Ummm, BRRRRR! OK, my time looks crappy, but you have to understand that I've been a horrible swimmer as of late. When I did this race last year, I got kicked in the face at start (broke my nose) and it took me nearly 30 minutes to finish it. So I'm thrilled with a < 10 minute time. Glad I had a wetsuit. I didn't stick to breathing on alternate sides because I couldn't stand to keep my face in the water for three strokes. By about 300 meters in, I started to do this. I finished with the pack, albeit at the back. I'm still not very good at swimming around people. Also, got hit by a big wave at the turnaround. Knocked me out of rythym for a few seconds.

I really need to practice passing people. I got caught behind a breaststroker and had people on either side of me, so I ended up slowing down to the breaststroker's pace. Need to learn how to just swim over other people. I hate it when people do it to me, but I guess I need to accept it as part of the race.

Wetsuit got stuck on my timing chip. This ate up at least 30 seconds.



Try pulling legs of wetsuit over the timing chip, for easier removal.

Heee! What a mess this was!

I was hit by a car last year on my bike, and the impact of the crash literally knocked me out of my shoes, which stayed clipped to the pedals. The injuries to my feet and toes were very severe. As a result, I just haven't worked up the nerve to wear my clipless shoes again. This obviously slowed me down. I also bonked at about mile 3. I'm not sure if this was due to nutrition or hydration.

And for the added bonus - at mile marker 5, I blew out my back tire. I carried my bike to the turnaround point at Carlsville Rd., only to find that I had accidentially packed a mountain bike tube. Oops. I figured that I would take a DNF here, but eventually the sag vehicle showed up and swapped it out for me, but did it very slowly. Almost 20 minutes lost on the bike for this. It allowed me to recover from the bonk, but after experiencing equipment issues, I can now understand why the pros just bail out when it happens.

Pack a road tube :)

Also, during that 20 minutes, I wish I had used the porta potty, but I didn't want to leave my bike unattended or risk missing the SAG vehicle. This came back to haunt me in the run.

This should have gone faster, I'm not sure what the hold up was. I really, really, really, had to pee, but there was a line at the porta potties. I don't like races where they allow finished participants into the transition area before everyone is out on the run.

I wish I could will myself to just pee down my leg. Seriously. I had to pee so bad it hurt.

I decided before the race to walk this, since I had tweaked my knee last week. Part way through the run, I decided I wanted to do a light trot, since most of the people on the course were moving very slowly. Nothing like a little competition to motivate me. However, I have found, that it is impossible to run more than 10 yards when you feel your bladder is about to burst. There were two porta potties at the drink station, but again, there was a line.

Pee in transition.

My warmdown was basically my run. I felt really lousy crossing that finish line, realizing that this was the first tri I had ever finished where I hadn't left it all out on the course. It made me feel really bad. But I guess taking care of my long term health needs to take priority over short term gains. Didn't take the water, but did take a beer. And a second.


Injuries, lack of training, equipment issues, motivation problems


I love this race. It is well organized and has some of the friendliest volunteers anywhere. I hope to be back in race form next year, and my goal is 1:20 overall time.