OMG, the waves completly threw me a mile. I can`t explain how different a swim start is with OW ocean waves to deal with. Plus, it was shallow and the reef was nasty. There was no warning at the brief about a reef, so I was not prepared for it at all. The first bouy seemed like miles away because it`s hard to site when there are waves coming at you, so I just kept hammering away. One poor guy from the mens wave was freaking out, he was on his way back to shore, I guess the ocean waves were just to intimerdating (sp?). Most people I talked to said the swim was really tough, and I guess my swim time was pretty good I was 51st out of nearly 200 for my swim so I gather I did well. But the course was not put together very well and people were swimming all over the place trying to work out where to aim for to get out. Then, the reef was there and you had to be super careful not to get washed onto it, not stand on it or put your hands on it.....I could go on.


aahhrrr how frustrating, I`m telling you if you ever plan on doing an OW swim from the beach out into the waves, you must practise!! Sighting for the bloody bouy with waves crashing down on you is really really hard. Plus, on the way back in I tried catching some waves but all I got were mouth fulls of salt water...yick. Although I bitch and moan about it, it was a great experiance and I can now say I did a real OW swim, plus it should make my next swim feel easier...I darn well hope so anyway.

practise swimming into crashing waves.

had a great transition. I don`t know how I could improve on that except to start teaching myself how to rubber band my shoes and get my feet in while riding. Otherwise I had pretty fast transitions.

Nothing, except for what I said about my shoes already on my bike.

thankfully I had a great bike. Mark caught me and passed me (more like flew by me). I wanted to try to avg at least 17.5m/h so I kept my cadence high at 90. It was a flat course so that was fun, the second lap was difficult as the wind picked up, the first lap wasn`t so bad.
one chick bloody cut in front of me just before a turn, what a dick!!! I about had to come to a complete stop otherwise would have hit her.

Nothing I don`t think, perhaps I need an extra water bottle on my bike so I can drink some sports drinks.... I think I need more than water.

another good transition...until....I ran out the wrong entrance. The bike and run exit/entrance were right next to each other. It wasn`t until I saw people coming towards me with bikes that I turned around and yelled out, which bloody way??. Someone jumped in and pointed the right one, so I spent at least 30seconds dealing with that. I just couldn`t believe there was no volunteer standing there directing...kind of mad about that one.

not much, it was just a shame about the confusion of the entrance thats all.

Crap, this was the worst run I have ever had. I thought I was doing quite well when my right lower stomach started to cramp about a mile in. I`ve had cramps/stiches before and normaly just run through them, but not with this one, after a few minutes my whole rib cage was cramping, stomach and lower stomach were sceaming. I stopped at least 4 times and bent over, runners were going past asking if I was okay....I smiled and said thanks I`ll be fine. But, it hurt like F**K!!!! I finally got to the 1/2way water station and stopped again and drank a whole cup of water, managed to have a little talk with myself and said either I give up and walk back or deal with the pain and try to at least jog the last 1 1/2 miles. I did it, I jogged to the finish line, actually I must have picked up the pace because my times I thought were going to be worse. If I hadn`t got these cramps I probably would have run 8.5m/m.,,my goal to do in races. O well, we live and learn I guess.

Get an extra water bottle on my bike, I think I need to drink a sports drink with water on my ride, I don`t know what caused the cramping, but it could have been lack of carbs or electrolites.

got to the finish line and just stood there until I could breath. Stumbled over to the food and drink and drank a gallon of gaterade and water. Ate a banana, orange, some watermelon and a lollypop. Found Mark and we got to have a great talk while we waited in line for our stats. He did great, he is such a speedy runner. This was also where I realised that I had scored 3rd in my age group, thanks Mark for being my cheer squad it was nice to share it with someone.


HA! alot!!! PAIN!! But, I am proud of myself in not giving up and pushed myself through it. I tried so hard, and can only keep training to get better.


I just realized when filling out the Plenty of Drink stations question...normally at the start of the run I drink a good half a cup of water, but because I missed the entrance I also missed the water station. Perhaps this had something to do with the cramps? I don`t know??
Afterward my hubby rewarded me with Cold Stone ice-cream....man that place is just the best rewarding place in the world!!!
The medal is pretty with red,white and blue ribbons and the medal is round with swim, bike, run pictures on it. I like it alot, and am very lucky to have it...I don`t deserve it after that run performance. As I said to Mark, there was probably only 3 of us in that age group....he told me not to tell anyone that!