OMG!!!! I've only done one ocean swim race before and then the water was flat as a pancake. Today, we were in the middle of several days of rain. We caught a break and it wasn't raining, but the storm had the waves about 1-1/2 to 2 feet tall. It was CRAZY! I totally panicked about 100 m out because I kept swallowing water, found it hard to breathe, and even struggled breast stroking which is my go-to stroke to catch my breath.

The problem was timing the waves. The waves were coming so fast that I couldn't quite catch my breath doing free-style and often breast-stroking.

I started praying from the beginning and give God credit for getting through it, especially that panic point. People were taking breaks and I took about 4-5 seconds to rest on a wave-runner that was taking someone back to shore (DNF). I'm not judging. I was strongly considering it myself.

My siting was terrible. I got off course several times, enough so that I had kayak support coming after me to steer me back on course.

Going out was straight into the waves and absolutely crazy. Once I got 200 m out and swam parallel to the shore, it got way better. I was parallel to the waves, for the most part and could time my breathing way better.

Once I started back to shore is when I really got off track because the tide was coming in about 35 degrees to the shore and it kept taking me wide. But, I was able to time my breathing way better.

Finally I got to where I could stand in chest high water and exclaimed, "Thank you Lord Jesus!!"

practice more in the ocean to learn to deal with at least normal waves.

So, transition was the next crazy thing. It was in a field and with all the rain lately, it turned into a mud pit. It had standing water in parts of it. I was fortunate that my spot wasn't that bad

T1 was fine. The only drawback is that after running out with my bike, my feet were muddy. So I do a flying mount only to put muddy feet in my nice bike shoes. It was kinda nasty.

Nothing. It 'was what it was'.

If there's a bright spot to the race, the bike is it. We had a tailwind early on and I was able to average about 18-19. I had a 4-5 mile stretch that was into the wind and only averaged about 15.5, but had a nice straight shot back in the last 5 miles. It had a crosswind and I averaged about 17. Overall, it was a good bike for me.

A light rain started early on the bike - really just sprinkling, nothing to hinder the actual bike - and kept coming back every few minutes.

Nothing

T2 went smoothly. No issues.

Nothing.

The taxing swim really showed up on the run. The sun came out and it warmed up. Which is tough, but overall, there was nothing special about the run. I gutted it out. They had good water support on the run course. I drank a bit too much and on the last mile could feel it.

Nothing

I had a very hard time cooling off. I drank water but felt light-headed for about 25 minutes and thought I might pass out. A friend helped get me a soda which really helped settle my stomach down, along with a breakfast taco. I think it was swallowing too much salt water that set it off.


Myself. :-D


This was overall a good race. I'll probably do it again next year. It helps as it's only 20 minutes from my house. There were LOTS of volunteers & good water support.

I had a snafu in registering and found the Race Director not very good to work with. He was very, very apathetic, wouldn't shake my hand and was 'just business'. Pretty sad, really.

My complaints - not enough porta-potty's, no finisher medals for everyone (only award 'bobble heads' for placing), parking was over at the high school when they could have allowed parking at the beach parking lot until it filled up THEN parking at the high school.

Still, overall, it was a pretty good race. My barometer is, "Would I do it again?" Yes, it's a race I'd do again.