The swim was pretty decent. Since it was 7pm, the air temp. was pretty warm and the fact that we had stood out in the sun during the pre-race briefing made the water feel refreshing. I felt pretty good - much better than I had during the Season Opener. I didn't hyper ventalate and the fact that I was trying to go slow helped me to just relax. My biggest problem was that since I had started at the back, I kept running into people. Plus navigation is something I need to work on.

One final note - with the sun going down - the water looked amazing - shiny and golden.

Not sure - I really need to work on bilateral breathing so I can keep better track of the buoys. I would also start midpack as I'd rather be run over and have people change their course then have to move around to avoid others.

To get to T1 - you have to go up an enormous hill, which I walked up. Once in transition, I couldn't get the suit off my legs and had to sit down to make it happen. I was able to get everything on pretty quickly after that.

I'd love to figure out a way to 1) ride without socks (I keep getting blisters) and 2) get out of my wet suit faster.

My competitive spirit really got the better of me here. After the first mile which was mostly uphill, I was flying once I started heading downhill. At one point I was averaging 17mph, which was pretty decent considering how slowly I had gone up that first hill. So, I kept trying to slow myself down but then I'd see someone in front of me and I push it a little bit so I could make the pass. But perhaps the best part of the ride was watching the sun start to set. With the lake as the backdrop, It was truly idyllic.

On an amusing note - people started to call me Lager Man. I had at least three people do this thanks to the Jack's Abby shirt I was wearing.

Not much. Maybe trust myself more on the uphills.

A decent transition... until I followed a guy out of transition. His way out was actually the way in... Woops. Once I figured it out, I happily ran out of transition knowing that I didn't have to kill it on the run.

Practice leaving T2 before the race and as always practicing transitions more.

The run was totally different from any of my previous runs because I was working hard on taking my time so as to stay fresh for next week's race. I decided to walk up the hills to conserve my energy and to go nice and slow. Since I had plenty of O's, I had a good time cheering other participants on.

The highlight of the race occurred near the end as I was running downhill towards the park. I had a great view and the sunset was amazing. I said a quick prayer of thanks for such a beautiful gift. Heavenly.

Not much.

Burger, chocolate chip cookies and chips. All guilt free. I did not stretch.


I didn't want to go fast - so the biggest limiter was my desire to still have something in the tank for next week.


This was the first year they had run this race and there were the typical delays like running out of tee shirts. They actually had us down by the water for the briefing and then we had us walk up the hill to the parking lot to give us the details.

But the post race music and food more than made up for it... Of course by the time we packed up our gear, it was pretty much dark. Would have been nice to have a lit transition area. I need to throw a flashlight into my tri bag.