This was a self seeded swim so men and women mixed together and went off where they were most comfortable. about 30 swimmers at a time waded down the steep beach into the surprisingly cold water. As I mentioned the buoys were black and in the flat light you could barely see them from the shore! I knew sighting would be tough. Being a marginal swimmer I chose to be at the back but when we were ushered into the water, I ran down ahead of my group and jumped right in. the first 100 yards were tough as i had not warmed up and my goggles were full of water. I could barely make out the buoy and just followed the pink caps ahead of me, which of course was not easy since no one else could see the buoy. I made it fairly straight to the first left cleared the water out of my goggles and said to myself, you trained for this, swim hard. At about the halfway point my training took over and I really got into a good rhythm, I was passing people left and right and for the first time I was also drafting well, though I would then pass the person. Really I couldn't see anything but pink caps in front of me so I'm sure I swam about 100 extra yards but did make the sharp turn around the down-leg buoy and was on my way back to the beach. One more left then a quick right and I was passing blue caps from the mega-sprint who started 5 minutes in front of me then up the sand. D had my flip flops and I ran the long run to transition in them, saving my feet. Easily my best swim in years. Never touched another swimmer too!

Nothing

It was a long run to the trans area so that took about a minute or more. then I got my foot stuck in the wetsuit and had trouble with my socks. The stressout guy I mentioned earlier was there siting on the ground trying to get out of his wetsuit when I got to the rack and when I left. felt bad.

not much maybe get a new wetsuit that hasn't shrunk.

I hoped to get under 45 here as my bike training was strong but this was a technical course with a lot of ups and down and I really didn't know how my legs would feel if I pushed it. I chose my road bike instead of the time trial bike b/c I worried that wet pavement would be too dangerous for aero. turns out I was wrong there. Plus I did not scout the course and wasn't ready for the steep hills. In just my tri suit when I hoped on it was freezing! I passed a bunch of folks right off the bat then started to catch up to riders at my pace. The first time on the big hill my gears were slipping (memo to self, get the darn thing tuned up!) so I stayed in my big ring, not wanting to drop my chain and inched up the hill. The course took us off the bike path and onto Eastbluff more uphill then a really nice downhill, turning at Jamboree then back to the mountain to the sea trail. After I finished the first loop in 23 I thought I could do the second in 22 but that damn hill slowed me down to a crawl and I couldn't get into the cadence i wanted to on the fat part of the course b/c there were too many riders to pass and now runners on the waterside of the road. No one did pass me and I passed at least 20 riders, which felt good.

Ride a tuned bike, know the course, push harder at the start, trust my training.

decent T2 I can get this down to close to a minute in the future.

nothing

My legs felt fine, thanks to the brick work and my good runs. I took it out rather modestly not knowing what I would feel like. After the first lap I saw 10 runners in front of me that I wanted to pass so I hunted them down. about 75 meters from the finish there was no one behind or in front of me but I sprinted in. I could have run harder the whole way and taken a minute or so off my time, but was really too tentative the first loop. Felt very good to finish and I smiled.

Run harder to start, know my pace better, speed up and settled into a race pace rhythm.

Found D got a banana, then another one. Buzzed a little from my finish esp. after I saw that I was first gathered my stuff and took it back to the room then came back for the medals. Won a gift card with Tri Labs and a coupon for a good Mexican restaurant, my first prizes ever!


Black buoys on a cloudy dark day in the water.


The course is a great location, but the organization sucked. There were very few knowledgeable people on the course saying turn here, first loop, etc. There were almost no signs at all on the course either and of course the buoys were black and invisible during the swim. The CD was a jerk and D said that he yelled at many racers who just didn't know what they were supposed to do. Lots of volunteers just standing around instead of giving directions. On the flip side winning my AG was excellent and it gave me the confidence to take it to the next level in 2018 where I will tackle a half IM and more Oly courses. Plus, my knee never hurt and my swim was actually kind of fun. SO . . . good race for me overall, plus D was there and I met a couple of really cool AG racers.