The pool water was warm. REALLY warm. I wasn't in the water long enough to overheat, but it wasn't what I was used to.

I started the swim really strong, like I do all my swims. This time I felt myself extending that effort longer then usualy, so I forced myself to slow down. About 4 laps into the swim, I realized that I couldn't hold the pace I started the first lap on, but I needed to speed up, so I started to focus on grabing the water and pushing to my hips. I could feel it speed me up a bit.

At lap 5, I lost count, but figured it out again. Because of this I wasn't sure I was on lap five and thought I might be on lap 4 still, so I decided to keep counting but wait for the timer to drop the board in the pool to indicate my final lap.

I have this phobia with flip turns with smacking into the wall. So I've been known to turn a little early. I thought I was over this issue until lap 7 when after I turned, I went to kick off the wall and hit nothing but water. It's akin to climbing a hill on your bike and having the chain snap. You lose all foreward momentum and have to get going again without any push off. If not for this snafu, I probably would have been 10 secons faster.

At the end of lap 9 I look for the signal and don't see it. Now I had been watching and noticed that the guy giving the signal usually only put the board right at the surface of the water instead of down where I can actually see it when I spot my turn. They fact I didn't see it still but that seed in my head that I had miscounted and had two to go. So I kick off and keep going at my steady pace. On one of my breaths I see the guy moving back to his chair to sit down. So now in my brain is the thought that he did indicate, just not where I could see it. So I make one of those "what the hell" decisions and give my final kick. I finish the lap strong, pop my head up, yell "am I good???" At which point the guy has no idea what I'm talking about. Fortunately Sarah was there to yell "go go go."

Swim more in training. Even though my time isn't terrible, I feel like I'm close to being able to swim the 500 stronger. I'd also wear a single piece trisuit. I felt like the top was slowing me a little

This was my first race transition. I had no idea how adrenaline would affect me. I run from the pool to the transition and everything is racing through my mind so fast that I am having trouble focusing. I had to stop and focus on putting on each sock, then putting on my helmet and sunglasses. I actually paused to think about whether to put on my sunglasses or my helmet first. I get everything together and run the bike to the entrance and "try" to hop on and go. Lets just say I have yet to master how to jump on my bike at a run. So after a few tense seconds of wild careening through the parking lot, I get on and go. Once on the bike, it took me no time to slip my feet in the shoes and latch them down.

practice practice practice

I really need to find a way to ditch the socks. My feet just don't do well sockless in my running shoes.

The out ride was nice. I made up a lot of ground on the way out. Pushed it up to 30 or so and held it solid. Got in the aero bars and just spun. The entire time I'm riding, I'm looking at people coming back and they look like they are in pain. Not a good sign. So I make sure to drink now, because I couldn't imagine having the time fighting the wind.

After the turn I get smacked hard by the wind. Like a brick wall. I sprint back up to speed and hunker down into the bars. It's all I can do to spin at 90 and stay above 17 mph. I keep debating going to the hoods to make more power but suffer in aero or man up and stay where I am. I opt to stay aero and choose to ignore my steadily increasing heart rate. It was hard enough focusing on leaning to the side to keep the wind from blowing me all over. When I see the turn to head back into town, it was the greatest feeling ever.

I make the turn and get back up to normal speed. About that time the tornado sirens start going off. I think great... just what I need... but it turns out they test the sirens every week at that time.

I hit the final turn which is a stop light. There is a truck directly across from me trying to go straight. He has all the time in the world, but he choses to go right as I hit the inter section and start my turn. I have to grab the brakes and abort the turn, doing a little loopy to get back on course. A good 5 seconds lost right there and about 10 mph. I hit the home stretch and get my feet out of the shoes rather quickly and pedal into T2

Nothing really. The ride was solid and I really have no complaints besides not being stronger in the face of the wind. A gel flask on the top tube would have been nice.

By this time I am so pumped on adrenaline I can't focus on anything. My abs are also starting to knot up and I am hitting that point of no return. Complex motor function is starting to become problematic. I manage to get my shoes on and realize I didn't pre-tie them. So I struggle with trying to tie them super fast to get out on the run and of course botch the job. This eats my time. Then I fumble with my helmet getting the clip undone.

get speed laces for faster shoe entry and practice the transition like a mad man.

Once I got moving all I could focus on was the pain in my stomach. My abs at this point were one solid knot. I had no concept of speed. All I could do was push as hard as I could without the pain being completely unmanagable. Maybe I was going fast, maybe I wasn't. I had no idea, only that I passed two people.

Half way through the run I feel a slap slap slap against my legs and realize my knots had given out. I just kept pushing. I didn't have time to stop.

At the turn, my stomach knots even more and my focus shifts to how I can manage my breathing pattern to keep the pain managable. I then realize I need to speed up. So I start pushing until I reach the point that I can't go faster on my curent breathing restriction.

I cross the line strong and let all the pain hit at once.

train more. Over the past month I had been slacking off with the run because of injury, and unfortunately sacrificed much of my core strength. That's what killed me more then anything.

Core strength. I serisouly need to hit the gym more and work on overall tone. I also need to be running more. Those few weeks of time off may have helped my swimming and riding, but killed my run.


The race organization was pretty good. They had a problem with the timers, which I initiall thought was just a computer glitch. Now I think back to the people tracking the timing, I think it was more a human issue then the computers. For instance when I finished my swim, he calculated my swim time at 34 min and didn't even recognize that it was off. Fortuneately Sarah was there and asked him what was up, so he "corrected" it. Still not sure if it is right. Sarah said my swim time was just over 10 min, offical time was 11:16, so I don't know who to trust there. There were also issues with me running through transition and them reading my number wrong. They would ask my number and I would yell "28", to which I would get a reply as "36?", "18?". Good thing Sarah was there to make sure they were recording right. If you look in the results, some people don't have run and bike splits because of this. They also didn't have actual racks for the bike. Just some beat up old metal racks and a fence line. Pretty unorganized transition area.