With a pool swim it seems like there are always people that are very optimistic about their swim times. I was lucky enough to have 3 right in front of me in the time trial start. It wasn't that big a deal, but it's a little annoying. Had a good swim and didn't go out too hard, wanted to save plenty for the bike and run.

Be more optimistic with my "estimated" swim time when registering for the race.

I just picked up a pair of used tri shoes, and was excited to use them. I only had a couple trainer rides in them and 1 session in the cul de sac attempting to put them on and take them off like I would in a race, but figured what the heck. T1 actually went pretty well, and although it wasn't a flying leap I did jump on my bike at the mounting line. The velcro got a little stuck, but I managed to get the shoes on without too much issue.

Practice with the new shoes more.

I never really got into my usual zone that I do on the bike where everything clicks. It may have been due to the fact that I didn't taper much for this race since I have a big race coming up in a few weeks that I didn't want to lose training for. My legs just didn't have energy, especially on the hills. Overall I can't complain about the pace though.

Taper?

I accidentally took my feet out of the shoes a block too early, whoops! Got confused about where I was. Anyhow, jumped off the bike at the dismount line and ran into transition. Both shoes kept hitting the ground and spinning like crazy... not sure if there's any way around that. I chose to take the extra time to put on socks, which I probably wouldn't have done normally. Just didn't want any blisters since I have a big training week next week.

The run felt pretty good to me... once the pace steadied around a half mile out of T2 I was able to pretty much lock on and run that the rest of the way in. I ended up in no-man's land where I had passed the majority of the people that started the swim in front of me, and there were a couple guys that I never saw. On the back half of the run I did spot someone way off in the distance and tried to use him for motivation. Slowly chipped away at his advantage but never actually caught him; the good news was that I had a good advantage over him on my race time anyway due to the TT start.

Not much.

Walked around a bit, then played with the kids on the playground. A little later I got back in the pool and swam another 400m.


Not a lot; overall the race went very well. Tapering would have given me a little bit extra, but probably not all that much.