Great start to the morning when the zipper decided to break on my relatively new wetsuit just minutes from the start; this was only the third or fourth race in the Orca. I took it off to see if there was anything I could do, then put it on again scratching my head. I was standing with a group of ladies who were getting ready, one of whom asked if the lube I was using was Astroglide. "No," I said, "that's for another activity." Anyway, Ms. Astroglide said I could wear mine like wore hers, just velcroed up with no zipper ("Mine doesn't fit anymore," she said.). So I sucked it in as best I could while she fastened as much of the velcro as she could. It pretty much came open before I got to the first buoy, but I managed anyway.

That incident aside (does a spare wetsuit sound like a good idea?), I was generally OK with the swim. I didn't breathe as well as I should have, but I exited the water in about 13 minutes; the rest of my time was a wooded jog up to transition. The difference between my water time and normal 400m pool time (usually under 12 minutes) is likely because I came up out of the water every 10-12 strokes to sight, catch my breath, and make sure I wasn't going off course.

I love being in the first wave. I didn't get caught by following wave until around halfway down the far leg of the course, and came out pretty much with the second group. Not sure how many others in my wave were still behind me; I know at least a few.

Nothing; for my swim preparation and overall (lack of) ability, this was probably as good as it gets.

Time here had to be due to getting the wetsuit off and unstuck from around the heels. I also took time to start the power by ratcheting the pedals a couple of times. 107th overall out of 335.

Not much...practice?

I raced exactly according to my plan, riding comfortably in the small ring out of and back into the park, quick but not so fast that it seemed unsafe or worrisome. For the time outside the park I pushed pretty good, trying to maintain wattage in the 160-180 range. Coming back in I kind of got stuck in a cluster of riders, forced me to just maintain my position, even though it was a little slower than I'd have preferred. I got my feet out of my shoes too early, just before a 90-degree turn that I thought was the last turn into transition...but wasn't. Doubt it made much time difference. And it certainly seemed to throw the willies into another rider who tried to pass on my right just as I was unfastening my shoes, as a guy in front of both of us weaved back and forth.

Maybe push a little harder both ways inside the park. Get a better sense of when to pull feet from shoes.

I thought this time was pretty good until I noticed it was 176th overall; evidently a lot of people sprinted out of T2 quicker than I did! Overall, I'd say I moved pretty good through T2

Nothing.

Love these short runs. They're over almost before your mind wakes up and says, "Wait, we're running? And pretty hard at that?" I kept up a good pace throughout, walked just a bit at the turnaround to drink half a cup of water. Did have some uncomfortable stomach issues as I started out, but nothing I was concerned about due to the shortness of the course, and they went away somewhere along the way.

Nothing. I ran pretty much according to plan.

Walking around, grabbing a granola bar, some water, and a sports drink.


Other than my overall slowness, not a whole lot, at least not factors that were within my control, except maybe the swim (although I felt I kept myself under pretty good control there). I knew I'd finish around 1:21-1:22 at the absolute worst, but reasonably expected to break 1:15. Did not expect to break 1:10, so I'm pleased overall.


Piranha always does a nice race; very organized, on time, plenty of volunteers. They have it down. Today they did a kid's tri before ours, pushed us out of transition an hour before the start of the race, which was a little bit frustrating, but understandable and not that big a deal. Venue was nice too, with real bathrooms! I'm just glad I got my number two out of the way before the ladies decided to take over the men's to combat the line to get into theirs.