While this looks awfully slow from a pacing perspective, I *loved* it-- the swim felt really smooth and consistent! Waited 5 seconds for the washing machine to clear, then had plenty of room to do my thing uninterrupted. Found it much easier to use the lane lines to sight with this year as well-- only downside was a misinformed lifeguard telling me to move left and thus getting me out of the proper lane for a while-- I eventually got myself back where I belonged, but the detour was briefly annoying.

Given the anemia etc. this year, I was really pleased-- wasn't even terribly tired coming out of the water. Ideally, of course, I would have been able to train more and harder to improve my speed, but I'll take the comfortable margin here!

The transitions went much quicker this time, probably because I knew exactly what I needed to do in the order I needed to do it! Grabbed a portapotty break, got my long-sleeve shirt on (no telling what the weather might do, as I found out last year!), got into my bike gear, and headed out.

Nothing-- this went smoothly.

This was the tough one for me, despite the gorgeous course. On the good side, I knew the loops pretty well and could therefore prepare to gear down, hammer, deal with cornering, etc. The organizers had done a MUCH better job of setting up the entrance and exit to the course, too-- considerably safer than last year, and thus the course didn't feel too crowded even though plenty of people still passed illegally on the left side (we were doing counter-clockwise loops, hence ride on the left, pass on the right was the rule). Saw far fewer accidents than last year, though apparently there were a couple of doozies by the hairpin turn at one end of the course. The downside was that the piriformis syndrome kicked in again after about 15 or so laps (out of 41), and stayed with me with a vengeance. Hard to pedal quickly when pain shot down my left leg with every downstroke, but I kept on (if rather grimly). As I found last year, the IMers cheered each other on by race number-- one guy, #69, was consistent in cheering me on every time he saw me. Dunno if he did that to everyone, but I was grateful for the support and returned it in kind. :) So this hurt, but I got it done...

Umm...not have piriformis syndrome start up a couple of weeks before the race? Probably that means doing more strength and stretching work throughout training-- I meant to, but once again, they were the first to go, sigh. They're top of my list for the off-season for sure. One other thing: RIDE MORE OUTSIDE. More confidence in bike handling would have enabled me to go faster in some spots for sure, especially when things got crowded.

OMG, was I glad to be off of what felt like a medieval torture device! Got my bike racked, another portapotty break, then onto the run course-- walked to the start of the course to get my legs under me, then started running.

Not much, really-- maybe running through T2, but it was a bit of a maze to get through ALL the racks of bikes (they do all the distances on the same day at the Esprit) and I wanted to get my legs under me and make sure I didn't run into anyone else.

This, like the swim, felt really consistent-- I did a solid run/walk as I'd planned, and after a while did the walk breaks by how my muscles felt, since as time went on my legs got tired more quickly than my HR could spike. But I also ended up passing several people who'd gone out running quickly and ended up trudging-- my "smooth and strong, all day long" mantra definitely worked! :) Like last year, my sister and brother met me at the earliest part of the spectator area and walked with me for a while, which was always something to look forward to. Plus, it was great fun to RUN through the loop/finishing area every time and hear the amazing spectators cheer-- they really were fabulous. :) Walked much of the last loop, not all, and ran the final stretch, of course... And who should I find there, after the medal-giving and congratulations? #69-- a lovely fellow named Larry, clearly a good friend of the organizers, who was standing there chatting to them when I ran in. Really fantastic to finish strong rather than injured this time. :)

Honestly, given the anemia and all that jazz, nothing-- I was really pleased with how strong and consistent this felt. My siblings kept track of splits and said that I was rock-solid in my consistency going around, which I'll happily take at the end of a long day.

Walked a bit through the finishing area, then walked with my sister back to the car to claim my bike-- they had someone watching over transition who'd happily let people pack up race stuff, but no bikes left without a racer's number being shown! So I assured him that this one was mine, and was amazed to see the number of bikes still in transition while we finished packing the car. Happily, this time I could help pack-- last year that wasn't happening with the injuries.


Anemia, for sure, though it affected me less on the day than I thought it would-- but it certainly shaped my training. Piriformis syndrome was a serious pain on the day.


I'm a huge fan of this race, particularly at the IM distance: small, local, hugely friendly, and really ideal for spectator participation. The weather was perfect-- a mix of sun, mostly cloudy, and a few sprinkles, but nice and cool throughout. Very glad to be taking a break from the IM training for a while, but equally happy to be doing so on the heels of a performance I was pleased with!