As was the case last year, the water was very choppy with so many bodies, and there were a lot of bottlenecks.

Nothing. i can't swim any faster when there are three people nose-to-tail in front of me and I can't pass until the end of the lane.

I made the mistake of clipping my shoes into the pedals to make TI faster. Unfortunately, the parking lot serving as the transition area was full of gravel that was very painful. I would have run much faster in my shoes. Once on the bike, I had a lot of trouble getting me feet in the shoes.

I would wear my shoes out of T1.

I got a bad start to the ride because of the trouble with my shoes. I lost some valuable seconds there (which was all that separated me from the lady who finished ahead of me in my AG).

Do a better T1.

After my experience in T1, I kept my shoes on and ran faster to the rack than I had run through T1. I sat down on my camp stool to remove helmet and don socks and shoes. Race belt was already on. Doffed the bike jersey I'd worn over my unitard for the bike portion.

Nothing.

I wasn't able to practice my "hard" brick on Monday due to a back injury, and it showed in my slow pace coming off the bike. I had run sub-9 minute miles in training runs, so I was hoping for at least 10-minute miles on the run in competition but it didn't happen. That was disappointing, though I succeeded in my pre-race goal of doing better in the run this year than last year. (Last year I ran 39:21.--)

Make sure and practice harder bricks prior to race; don't drink water at the turnaround, as it caused cramping so that I had to stop and walk for a minute--again, valuable time lost. I hydrated well on the bike and that should have sufficed. Based on my expectations, then, I'll still rate this run as average.

Drank water, ate post-race meal provided (baked potato).


Already describe in the run portion.


The race put on by the organizers was as good as could be. They have no control over the Highway Derpartment (which chip-sealed the road!).