My wave was the largest with my age group plus a couple others (all women, ages 25-50!). It was CROWDED. I had a great start and then got all bunched and crunched up at the first buoy. Really messed up my breathing. I swung a little wide off the first buoy, but found open water where I could swim my comfy pace. Swam good and hard into the beach because I could not see anything looking right into the sun and there were a lot of lake weeds which gross me out and I really wanted out of there!

More swimming to help my endurance, especially when I get all flustered in a bigger group.

The ladies racked next to me were in a relay and their runner was in the transition pen helping get them out of their wetsuits and was so obnoxiously in the way of everyone around us. My husband went to the race director about it. How annoying. Other than that, this was a good transition for me.

Nothing.

My hands were so cold that I couldn't hold onto my water bottle and therefore drank almost nothing the whole ride. That was not good. My pace was pretty good, I passed quite a few people.

Wear my full-finger gloves to help with the freezing hands. I had no idea I would have such problems!

Go-go gadget hands! Thank goodness I put in my lock-tite laces because it took two tries to get my feet even into my shoes as I could not feel my hands or my feet. I would have been running with untied shoes because there is no way I could have tied my shoelaces. I couldn't even squeeze my race belt clip open, I just ran out of the transition area with it around my arm. Same went for getting my ponytail though my hat - couldn't do that for about 100m either. Sheesh.

Have a space heater! Ha! This was a pretty speed transition considering how much trouble I was having.

My feet finally started thawing within a half mile of the run, which was a really strange sensation. I felt like my footbeds were in upside down in my shoes. I was also getting really sharp ankle pain. Three days later, I still have a lot of pain in my right arch. Not sure what happened. I really felt like I was flying during this run, but it was actually the slowest run I have done in a tri! Argh! Wish I could have had more fluids on the bike - I was soopo thirsty by the end of this run.

Take a little more time in transition to get my shoes situated correctly. Worried I hurt my foot by rushing and being totally numb.

Husband, parents, and friend John were there to see me finish. John had come in about 10 minutes earlier. Gathered everything up and headed out to brunch at Issaquah Cafe.


Again the cold. Friend told me to put hand warmers in my bike shoes before the swim and then put them in my tri jersey pockets for the bike leg to help keep my core warmer. Maybe take my mountain bike full-finger gloves too. Non-functioning hands were so awkward!
Wack-o training schedule in July and August. Over scheduled my summer and was trying to train during vacations and without a lot of intensity. Promised myself I would work on my running and even that didn't happen. Next year...


No relay team members in the bike pen who are not biking please!