Not particularly eventful swim. I really wanted to stay away from any contact so I mostly navigated to be away from everyone. The only bizarre event was that stupid silicon swim cap managed to squirt itself off in the last 100 yards or so and my hair kept covering my goggles, making it impossible to sight. Fortunately this was at the end of the race. It was such a hassle, I might actually put a second cap in my wetsuit sleeve for my next races...or replace any silicon ones with similarly colored latex ones...I seriously felt like that sheep dog who is always beating up wile e. coyote. My shoulder never really hurt and it was tired after the race, but not sore. In fact it feels good after I swim.

I desperately need a new wetsuit. One I can get off without Jaws of Life (see T1 debacle).

OMG I cannot stand not being able to get out of my wetsuit, it is driving me crazy. Seriously, how do people do it??? I am starting to think it is actually my suit, too small or something. Seeing as how I lost 3rd by a minute or so, this could have kept me off of the AG podium.

I am pretty sure nobody in my AG beat me on the bike. It was 12 miles of road rage.

I kind of lost focus here for a second. A coach friend of mine feels I should have been able to do this in under a minute. He's probably right, but when I got to the rack, some a-hole had hung his wetsuit on my bike number spot, so I had to take a few seconds to throw it about 5 feet. Listen up people, I am ok with most personal preferences in transition. Buckets, big towels, a ton of crap, whatever, I don't do it myself, but if it makes you happy, fine. But if you hang your effin' dripping wet wetsuit on the bike rack, you're just a douche. I totally got cheered up on the run out though, when I came up behind a guy trying to run his bike out with his helmet on backwards! Alas, not an aero helmet, but it was awesome nonetheless.

Not be racked next to a douche. Go fast and ignore the "noise."

This was fine. I am a crappy trail runner, mostly because I don't run trails. Mostly my strategy was the same as any run, survive the icky starting feeling, keep cadence high, effort even, try to hang on to any fellow AG in case I have enough juice for a last minute kick at the end. I did try to let the downhills give me some free speed, which was fun, and I totally didn't fall down even once. Win.

Watched bike in for a while waiting for OriolePwr and Babydaddy. Man is THAT entertaining! Then went over to watch the runners and finish line for a while. Shouted out to friends whenever I saw them...chatted with random strangers. Beer with the boys when they finished.


My swim speed and transitions are major contributors, I also think I should be able to run a bit faster, but mentally lazy by that time in a race. I need to pick up the pace for my next sprint run and see if I can hold it. Maybe shoot for sub 8's next race. I am getting better at triathlon though. But for the most part it looks like I'm either going to be a mediocre triathlete with great bike skills, or a mediocre biker with great triathlon skills. Sigh. I sure love my hobby though, what a fun day!


I have taken Ram Racing to task for their organization in the past, but I have to say they have gotten a lot better at triathlon, and I enjoyed this race. They really need to replace the bike in guy (surly teenager who had no interest in pointing out the dismount line, which apparently means it's optional to the riders (who knew)), but otherwise, the volunteers were happy and knowledgeable and the race was well run.