The start was a little quicker than I expected, I was still trying to catch my breath from the cool water. I started out slow, knowing I would not have outstanding speed today. My sighting was so-so at best, since I was breathing every other stroke. I also breathe on my left, which makes right turns pretty bad. About 20 yards from the first turn buoy, the sun came up over the hills on my left, which blinded me every time I breathed until I made the turn.
The sun came back into play after the turn to head back to shore. I don't know how anyone without shaded goggles made it back. The sun was right in your face and so damn bright! I really didn't know I had made it to shore until I was there. I told the volunteers to keep yelling at the swim exit to guide us all out. It was that blinding.

Turn the sun off. Practice bilateral breathing again for next season.

Coming out of the water, you had an uphill run about 100 feet, then a break-neck downhill run down a grassy hill, around transition and then in. I ran at first, but let my HR come down a little to get ready for the bike. Even with my rack neighbor's balloon, I still got a little disoriented, but found my bike and started getting gear on. Brushed off grass from my feet, slid on socks, one bike shoe, put foot down....something's not right. Look down and see the toes of my bike shoes pointing out instead of in. Wrong shoe on wrong foot. Nice. Apparently when I set up my transition in the dark, I had them flipped around.
Ran with bike to mount line, got off to the side to avoid mount traffic(learned that from watching Texas Man) and got to speed very quickly. Probably best exit from T1 I've ever had.

Um, go back to the age of 3 and learn how to put my shoes on right?

Good thing I got up to speed coming out of T1, because I sloooooowed down soon after! There was about 50 yards of an uphill, then a turn with a more gradual uphill climb. Not unmanageable, but it's always tough to climb after a 90-degree turn. Most of the course was relatively flat, which was a nice change from my last race. Lots of mountain bikes on the course, so I actually passed people! Yay! There was a minimal headwind heading out, which turned into a awesome tailwind coming in. I know I was averaging 19-20 mph with a few spurts of 25-26 thrown in. Really balanced out the 10 mph on that stupid hill.
I didn't see to many issues with drafting. I was really surprised to see how well the first-timers were keeping to the right. Good thing, because the guys starting coming in and passing us going on their first lap. I really wished more guys would have called out "left", since these guys were passing kinda close. Sometimes I was passing someone and they would pass me at the same time. Just worries me sometimes. I came out of my shoes a little too soon coming into T2, but I didn't want to crash on the downhill while trying to shimmy out my shoes.

Reprogram my brain to want to ride my bike more. Overall, it was a pretty good ride for me.

2nd place in T2, baby!

Nothing.

Headed out of transition, and realized that we were going uphill...a lot. Of course, you can't walk at the beginning. There's just too many spectators watching. I saw Becca coming in looking like crap. Uh oh. I walked some, but surprisingly enough, the legs felt pretty good. After the first mile, I was feeling great and running a whole lot more than walking. I had passed a girl in my AG at about 1/2 mile and just kept thinking about how I didn't want her to pass me. She never did :) Coming back was downhill, so I ran most of the way back, high-fiving Shannon, John, Luke, DavidB along the way. The finish came up pretty quickly around a corner, so I didn't have a chance to really sprint in, not that I would have had a lot left anyway.

More hill training. Attend run class more than once a week and keep up with the runs between classes too.

Found Kylie, Aaron, Haley, Becca, Guy and Chris. Took pictures of the guys coming in and talked about how well-run the race was. Looked around to congratulate Jeanne on her first tri, but she was MIA...sorry!
Ate about half of a tabbouleh wrap. It definitely pays to have a race director from Egypt! Yum!



That whole 3-month taper I've been doing? Yeah, that's it, that's the ticket.


There were a lot of first-timers at this race, so there was a sense of comraderie at this race that I haven't seen in a while. Very well run with what looked like not too many volunteers.
I know I've said I don't want to race anymore, but I think I'll be back next year. Can't really beat a race so close to home. Besides, hanging out with our friends last night and today really makes it all worthwhile. I don't think they'd let me play with them if I stopped racing! :)