Very narrow lanes for first 4 links. Passed two women doing the breast stroke. Their leg kick consumed more than the width of the entire lane. I tapped their ankle like you were suppose to but they did not respond. Very difficult to pass and I was slowed down a lot while I tried to figure out the best way to get by them. A guy then passed me (without the ankle tap-very rude)He pushed the left side of my upper body under just as I was getting a breathe. I inhaled water and choked - it took a few breast strokes to get over that one. Then off I went. It was great the rest of the way.

I have one comment about the end - (I do things by the book and don't like it when corners are cut)- if you are going to use the ladder to exit the pool swim to end, touch, then swim to the ladder. I saw a lot of people who in my mind did not complete the swim.

I know it's how this sport works but it would be nice if they are going to have such narrow lanes they would not allow breast stroke in those lanes. I didn't want to mess anyone up and I wanted to get by really bad. For the rude guy that passed me - TAP ON THE ANKLE (I will kindly move aside).

Next time instead of swimming to the end of the lane and then going under the divider and pushing off, I would swim under the divider as I came to the end and push off in the new lane.

Very light jog out of pool. My head was pounding. Didn't move fast -trying to remember everything I needed to do. I had to find my Ibuprofen which took a little time.

PRACTICE. I'd never done this before and I certainly could get it done faster. I would get a rack closer to the bike start/finish so that I didn't have to run so far with the bike. I would rather run farther out of the swim and on my way to the run start than run with my bike.

Take Ibuprofen before the swim so I didn't have to take the time to find it.

The bike was great. I could of pushed it more but I remember Joe saying not to go too hard because I wouldn't have anything left for the run. I wanted to go more but held back just in case. It was very flat except for the very beginning and end. Weather was awesome. I passed two women and got passed by a few men. Ate my jelly beans which was challenging to get them out of the wrapper - this slowed me down some. I had fun during this leg.

Go harder for sure! I would substitute a gel for the beans because it would be easier.

I walked my bike back to the rack. Once again a reason to rack close to the bike finish.

Rack closer to the bike finish

Started out thinking - how was I going to get through this one? - but I had myself convinced I would have trouble with this one before the race even started because running is not my thing. It actually quickly began to feel pretty good. My legs weren't jello and nothing hurt on my body. I could of pushed it a bit more in the beginning but I was worried about conserving energy. I did not want to walk - and I didn't.

One comment I do have - (due to my "by the book/keep everything fair" personality) - DON"T CUT CORNERS! I saw several people cut the corner where you crossed the road about 1/3 of the way in/out. It certainly would of made a time differece for some, at least 10 seconds, which after looking at the finish times means a lot. Once again, in my mind, some people didn't finish the run leg because they did not run the correct course.

Know the course before hand. I didn't know what might be yet to come so I held back a bit just in case.

Walked around and visited with Joe, Chris, and Phil. Got our stuff packed up and loaded in the truck. We went back to the hotel, cleaned up, and headed to lunch with our friends. I hoped we would get back to the Rec-Plex before everything was over but we didn't.


The fear of the unknown. I had never put all three events together and didn't know what to expect as far as fatique.


I had a lot of fun for my first triathlon. I achieved my goal of finishing without walking on the run and completing it under 2:30. The weather was awesome.