I lined myself up in the second row, closest to the buoy line. The horn went off and off I went! Some crowding until the first buoy. Between the first and second buoys my HR shot up pretty high. I don't normally have OWS-panic and I'm pretty calm in the washing machien that is tri swims, but something happened today. I popped my head up a few times to get some good breaths. It got under control - or more like I just forced myself to keep swimming it I knew it would go down eventually.

Pretty much hugged the buoy line on the way out, but at the turnaround I apparently took an unplanned detour bc I was off course maybe 25m or so. OOPS!

More OWS! At this point last year, I was swimming in the lake for at least 2 weeks. It has been so cold this year. I thought I would be fine bc I don't usually have OWS issues, but not the case today: poor sighting and a HR spike

This was a good distance from the water, seems like a long trans, but I was 2nd in AG and 7th OA, so I think I was moving. Wetsuit peeled off very quickly and then put on helmet, bike shoes and off I went.

This bike and course was pretty fun. Some rolling hills, which I don't experience too often! Major headwind on the way out. I was about 5 minutes in and I hear a high voice say "on your left" so I moved over and it was the race's youngest competitor, a 13-year-old girl. She was smokin' me! I never caught up to her.

I took in a Gu about 15 minutes in and had water at 15 mins and 30 mins.

I didn't push as much as I could have. My HR stayed in high Z3 and I should have pushed my speeds to get it up to Z4, I think. I didn't zone into my HR during this ride, at the time I just figured "this is hard!" but I didn't nail the particulars of "hard" vs "harder" vs "really hard" on the bike. I think if I paid better attention to my HR numbers I would have realized I wasn't going hard enough.

changed shoes, grabbed visor and belt and put those on while on the run.

So my friend competing in this race has a bright pink bike. I was one rack from her, but I wasn't concentrating properly bc I just looked for the pink bike and instead of going one rack down, I went right to her bike. I quickly realized that I was in the wrong aisle, but that ate up some time.

Passed my friend right away and gave her a slap on the butt, which gave us both the laughs. My plan was just to go out hard and try to hold on. The course is on the streets in a circle around Lake Zurich (the actual lake, not the town) and has maybe three hills? One of them long, but not bad at all. First mile in 7:20 and my HR is in Z4, so perfect. Second mile got some cramping on my left side. I tried to take deep breaths and to run tall. Got Gatorade at the second aid station (about 1.5 miles in) and hoped it would prevent the cramps from getting worse. It helped - they just lingered for the rest of the run, but didn't go away. Slowed down the second mile to 7:35ish, but got back to speed for the last mile.

Probably not walk during that second aid station.

Waited for my friend to finish and then we chowed down at the post-race expo.


Before the race my husband asked what my goal time was. I hadn't been thinking about it, bc I have never done this race before and the distances are a little off from typical sprints. So I threw out the number "1:20". It was pretty close, but those 18 seconds are really bugging me! Stuff adds up - swimming off course, not biking as hard as I could have and walking that second aid station on the run. Oh well, next time!


Lots of fun! Nice course and great post-race food and expo.