I wore my full wetsuit, even though the water was warm and it was a sprint. I still need any advantage I can get. The swim went well. My wave was pretty big- all women 0-39, so there was a lot of contact in the first couple hundred yards, not used to that at all! I sighted pretty well, drafted a bit but mostly just swam by myself. 2 swimmers were way off the front (the eventual 1 and 2 finishers), I was in the next group.

I should have done more OWS practice: 2000yds a couple weeks ago wasn't enough.

Luckily they had wetsuit strippers, it actually took 3 people to get my suit off! LOL. I wasn't as rusty as I expected. It was a long run from the water and my bike rack was near the far bike exit. I ran passed a lot of people in transition.

Twisty, turny course around Tempe. I don't think we ever went more than a mile from transition, LOL. It was a crowded course because the other races had started before my Sprint...I tried not to be the obnoxious triathlete girl, so there were a few time I slowed up and made safe passes instead of being really aggressive. I still managed the fastest bike split of the day!

This was where I was worried. I don't run much anymore and my legs had not felt particularly fresh on the bike. I knew I was in 2nd place going onto the run but a girl passed me right away and she was flying. I figured I was in 3rd place and had no idea if I could hold onto it. Another girl passed me at the half way point and I tried to pick up the pace but I just couldn't. I knew it had nothing to do with "giving up" but just the limitations of my run right now. I was keeping a 7:05 pace and just focused on that. As we ran up the hill to the bridge, I looked back and saw the girl behind me was about 20-30 seconds back...I picked it up a bit and ran as hard as I could. Felt like I was dying! As I approached the finish line, there was an older lady that had raced the shorter distance, they were announcing that she was completing her first triathlon, I could have ran passed her and grabbed the tape but I put on the brakes and ended up walking over the line with her, both holding the tape up. It was a funny moment :-)

Nothing, I don't run enough to be able to run a 20 min 5k which would have got me into 2nd or 3rd place over all.

They had lots of good stuff post race, including a photo area, champagne bar. We hung out with our friends. My friend did great in her DU. Got a really gute charm necklace for the AG win.


Great event. This was their inaugural year and the first in a nationwide series. The volunteers were great. The only issue was the number of beginners/newbies...but it was a nice reminder for me as to how I got into all of this. It was also a good day for me to realize that I don't love Triathlon as much as I used to. It's a great sport but I think I pretty much achieved everything I wanted to in Tri and I'm not sure I will do it very much in the future.