Peed in water 2x before the start. Start was normal, women are brutal with kicking, slapping, swimming over each other. No biggie, I am used to it. No real space without contact until just before the first turn. 3 red buoys to follow before next turn, but couldn't see them, so started to turn at 2nd buoy but kayak was there to steer us back. Turned at 3rd red buoy, right after than the men 45-49 age group (silver caps) caught us and a guy swam over me right as I was grabbing air ... I punched him. He seemed unfazed. I grabbed a mouthful of water and was coughing while still swimming. I am kinda fearless and this is a race so kept going!

Could not see any of the orange buoys until you were about 100 yards away on the 3rd leg, I was lucky to just be on top of all of them because I was following caps the whole way in.

Peed 2x before the finish so no need for porta potties. Learned about 3 weeks ago how to pee while still swimming ... Very useful! Got some foot cramps at the end, not abnormal for me.

Swam til my finger touched the sand, then stood up.

Not much. It was a good swim. Effort was maybe medium to high, but not high. Was too warm in the wetsuit so really couldn't push harder. Even if I did I maybe would of got a couple minutes, not worth it since I had a long day ahead.

Transition was a hill up to the bikes. Walked up. No need to spike my HR right off. Getting stuff ready, got a big quad cramp. Went away and never heard again thank GOD!

Do more swim bike transitions, or swim run transitions. Transition was actually pretty good and felt good on the bike right off. So decisions were good!

My bike was really uneventful. It want really well the entire way. HATED the rough pavement part and many mentioned they would not do the race again if that was part of the course. They changed this course and that was an addition.

Started with 1 bottle of perform and water, and grabbed 1 each at every aid station regardless if I needed it. I drank about 2.0 bottle of perform and 2-2.5 bottle of water during the bike. 1 Cliff block every 20 minutes. 1 Salt tab every 30 minutes

Nothing really. Bike went really well, nutrition was spot on. Took on 1 bottle of each perform and water at every adit station.

Stopped to dismount. Started to flip my leg over to dismount, which I have never done, so not sure what came over me, but then rethought that and stopped. Walked my bike in. Changed everything. Put some body glide on my feet before my socks. Grabbed my cliff blocks, salt tabs, handheld, race belt, visor and left.

Put my salt tabs in my bike shorts or in the race belt I bought at the expo that was zippered. I didn't use the belt because I thought I should not use something I have never trained with.

I didn't really have any idea what to expect on the run. I never did any long run bricks. So this part was a total unknown to me. The first mile right away was hot and hilly and sun was bright. Affected me immediately! Could not get into a run rhythm. Made it to mile 1, and took ice and perform. Guy sprayed a hose at me and got my right shoe a little wet (not fun later). Spent a lot of time walking first 2.5-3 miles and I got into a rhythm of getting ice down my bra and taking on lots of liquids. Hit the potty at 2. Another girl ran in front of me. I asked if she was going pee or poop? She looked at me and thought it was strange and personal I would ask. I just said I wanted to know if I would be waiting 30 sec or 3 minutes as I might wait til next potty. Funny now that I think about it.

Anyway, went potty and popped out my salt pills and didn't know it. Would not find this out til about mile 4. After this I got into a good rhythm getting cooled down with ice and sponges and ran the flats and downhills and walked the uphills. This worked really well til about mile 11 ish. Since I had no salt pills and knew with my heavy sweating I would be in a deficit soon, I was taking on anything an everything I could to hydrate and replace the sodium. This was a race in learning to adjust and adapt on the fly. I took in as much as I could ... Perform, ice water, pretzels, cliff blocks, and then cola at the last aid station (was warm and yucky all day). Took me a couple aid stations to learn that I needed to eat pretzels while drinking to get them down easier and faster. Very dry otherwise.

Cramps really started threatening by 6-7, but running seemed easier than walking. By mile 11 it was getting hard to do anything with the cramps, and stretching the calves, made the foot cramp. I started to even get a little dizzy, so walked more. Mile 12.5 was near impossible to run, but wanted to run to the finish. Some boaters were out cheering, so I flashed them ... No boob, but close! Ran part way up the finish. Running through the finishing shoot was a bit stressful as it was uneven ground and gravel ... Was watching every step so I didn't twist or break my ankle!!! So glad to be done!

Nice thing was every aid station I threw 1–2 cups of ice down my bra. This was a nice little cooler of ice to chew in between aid stations.

Make sure everything I needed was secure in a pouch or pocket. Do more long, hilly, hot bike to run transitions

Nothing really. Met up with friends and rested and waited for others to come in. So much fun doing races where friends are also racing!


Heat!!! Losing salt tabs!!! Not doing as many transitions in training.

Making adjustments to these will result in significant improvements in the future. All in all a good first race and fell within all my expected times for each segment, some much better than others.


The rough section of the bike was absolutely horrible. It was hard to hang on and feel comfortable and it was a long stretch of the race. The rest of the race was awesome. It is a very flat and fast course, you will see that in the bike times. Because of this, there was a lot of drafting because people literally could not possibly put the required space between. Volunteers were awesome at every station, kids, adults, everyone! Stations were well stocked til the end.

Rating of 4 only because of the rough part of the bike.