61 of 95 on the swim. Good swim. Got kicked in the head by someone doing breast stroke, and my goggles filled with water. Just ignored it and kept swimming.

Swim faster. I'm way too slow.

Good transition. I was lucky enough to get assigned an end spot, right next to the bike out path. And this year, transition was set up in the grass, instead of on the gravel, like last year.

Nothing. 1/4 for my age group.

63rd of 95 on the bike. My gears still aren't working. I was pretty much limited to about six gears--the top and bottom one or two on the back cassette, for both the small and big front chain ring. All that money, and it still won't shift! I was afraid my chain was going to come off.

Also, at one point, spectators/families/friends driving from the race start to the race finish blocked the road, forcing us to slow down and preventing participants from being able to pass. This is a big issue! I had to slow down and join the vehicle queue to cross a bridge, which should have been unnecessary as there was plenty of room, but the vehicles were blocking the road. For some reason, these folks didn't think to pull over a bit to the left and share the lane! WTF?!?

Blew my first ever snot rocket!!!

Ran into Wes at Gillette Lake and will have him take a look at my gears. Plus, I need to get faster. There really is no excuse for me coming in last in my age group! Plus, I HATE Clif bars! OMG! Trying to eat a Clif bar during a race is like trying to swallow a mouthful of molasses flavored mud!

Apparently, they didn't track our T2 times, so this is included in the run time. I was really fast, though. I'd say well under a minute. I handed off my bike, was handed my T2 bag, grabbed my visor and number, tossed in my helmet and glasses, and was off. I put my number and visor on as I was running.

Nothing. I rocked it, as always. According to my Garmin, T2 was 35 seconds.

81st of 90 on the run. Ran as fast as I could; really pushed myself. Didn't stop or slow down for water; just kept pushing on. Needed to pee, so I peed myself, instead of making a blue room stop. A younger woman said "I want to be you when I'm 54!" as she ran past me on the trail.

Run faster. I really need to run faster. I need to work on my run endurance.

Dumped water on my shorts to rinse out the pee and hide the pee stain, and then hit the snack line.


I'm just way too slow.


Small-town triathlon in its 26th year. Mostly downhill bike ride, with about a 2700-foot elevation drop (about 1300 feet of climbing in there, too!). Nicely organized, lots of volunteers. They really make sure everyone is safe and have people posted every couple of miles on the bike course to note numbers as we pass so no one gets left behind. Lots of drink stations on the run--about every 3/4 mile. Lots of porta potties at both transitions. This is a very different race in that the transitions are in different places, so they transport all of our stuff from T1 to T2, and then drive us all on school buses back to our vehicles at T1, even taking bikes on the buses, which is fun. This is a great little community race with lots of teams and lots of kids.