1:50 seconds slower than last year. Two reasons, very little swim training this year, and I did NOT wear a wetsuit this year as I did last year. Lesson learned, wear the suit if it's legal, as it would have shaved some time off, I'm sure of it.

Got swam over several times as I made the stupid mistake of starting in the middle of everyone. One guy next to me was really bad, constantly doing 90° turns onto me. Finally I just back floated for a while, calmed down, and let the two guys pass me.

Really narrow swim for the number of people going through it. Would be nice to widen it, but the lake size may hinder this option.

Also orange swim caps, orange buoy. Need I say more? Otherwise I did swim pretty dang straight. Just followed all the other orange caps in front of me.

Line up on the outside. Wear a wet suit.

Not allowed to run in TA. Obviously some people did as I looked at their times and there is no way you could walk through the TA in the the time they had for Transition. As a result of walking my TA time was even slower than last year when I removed my wetsuit. Have to rate as below average as I took longer this year than last year. Not sure what went wrong for me.

Run and break the rules? No, I wouldn't. Not sure what to do differently here. I was distracted by the guy next to me (who was even slower) and this may have slowed me down. Otherwise it seems to go well.

The bike went really well. I shaved 3 minutes off last year's time on the bike leg. But this year I was on the tri bike - which probably helped. My retainer didn't pop off the back of my teeth this year, and I was able to drink while on the bike. All pluses for this year's race.

Cornering got tricky as the other participants started to enter the bike leg. Had to wait in line to turn and pass, which resulted in extra breaking than I would have liked.

I was having so much fun on the downhills, uphills always suck, but I can cruise on the downs. Still need to download my Garmin and see just how fast and slow I went.

Only road the tri bike one time off the trainer before the race. Perhaps next time I'll ride it a couple more times off the trainer before the race.

Can't run with bike in the TA. I tried to get my feet out of my shoes before entering the dismount area, but my shoes snapped off the pedals, so I just left my shoes on and unsnapped them.

2 seconds faster than previous year.

Tighten the pedals so my shoes don't unsnap so easily next time.

Ok, I didn't think I would run slower than last year. But I did. I.Was.Slow. I was so slow. I got passed by one gal, who I recognized as doing really well the previous year - she might have won, or at least top 3 last year. Knew there was no way I could keep up with her, so I kind of plodded along. Saw no other women on the course to push me. Kept looking behind me and there was no one, so I just kept plodding. I did pass one gal. We exchanged words on how much we hate running.

I forgot about the later wave when running. Had I thought about that I might have been pushed to run faster, but I really slacked off thinking I had it in the bag.

Remember there is another wave and even though there are no other women around me, they can still beat me.

I drank a big ol' bottle of Gatorade and put an ice towel around my neck/head.


Not enough people in front of my to push me to try and beat/pass them. I can't motivate myself very well. I need others to stay fully motivated.


I enjoyed this course more than the previous year, but it was cooler this year and that probably played a big role in my enjoyment. Plus the hills didn't seem nearly as bad this year - mostly because I was expecting them this time around.

So many snacks available post race, more than the participants could eat.