Felt much better in this than I did in the Surf and Turf #1 a couple of weeks ago. I was actually able to swim 2/3 of the race freestyle while previously I couldn't bring myself to put my face in the water. Used sidestroke and breaststroke for the rest. Kept veering off to the right as I tend to do when I breathe to my right, finally switched to breathing left and that helped. On the leg back to the beach I was caught by the front pack of the next wave, so I swam over the left to get out of the way. There seemed to be a lot more chop/wakes from boats in the last 1/3 and this left me feeling slightly nauseated/disoriented and this is when I switched over to mostly breaststroke/sidestoke.

Learn to swim better/faster. Figure out what I can do about the nausea/disorintation that slowed me down in the last 1/3 of the race.

Everything went smoothly, if a bit slow, but I figured that getting everything right was better than rushing and forgetting something. Considering this is my first race, I was happy that I did everything in the order I had practiced and felt pretty calm. The only weird thing I did was at the last minute before taking my bike off the rack, I paused to take my water bottle out of the cage to drink and then put it back on. Not sure why I didn't just wait until I got onto my bike.

Nothing - I think I'll get faster with repetition.

Considering that I was riding my 11 year old mountain bike I was pretty happy with this ride. It's especially gratifying to pass people who are riding bikes worth more than 10x what mine is worth.

The terrain was pretty similar to what I train on, and I actually like the long gradual uphills. I am slightly bummed that my average speed was under 20 mph, but that's pretty minor overall

Other than getting a new bike, the only thing I can think of is that I could have gone out a little harder.

Smooth and deliberate, like T1.

Nothing

Felt a little sluggish at the start especially since it was uphill. Had a side stitch for the 1st mile or so, but kept running and didn't try to push the pace until it went away.

Walked around, got some water.


1) Being slow in the swim
2) Equipment in the bike
3) Lack of race experience


The race was really well organized, so that made it great for me as a beginner to figure out what was going and where I needed to be at any point in time. Overall I was happy with my performance. I had thought that if I had a good race I should be able to finish ~1:45 and I was just under that. Now after having finished one, I think I can focus on really pushing myself in the next race.