Felt good from the start off gun. Steady pace. No panic issues. During the first lap I did stuggle a few strokes to steady my breathing, but I didn't feel panic rise at any time. I focused on completing my laps. I had figured that I could complete 12-15 laps in 20 minutes, so I started playing math games. 3 done...1/4 finished...that kind of thing. Around lap 11 I knew I was doing well b/c I still didn't have the 5 minute warning. At that point I did try to speed up a bit because I wanted to finish 15 laps. But, I didn't want to leave too much in the pool and become too wiped out for the bike and run, so I managed to finish 14.5 laps. It felt incredible good NOT to have a panic attack.

Transition was very low key. They started the bike segment when we all got there. No stress.

This was on an indoor spin bike. Controls were deactivated so we couldn't change the resistance. I worked hard. Went out at 110+ RPM and stayed there for a few minutes and quickly realized I needed to adjust down to 90-land. Heart was pumping and I was dripping sweat the entire bike. At 10 minutes I saw that I had gone 6km, so I made my goal 12. I knew that would be tough b/c I came out fast and couldn't keep that pace. The last 120 seconds I pushed hard and wound up at 11.7km. I was ready to get off that bike!

Again...super low key. The 5 of us in my heat came out of the spin room, took about a minute break and started to run.

I felt very strong on the run. There were 5 in my heat...me + 4 men. I finished 3rd in the run in my heat, which means a beat 2 men. HA! Last 2 minutes I pushed, wanting to finish strong.

Super super happy with this race. It was very low key, which helped keep my swim panic issues at bay. A great indoor training race for the off-season, which could be very helpful to introduce someone to a race environment. Like me, for istance! I'll definitely do it again next year and will enter the competitive division.