There were four swim waves for this race (M40-under, M40-over, W40-under, W40-over, I think), so it was awesome that we didn't have to wait very long to start! I was in the third wave and I positioned myself maybe in the third row or so. Because I had messed up my Garmin during my previous two races, I decided to wear two watches this time just i case. I started my regular stopwatch on the wave before mine and made a note when I looked at it to subtract 3 minutes.

This pond is a little unusual: You start on the beach and run in, but the shore water is ankle high for maybe 3 steps, then WHOOSH it gives away and you can't touch the bottom anymore. Some contact until the first buoy, but nothing bad at all. I think since I had started to just accept getting knocked around in the swim starts it has been so much easier to handle.

I settled into my regular pattern of counting strokes to 100 and then starting over (makes the swim go by so fast!). I think my sighting was OK. I wasn't off course at any point. I'm not much of a sighter, bc I haven't been able to figure out how to do it while still swimming. I usually have to stop and pop up, take a look, then put my head back down and swim. I usually rely on other people and hope that they aren't steering me off course. Anyway, I did sight a lot more than I usually do in this race. I think bc of the glare off the water, I just didn't feel like I was going in the right direction. But I was - I never had to course-correct.

Other than the first 200m, hardly any contact. The course is triangle-shaped and the last leg was directly into the sun. Bc there is a "shelf" that only extends maybe a foot off the shore, I waited until my hands were touching bottom before I stood up. I had been jumping up too early in my previous races this year! I glanced at my watch and it said 15:3X, so slower than what I had expected, but fine all the same bc it was 3 minutes faster than last year!

I don't think I pushed very hard on this swim, and my time confirms that.

After exiting the swim, you run up some grass to T1. I saw my mom, dad, husband and brother here. Put a Gu in my pocket and put on shoes and helmet. Exit T1 and you have to run up this gravel-y/rocky incline. I was glad I haven't yet figured out how to pre-clip in my shoes bc that would hurt on bare feet!

Nothing.

I wish I had wrote my RR earlier bc I can't remember too many details! This course was shaped like a rectangle on top of a square. Strong headwind when riding west and strong crosswinds when heading south or north. I was 5th after exiting T1 and I passed one girl in my AG pretty early on. I just tried to hunker down and pedal as fast as I could. I wore a HR monitor but I didn't look at any of the data. I wanted it for post-race analysis.

I did pass up a guy who was riding a bike that had a kid seat on the back. That was awesome. Gotta use what you have! This course was good - roads were smooth and the racers were spread out enough that there wasn't any drafting or passing issues.

I had a 20 oz nuun on my bike (drank maybe three quarters?) and I took in a Gu about 15 minutes into the bike.

I make it back to transition and my brother is laughing his head off. After the race he told me I had my helmet on backward! Oooooooooooops! So, I would wear that correctly. I took a minute off of my bike time from last year. I was really hoping for another minute or two. After Racine I didn't put in too much work on the bike. I did interval work maybe 2x a week since then but I probably should have done more.

Got in and out.

No complaints, fastest in my AG!

I raced a sprint in the beginning of the summer and I had some bad belly twitches so I wanted to make sure that I didn't start off too fast. I looked at my Garmin and it said 7:30s so I slowed it down to about 7:40-45 for the first half mile. I was feeling really good. After about a half mile I pushed the pace to 7:30. Saw a girl who looked about my age ahead of me - got close and looked at her calf and she's in my AG! Decided that when I passed her to pass her with purpose at a good pace so she doesn't decide to catch up. Took in some water at the aid station. Kept up the pace and the last half mile really pushed it to about 7:15s. The last quarter mile my Garmin said I was running a 6:30 pace. Strong finish, awesome!

Met up with my family and they laughed at me for a solid 10 minutes about the backward helmet. Packed up transition and did some stretching. Walked around and waited for the awards. Then met up with some friends who were racing Naperville for brunch.


Poor sleep leading up to the race?

Pretty happy with this race. Placed 7/91 out of the female racers! And I improved by 6 minutes from this course last year. Pretty psyched about that.