My sighting was great and I was really happy with that. My goals were to not panic, continue moving forward and finish with plenty of energy to spare. I succeeded in those goals even though I swam very very slowly and took a lot of breaks, many more breaks than normal.

Swim faster and more consistently. I got bumped a little and that sort of threw me and I would side stroke for quite a while afterwards to get myself together. I got out of the water feeling pretty good and I think I definitely could have gone faster. I also need to not panic and just swim. I would be swimming along fine then out of nowhere I'd freak a little and need to take a break. I'm confident that will get better with time and more practice. I was already light years ahead of my last (which was my first) OWS.

I think my first transition went pretty well! I had plenty of space since everyone who was racked with me had already left. I forgot to put my bike in a lower gear so had to do some mashing out of transition which sucked since it was straight into a hill. But overall, went pretty well.

I'm almost certain I'll have bike shoes for my next race. I wasn't interested in spending money on a sport I'd never done before so I just rode in my running shoes. Now that I know for sure I like it, it's time to invest :)

I felt that this was a really hard course. I think I was just unprepared for the types of hills I'd be dealing with. I was definitely BOP but I was significantly slower than those in front of me and significantly faster than those behind so I spent a lot of time on my own. It definitely tested my mental abilities and self motivation. I'm really proud of my bike performance since I just learned to ride a bike barely 3 months ago!

I think I'm ready for a bike upgrade which will help my performance but also just make riding more comfortable. I'll also pay more attention to how I'll be starting the course (uphill, downhill etc.) so I can be in the right gear.

Second transition was fine. With it being my first tri I just wasn't concerned with speed as much as making sure I had everything correct.

I didn't have a race belt so had to pin one side of my number on my top then pin the other side once I had it on. That certainly slowed me down and was harder to do than expected. Race belt for sure next time!

I was very careful not to go too fast on the run. When I was off my bike I was so excited that I was a 5k away from being a triathlete so I had to rein it in a little. I did my 5 minute walk warmup (even though I wanted to run just so I could be faster) like I always do in training but then my running intervals went bad. My quads felt tight and my legs were more brick like than normal. I didn't feel terribly winded or anything but my legs just didn't cooperate so I ran one minute and walked one minute most of the distance. The loop course allowed me once again to see those ahead of me and I really do like that. It was fun to cheer each other on. As a BOP-er there were a lot of women who were already finished hanging out and walking around and they were all supportive and cheering me on! Running is definitely my achilles heel so having a nice cheering section made it worthwhile. All I wanted was to be under 45 minutes and I was! Mission accomplished!

I just need to like running again and train like I should. Swimming and biking really got the bulk of my attention because I'd never done either of them before and as a result my running suffered.

Just don't sit down! I kept saying if I sat down I wouldn't get back up so I walked around a lot. I had 4 or 5 cups of gatorade/water and waited for my sister at the finish. It was fun to see her come through. I packed up my things from transition and then made the 1/2 mile walk back to the car.


I'm just not fast. Compared to where I was when I started, I was at professional speed but I'm just not a fast person. One day I'll be faster as I get more training and practice in but for now I just wanted to finish. And I did!


Women's only races are fun! Being at the BOP, there weren't a lot of volunteers around to help out. I got to the turn around point for the run and the only thing there was a single cone. A man rode up on his bike behind me and called out for me to turn around at the cone which was nice but more volunteers would have been nice. Otherwise, it was a good event and a lot of fun!