Started out ok, then got kicked a few times, started getting me off my rhythm. NEar the 2nd buoy i realized i was in a sea of yellow caps (the color of the men's wave that started 3 mins after us) that was disheartening, i flipped on my back and saw a couple blue caps from my wave behind me. THat motivated me to beat at least 1 person from my wave so i regrouped for the last 100, then got a little off course and i could hear spectators shouting, "wrong way!" I corrected and made it out just barely ahead of 2 girls in blue caps

relax and not worry about others

Decent. I was one of the only people jogging and removing wetsuit at same time.

i spent 20-30 secs putting on a riding jersey because i thought i would be cold. THat was totally unnecessary and cost me another 10 secs to remove in T2

Could have pushed harder, was trying to save some energy for the run. Ate a cliff shot blocks package and drank about 20-22 oz of gatorade.

Picked a girl in my age group to race against. We passed eachother about 4 times, she overtook me at the end while I was drinking and I didnt ever catch her again.

drink less water. Pre-open the shot blocks package and gatorade bottle. Push harder.

Seemed fine.

forget riding jersey. Run faster out of transition area

tried to pace myself in beginning, felt like I would barf at about mile 1... too much fluid intake I think. Powered through that and nausea passed.

At about mile 1.25 saw my super athlete friend heidi on her way back from the turnaround and realized she was only about 6 or 7 mins ahead of me, that motivated me to try to close the gap on her and I picked up the pace.

Nearing the turnaround I saw the gal who I was racing on the bike and realized she was only about 1 minute ahead of me so I picked up the pace more to try to catch her... i think she did the same thing when she saw me because I never caught her even after increasing my pace 3 times.

At turnaround I rinsed my mouth out with water due to cotton mouth, but I didnt swallow. I got cotton mouth again with less than half mile to go which nearly gagged me, but I mentally refused to barf and overcame it

nothing. Fastest 5k ever for me at 29:36 and a pace of 9:31 min/mile!!

MUscle milk, then a free beer to celebrate the end of my 65 day sobriety challenge.
Then danced till i nearly barfed at the live music tent.


holding back when i didnt need to.