This was my first OWS triathlon, and nothing can prepare you for dealing with a bunch of overcompetitive 20somethings crawling over you. I tried to stay to the outside but my spotting sucks and I ended up on the inside of the lane. 500 yards isn't really enough to separate people out either, so I was getting hit for most of the swim. It doesn't help that I'm still not comfortable in the open water, and a couple times I had to turn onto my back and just kick to calm down. I was swimming too hard(partly because I didn't know who was about to crawl over me or who I was about to crawl over) and couldn't navigate well at all. Just a bad performance, though my time was reasonably good, all things considered.

Stay to the outside, try to keep a straighter line. Throw more elbows than I receive.

I could have been faster obviously, but the swim left me shaken so I was trying to calm myself down and I took my time as a result. Transitions aren't really an area I push myself on too much anyway(I still have plenty of time I can save elsewhere) so this wasn't a big deal.

Bring a towel. I left the towel in the car because it was raining when we went to the setup(so having a towel seemed pointless) but by the time the race started the rain had stopped so it would have been nice drying off my feet before I put my socks on.

Sweet Jebus, where did that pace come from? I was hoping for 17mph+ and ended up over 20. I don't think that race was a full 18 miles either, because my average on my bike was 19.3(which is still great, but not 20+). I started slowing down towards the end of the 2nd lap because I knew the run was coming up, but pushed pretty hard otherwise. I even got the "leaving your shoes clipped in and jumping off the bike" thing to work this time, which may not have saved me an ounce of time but made me feel like a real triathlete. ;)

Nothing comes to mind. The ride really went about as well as I could have hoped.

Good transition, very quick. No complaints.

Dry socks would have been nice.

The run went reasonably well; I wish I had run a little faster early on but I finished really strong(probably did a sub-7 minute/mile for the last 1/4 mile, wheee 2nd wind) and aside from having to retie my shoes a couple times things went pretty well. It was a nice course, a paved trail through a wooded area that was very scenic. There were a lot of people on the trail but it was wide enough that I never really felt squeezed.

Double-knot my shoes.

1) The weather. I was a little hesitant in some spots because of the water on the ground. This was mainly in the bike section of course.
2) Anxiety. I'm not sure I'll ever be completely comfortable in open water(due to a longstanding fear of it since I was a child, thank you Steven Spielberg) and I was gasping for air on my swim for most of the course. I need to learn to settle down.


I didn't miss the sprint turnaround but I heard more than a couple people did. It was easy to miss if you weren't looking, maybe they could mark it better next time. Also the bike racks weren't very organized. I'm probably spoiled by Ironhead and their OCD tendencies, but setting up the racks organized by your bib number is a nice touch. I'm giving it a 3/5 because of the weather, which is obviously completely out of the organizers' control. They did the best they could in the circumstances. If there hadn't been any rain this race would get a 4/5. Tom and crew did a great job dealing with the weather issue, and they held up well when everything could have(literally and figuratively) gone down the drain.