Best swim for me so far. :) 2:41 per 100m - that may not be impressive to some, but it's 19 seconds faster than I managed at Tex Tri so I'm pleased as punch!

OK, swimming in a straight line is still not my forte. Once I was way off to the left. Another time I veered right enough that a kind woman from a subsequent wave gave me a "directional nudge" to shoot me back the right way again.

This was the first time in several races I've actually had to deal with other competitors around me, which was mostly very exciting! BOP + late wave starts has led to some "solo" race adventures for me. But despite that one friendly nudge, overall having people around me was the least helpful during the swim. I'm not competent enough to draft yet, and it seemed that the few people slower than me in my wave were clumped around me for the first few hundreds yards. I felt too unsure of my pace to pass.

Overall, this was a great swim for me. I was gliding more, breathing regularly every 3rd stroke, etc. Credit HRTC Pool Sharks for that.

Not start at the VERY back of my wave. Middle-back. I don't get freaked out when people pass me, but in this race I did get slowed down by not passing others.

Pack my hair-ties, wetsuit, etc. :)

Long run from the water to the rack. Took an extra second to wiggle out of the second leg on the wetsuit until I remembered about stepping on it with my other foot and it popped right off. Put on socks, shoes, helmet, glasses, and gloves. I think I also took an Enduralyte and some water at this point.

I could have jogged a little faster, and stepped out of the wetsuit faster. Other than that, this T1 was fine.

This was FUN! Again, my last few races have basically involved solo bike rides for most of the time. So being near the front wave of a multi-loop course was a new experience - wow! Cool bikes! Other people! Plus spectators! Closed course, ups & downs but nothing too hard - just FUN!

Well, okay, let me back up and admit that I started going the wrong way at first. All of the volunteers were yelling at me, but I didn't understand. What is this "inside"/"outside"? Do we not have "right" and "left" in this country? I was a little disoriented and made the guy POINT so I could go the right way. Then I was off!

My goal was simply to maintain an average of 14mph or better to make my modest overall goal of sub-4 for this race. At first I panicked b/c the race starts with a "false flat" - a very slight uphill that I was taking at about about 12 mph. OH NO! What's the problem??? I don't feel that tired, I should be going FASTER! Of course when I came barrelling down that same segment a few minuetes later at over 25mph I understood. :)

The only trouble with "other people" was the ones who failed to understand that they should stay to the right if they're not passing someone. A couple of them were SMACK DAB in the middle. So the choice was: (a) safely but illegally pass them on the right; or (b) pass on the left, potentially cutting off people who were going 10mph faster than I was. Fun choice, eh? So we won't go into too much detail on that...

Only once did I see some lame pack riding going on. These bozos were hard to pass because 3 were riding all in a line and a 4th was riding to the left of the guy in the middle. So for them I did up the wattage a little, passing on the left while hollering, "OK guys, pass in 15!" That actually did put an end to the party. Given their speed (not fast) I will grant them the benefit of the doubt and assume they had no clue what they were doing.

My main water bottle was filled with 1/3 Gatorade, 2/3 water, and the contents of 1 Enduralyte. That seemed perfect.

On about the second lap I knew I had to pee. Had also had a discussion with fellow BTers the night before about hydration strategy. Basically, I have 2 water bottle cages but on my bike, but am so far capable of drinking out of one of them (barely) while riding. The dehydration factor at TexTri was UGLY. So I made peace with the idea I would be stopping once DURING my bike ride to drink. Yes, DURING. If it was going to keep me from going into the run all out of whack, it was worth it. So on the 4th lap I found a Starbuck's and accomplished both the pit stop and the water break at the same time. Yes, the same time. See the advantage of a nice clean restroom? When I got back to my bike, it was a little Gu, another chug of water, a 3-second pause to throw my Gu packet in a trash can (hey, the can was right there, you know?), and I was on my way.

After the race Haley and Dennis were downright INCREDULOUS that I had stopped at Starbuck's. At that point we didn't yet know if I'd made my time goal, so they were actually mad at me!
Dennis: "If you missed your goal because of that..."
Haley: "I can't BELIEVE you went to STARBUCK'S!"
Me: "Hey, it's not like I ordered a LATTE or anything!"

I occasionally looked for BTers but saw only Haley (spectating) and my non-BT friend Frank on the bike course.



Get a little more aggressive about passing and stop worrying about being so polite to the fast people. They need their life challenges too, right?

Cornering would also be a good skill to know for this race.

Hmm. This FELT faster than 3:40. Just racked the bike, switched shoes, grabbed hat, no? Maybe my walk/jog in from the dismount line was slow.

Also I grabbed a Gu b/c I'd heard there were frequent water stops on the run.

Run faster?

Oh boy this run was brutal. It's a good thing I was WAY ahead of my goal on the swim and bike, because... well my goal was somewhat better than 12:41 minutes per mile!

Right from the get-go my calves were cramping horribly. Running was really painful, especially on those few inclines toward the beginning of the loop. Lots of people around me were walking, and I ended up walking with them for much of the first half of the first loop. After that I mostly just walked the aid stations.

Another thing, pretty soon into this run my left foot went entirely numb. When Dennis passed me I asked him why, and another competitor yelled, "SHOES TOO TIGHT." So after a little while I stopped and loosened the laces on my left shoe. Sure enough, pretty soon, the left foot could feel pain again. :)

There were LLS Team In Training people everywhere throughout this race. You could tell when you were near one b/c purple-clad spectators would start yelling, "GO TEAM!" Well maybe most of you know but my sister Michi died from lymphoma 6 years ago, and our other sister Liz did a Team In Training marathon in her memory a couple of years ago, raising over $5,000 for LLS. OK, so there you go. On the run I started to notice some LLS people with names pinned to their purple jerseys. I came up behind one woman, "Are you Dyan or is this for Dyan?" I asked.

"For Dyan" she replied.

"And my sister Michi," I said, and gave her a kind of victory fist as I passed her. Then immediately started to cry. I cried past the bridge where all of the spectators are lined up. (They must have thought I was in even more pain than I was, because they all started encouraging me with how great I looked, how strong.)

On the second lap I passed another LLS person wearing a name and basically had the same conversation. She came back at me with, "this lap is for Michi!" And of course I started bawling again. But this wasn't like Texas Tri, here I was well hydrated and fine on electrolytes, I let myself cry.

Yeah this was a tough run. By the second lap I was still walking through the aid stations but jogging the rest of the time for the most part. Saw LisaJ1 and Cajun out there too, and then toward the end my friend EKA!!! Yes Eka of my OWS story from 2 weeks ago -- she survived her 750m swim to finish her first race strong! I am very proud of her.

There were a lot of water stations. At each I drank some and dumped some over my head or down my neck. Some had ice water, which I dumped into my hat as well. AAAHH. I couldn't even give it a good kick to the finish, it was just the slog & jog the whole way. BUT: Come to find out, I beat my overal goal of sub-4 by more than 12 minutes.

more run training
more bricks
more bananas

What can beat that sense of satisfaction at crossing the finish line? Had some popsicles, chatted with BTers, got stretched by Polly (NYTriGal), "tidied" my transition area, went to find Frank & Eka.


This is the best race I've done so far - wow! Well organized, fun course, spectators, even the ANNOUNCER deserves props - the things he said throughout the race really showed and shared his respect for the sport.