A little nervous since this was my first triathlon and the storm had kicked up the surf pretty good. 3-4 foot chop that was really hard to time my breathing. I just tried to remind myself that this is my first race, don't panic and swim at my own pace. I felt like I was just right in the middle of the pack untill the 1st buoy. Once I turned, I kind of found myself somewhat alone and thought I had gone off course. I was timing my peeks at the buoy pretty good though and was right on track. I guess the main pack had rounded off the course instead of swimming buoy to buoy. I could see people ahead of me and thought I was pretty mmuch near the back. Rounded the next buoy and was able to catch the waves fairly well heading back in to the beach. Got out of the water and my wetsuit pulled down during the run up the beach. It was a long run up the beach, through the pool area, and out to the parking lot. I had no idea what place I was in, but saw a good number of bikes still on the rack when I got to T1.

Nothing. This was my 1st race and I thought I did damn well. I'll have to wait for the timing to see how my numbers look.

All my gear was soaked, but so was I, so it really didn't matter. Socks actually went on pretty easy. I've still got to practice T1's some more. At least I didn't forget anything.

Practice, Practice, Practice

Got clipped in and eased up my speed. The out section was into the wind so I just stayed low and tried to keep the cadence up and speed pretty constant. I settled in just over 20mph and just thought, oh well I guess my legs just aren't that good today. I couldn't understand why I was passing people at just over 20, but hey who am I to complain. I thought I still had a while to go before the turnaround and I saw 2 people go flying by the other direction. Then a decent sized pack and a few stragglers. I thought I must be farther back than I thought and about that time I see the turnaround point. Made a decent turn and realized why I was going so slow on the out section, the wind was kicking hard. I had one guy that was maintaining a steady 300-400 yards in front of me for 1/2 of the back and he made for a good rabbit. All of the sudden he just sat up on the hoods and slowed. As I went by I thanked him for holding out the carrot. I guess it pissed him off because he came sprinting past about a minute later all hell bent for leather. That lasted all of 30 seconds untill he sat completely up and looked completely blown. Went by a pack of 3 that had a nice paceline going behind a minvan, WHAT. Saw the turn into the parking lot and reached down to loosen my shoes and get ready run.

Nothing really, I thought I rode a good race and only got passed by Mr. Blowup.

Still can't do the flying dismount, but I got out of my pedals fairly quickly and ran to my rack. Shoes off, helmet off, shoes on. Grabbed my visor and belt and put them on as I was heading out of the transition area.

Learn how to get off my bike quicker and more fluidly.

Well here is where I learned a lot. I started out way, way too conservative and got passed by a ton of people. I swear at least 2 people in my AG passed me before the turnaround, but the numbers for them don't add up. Maybe I was just misreading calf markings. Anyway I only decided to pick up my pace at the turnaround point and realized that I should have been running that hard the whole time. It was my first triathlon though and I just didn't know how my body was going to react.

Run harder on the 1st half

Post race I downed a bunch of Infinit and then proceeded to take in more than my share of draught beer.


This was my 1st so I really didn't know what to expect or how hard to push myself on the bike or run. I am a slow swimmer and I've accepted that, I just need to train harder on the bike and run.


Overall a great experiance. Just made me catch the bug a little more and realize that my base is good but I need to increase my intensity.