a mix of great weather, tapering, and adrenaline.

With my level of experience (only 12 weeks) with any real bike-specific training, this seems to be more than a reasonable expectation.

For this race, I don't know what I could have done differently given my experience level.

No problem with transition since I was riding with my running shoes. Sprayed water on my head and took off.

I'll need to get better racking my bike, sucking it up, and getting out of transition.

I felt a little sick at the first like I'd gone too hard on the bike, but my time was almost 30 seconds per mile faster than in training so I guess it's really just getting used to that feeling and working through it.

I ran down the finishing lane and saw my family about 50 m from the finish and it really made me smile.

Try to relax a little more. I think there may have been a little more speed out there for me if I could have relaxed.

Got past the finish line, and a volunteer took my chip. I made my way around the crowd and found my 4-year old daughter who's first words were: "Yay, daddy!". Next words were: "Did you win?" Even though I certainly didn't win, it was great to have my family out to watch and support me.


I'd have to say that my ability to perform faster was limited by my experience level more than anything else.


What a great race for a first timer. A lot of great volunteers and Andy put's on a first rate event. It was fantastic to get there early and see transition fill up with all the different bikes from 15 year old 10 speeds, mountain bikes, and $12k speedsters.

People were very friendly and were more than willing to offer any help. The spectator's area is also set up very well to allow you to see those that have come with you.

For those of you who do this race in the future, something I missed was that the shirts were uni-sex sizing, meaning they run a little small so choose your shirt size accordingly. That's not the race's fault, I just didn't know.

The 15 year old record got broken this year - 0:42:33.6 - wow!

I'll definitely be back next year!