The swim was a disaster. I chose to be close to the buoy line for the start hoping that would allow me to keep on course. My mistake was being in the second row and not having clear water. The swim was a constant struggle to just swim, never mind trying to establish a pace. I wa always on top of someone or vice versa. Did a lot of Tarzan swimming, flailing and breast stroke to try to gain bearings and get up some momentum. When I finally got to clear water, I had to do breas stroke and even roll to my back to catch my breath. I was quite shocked at what a disaster the whole thing had become.

Must start at the front and get a pace going quickly to leave the others behind. Think I will start on the outside next time. Talked with the age-group winner, Nick Scott, who has national age group ranking (38th) and that's where he started.

T1 was fine.

Simply must be faster. Should be able to cut transitions down to 45 seconds.

The bike went well

Have not found a weakness in the bike segment. Just need to pick it up, thru training, to 22 mph avg. Was ver pleased with the number of folks from earlier waves that I passed.

My bike space had been taken by the time I got in, and when I tried to squeeze it in, the whole rack started to topple. Luckily, volunteers were stationed nearby to help in just such cases and handled the situation so I could focus on shoes and going.

Get faster.Satisfied with transition, but would like to keep them under 1 min.

Very soon into the run I got cramp in my right shoulder; it hurt to carry the arm freely. That was soon followed by a stitch in my right side. I ran through these pains, but I probably would have gone harder and faster without them. I do a lot of running, so I was surprised and a bit agitated that I had these pains. Did not take the time to put socks on in the transition and soon I got a nice blister on my right heel. That stung and definitely screwed up my pace. Nevertheless, I pushed hard on the run and passed many folks from much earlier waves, including the guy in my age group who took 4th, about 1 1/2 mins behind me. He came up to me later and said how strong I looked in the run. Little did he know.

I think I'll try socks in the next tri, and I will try to run harder.

Water


The swim, a 20 mph avg on bike and a 22 1/2 minute run. Need to get a better swim start, push training to pick up 2 - 3 mph more on bike and continue hard speed work for better running.


Met one of my two goals, which was a top-three finish in my age group. The other was to have a time of 1:15 or better. I would not have taken a third in last year's field; 2nd and 3rd were taken buy times right around 1:15. I am extremely happy for my first race and a 3rd place age-group trophy, but now need to work on shaving 5 or more mins overall. A very well organized race. All proceeds go to charity, so post-race activiities take a back seat to donations.