The race start was separated into two heats (1 minute apart) based on swim ability. Racers started in the water and swam towards a floating buoy. After a right turn at the first buoy and another right turn at a second buoy, racers finished on the beach. A short sprint up the hill across a parking lot put you into the transition area.

Overall I was pleased with my swim time since even though I started in the second wave, I was 54/138. I caught up to and passed several swimmers from the first wave.

I need to continue to work on my endurance since I did most of the race breaststroke. When it got crowded, I would use freestyle to free myself from the congestion and sprint ahead. However, I wasn't able to sustain that pace and went back to using the breaststroke.

Not sure what my T1 time was since I didn't have my watch and the race committee didn't time this portion separately. If anything, it was lumped into my bike time since upon exiting the water we gave a race official a velcro strap with our race number.

I learned from my first race to use a bucket with water, but found trying to balance myself after having cleaned my foot difficult.

Practice, practice, practice!

Using a mountain bike just plain sucks. Even though I had road tires and aerobars put on, the bike is simply not designed for speed. I had some brake issues in that my front pads were rubbing on the tire rim. The rubbing was making noise the entire ride, and around the 9 mile point I saw my left front brake shoe fly off the bike into obscurity.

Same as my first race - get a road/race bike!

T1 and T2 were in the same area.

The final portion of the bike was downhill, so it was a bit of a challenge to slow down, get off the bike and then run up a short hill into the transition area. I required no equipment change since I used the same shoes for biking and running.

I had a power gel pack and some water to wash it down before I headed out of T2 for the run.

Next time I'll try eating the power gel pack prior to finishing the bike portion to cut down on time in T2.

I hate running up hills. Consequently I was almost a full minute slower than my first triathlon run pace.


Run harder, run faster!

Upon finishing the race I drank water and had some bananas. None of the other provided snacks interested me, so I ate my Snickers marathon bar.

I didn't do any cool-down stretches, but walked around and kept moving for several minutes after finishing.


I improved my overall time by swimming and biking faster. However, using a mountain bike severely slowed me down. Plus, coming out of the water 54/138 and ending up 109/138 after the bike stinks and is a demoralizer.