Since the water levels were too low to use the out-and-back route we did last year, the race organizers had us self-seeding by time then jumping basically one at a time off the dam and swimming from there. We swam down to the farthest buoy, then came back and circled a buoy near the dam, then turned around and headed to the swim exit... but about 75 meters of that last stretch were through water no more than 2 feet deep. They estimated this revised course at 650 meters intead of 800... but, then, considering part of it needs to be walked, the whole idea of "splits" is doubly irrelevant!

ANYWAY, I felt like I had a strong swim. I was the second-to-last person to jump off the dam, and passed just a few people in the water. No problems keeping a pretty good stroke where it was deep enough, although it was disconcerting at times to see people walking.

When I got to the shallow section i elected to use my Super Cat(fish) Woman powers and basically advanced with a combination of a shallow swim stroke and pulling myself along by my hands on the rocks. EVERYONE around me was walking by this point in less than 18 inches of water, so just imagine for a moment the sensation of being the only person on your belly on the ground in a place where everyone else is standing up... people were wondering when i was gonna quit. So I eventually stood up and walked over the rest of the rocks with everyone else, but was pleased with my "swim + catfish wriggle" leg overall.

Seed myself about 10th from last instead of 2nd from last. ;)

Pretty normal.

Again, there was a course change: instead of going out on the decent road until JUST PAST that one killer hill then turning around and coming back to do the offshoot along the crummy road that last year featured gravel, cattle guards, and actual CATTLE... they kept the whole thing on the good road. What a novel concept! The only down side... the New & Improved route had more hills.

Again, i was pleased with my effort here even though the speed doesn't look like much. For perspective, only the top 5 men averaged anything over 20 (fastest: 22). It was not a fast course... it seems that at any opportunity to make up some time on a nice downhill, there were signs or even volunteers warning you to slow down for the "sharp curve ahead." On the way out I was MUCH conservative about the so-called "sharp curves," it was a real momentum-killer.

But when I found myself creeping up the hills and wanting to spin out juuuust a little easier, I kept telling myself, "It's not time to rest! Not time to rest!" That became my race mantra. When I passed anyone, it was on uphills. :) Also I stood in the pedals for a few of them, which is not something I had really mastered before the moment this race called for it.

The one really killer hill I remembered from last year, so the sight of it rising ahead like a wall didn't throw me into a panic. But as I pedaled up passing the walkers, I was actually pretty impressed with myself for making it up that baby last year on my hybrid without walking. That took a lot of determination... and oh yeah, prayer! This year I will report that was not actually praying DURING the ascent. :)

I don't know how great a factor underinflated tires were in my slow time. And YES, I was able to reengage the front brake while riding along there, at mile 2 or 3. Who knew?

Inflate the tires. Engage the front brake BEFORE the race. Be a little less conservative about the so-called "sharp curves."

As I pulled into T2 my friend Marcus (who had finished the mini ages before) was there with his big camera. He does wedding photos and stuff, so this was pretty cool, my own personal photographer. He ran along snapping pictures of me through T2 and out. And of course I'm yelling at him, "how was your race?" and stuff like that.

I had opened a Clif bar before the race planning to eat some of it at T2. Bad idea. The ants enjoyed it. I was hungry, so lost a few seconds rooting through my bag for my baggie full of craisins - stuffed 'em in the shoulder of my tri suit, carried a throwaway water bottle, threw out the Clif bar, and trotted out.... with my cycling gloves on. oops.

Not leave open snacks in transition area.

Remove gloves.

Get some Yankz or Speedlaces.

(Throwing out the Clif bar took extra time but was necessary in order to break up the Ant-apalooza at that point.)

Soon into the run I stuffed my bike gloves into the OTHER shoulder of my trisuit, must have looked like I had a weird front-of-the-shoulders deformity.

I was slow at this point, just a-puttering along. Never had to walk, but never really sped up either.

Drank water from the bottle in my hand until I threw it away. Drank water from aid stations after that. They had no sports drink. Occasionally attempted to eat my craisins. Felt hungry. Eventually carried the gloves in my hands rather than wear them like a reverse hunch.

One woman was determined to pass me, I heard her coming and kept her beside or just behind me for about a mile... but when she passed, that was it, i wasn't going to see her again.

Carry Gu. The baggie must have been open one of the times I put the craisins back in my trisuit... which I discovered when I was changing later -- with those little bits of sweetened dried fruit plus crusting gobs of river mud and various aquatic weeds all stuck my chest, I sure felt like a winner.

And run faster. That would be good too.

Had a good time with Marcus, Kimberly and Frank. Marcus took 2nd in his AG for the mini, pretty impressive for his 2nd tri. Ate stuff. Went out to lunch.


I didn't train much for this one and was pretty disorganized - probably because Eka and I changed the travel plans at the last minute, and I never really got my head together.

Other than that, maybe the underinflated tires.


This is a laid-back local type of race in a pretty venue. It is not exceptionally well-organized... but it's on a SATURDAY, which means I'll probably do it again.

Here's a cheesy upside to doing a race without sponsors: the shirt looks pretty good, no field of logos on the back. There's year's is a cute blue-and-blue ringer type of T-shirt, which I can actually wear in Real Life it it shrinks enough.