Making it to the first buoy was easy, other than there was a ton of hitting other people's feet/arms/etc. I was actually kind of laughing to myself at how chaotic it all was, and I was right in the middle of all of it. Rounded the first buoy and that's where the wind & waves were waiting for me. Took a huge gulp of water and that was pretty much the beginning of the end. Waves seemed to be about 18 inches high and I could not swim freestyle and avoid the waves. I couldn't get in to the rythym of the waves. So I breaststroked almost 300m and stopped several times just to breathe. By far the hardest OWS I've ever done. It was so windy and water was so choppy that at least 5 people DNF'd and literally went home right after the swim.

Not much I can do against high waves/wind. More OWS I guess.

I remembered to shift in to the easiest gear before the race this time! But I forgot to un-velcro my shoes. One of these days I'm going to remember to do both!

It started raining while I was on my way out on the bike leg. That didn't bother me. After my abyssmal swim, I wasn't too concerned about doing well overall. But I rode to the best of my ability and turned in a decent time.

It was still raining until the last 1/2 mile or so of the run, so I had no problems keeping cool. I was glad my feet weren't sloshing around in my shoes trying to give me blisters. I pushed harder than I had a week before in my previous race, but I didn't burn myself out. Still waiting on results, but I checked the unofficial results after the race and I PR'd with a 21:34 or so. I haven't ran that fast since I was in high school. It remains to be seen if the course was actually 3.1 miles. I'm going to confirm that today by going out there and checking mileage for myself.

Stretched


The swim portion. Not much I can do to combat waves, but I can definitely still work on my swimming ability.