Water was 60 degrees, relatively warm for the bay. My wave, the M35-39 group, was the third wave. There were about 65 of us and we were in yellow caps. Started off cleanly, but did get later get hit and hit/kicked others. By the first buoy (250m), I caught up to some blue cap stragglers (M30-34) on their second lap. I settled into an endurance pace. I could hear cheering from the crowd when coming around to start the second lap.

Shortly thereafter, the second wave started. Ugh. I was getting swum over a lot by the fast swimmers in that group. It also meant that it took me almost 15 min. to do one lap. Ugh. I was hoping for a better time than that, but okay. Second lap was straightforward. Some incidental contact. Passed some blue caps again. I did feel my ankle strap with the timing chip flapping a bit. Someone must have whacked it and I was afraid it was going to fall off.

I wasn’t really sure how getting out of the water was going to work, because when we came into the water, there was a submerged platform with 3 steps. Fortunately, there were volunteers who were helping people through that bit. I could hear DW cheering me on and she was doing her paparazzi thing for me. I had to run about 10 rows to get to my row. Passed an aid station on the and grabbed some water. Top of my wetsuit came off no problem, but I did have a problem with my ankle again. I think the trick for next time is to put on the wetsuit on top of the ankle strap and not have the ankle strap below the wetsuit. I swigged some water and headed for the bike exit. We had to run maybe 100 feet after the bike exit before the mount line.

Well, here was a chance to use my new (for me) bike. I hope I made the right choice between using my tri bike instead of my road bike. For the first lap, I just wanted to get my legs warmed up and to make sure I knew how the course went. The course wasn’t yet crowded so that was good. Lots of bumps and already a bit of litter (water bottles, tubular tires, squishy thingie from profile aerobottles) on the course. I passed a few, but always feel like I get blown away on the bike, esp. by those on tri bikes with aero wheelsets, but also just some damn strong cyclists on road bikes. End of the first lap goes uphill to a u-turn turnaround. I was able to stay aero for pretty much the entire lap, didn’t have to brake much, and only got up on the horns towards the end of the short climb. Looking good so far.

Second lap, I wanted to make sure I started my hydration. I brought along one large water bottle of cytomax and I wanted to make sure I finished it by the end of the bike. Course still isn’t too crowded which was good. By the time I was doing the third lap, I had to concentrate to make sure I kept track of which lap I was on. Someone had given me a tip about putting pieces of tape on my handlebars, one for each lap and moving it from one bar to the other each lap, but I forgot to do that. I did see the draft marshall zooming around. I was trying to stay aware of the draft/passing stuff since this was the first race I had been in where this was really going to be enforced (all my other tris were non-USAT and I don’t think they had the manpower to deal with drafting). DW was cheering me one each lap and taking more photos.

By the fourth lap, the course is getting a bit crowded. There was one spot where one of the official photographers was positioned before the turn to go on the stretch uphill. The thing was that since it was before a turn, I was always looking back to see if anyone was coming up on my left before I made the turn. So, I’ll bet that photographer has 6 pictures of me with my head turned away. It’s also interesting with wave starts and loop courses because you’re all travelling on the same course, but with staggered starts, you don’t quite know what lap anyone else is on and how fresh or fatigued they might be relative to yourself.

By the time I hit the sixth lap, I’m relieved. I’m hoping I counted my laps correctly. I’m feeling a bit of fatigue and I’m sure my time slowed a bit on this last lap. By this point, some of the women were out on the course.

After the dismount, had to run the 100 ft or whatever to the transition area. This went quickly and without incident.

Legs had a bit of tightness as expected, but my right shin was really tight and would only gradually loosen up over the first 4 miles. I felt a bit sluggish, but I kept up a good cadence. I started passing a few people, which felt good and in turn was passed by several people. Close to the halfway point of the first (of two) laps, I saw a guy from the Golden Gate tri club stretching walking stretching. He started running again just as I passed. We chatted a bit (since I was also a new member of the GGTC, but don’t yet have any of their clothing) and ran together for awhile. The GGTC was the host club for this race so there were a lot of GGTC volunteers who really cheered on their members. Once his cramp felt better/he ignored the pain, he took off a bit ahead of me.

I finished up the first lap and with only 5K to go in the race, I was feeling pretty good emotionally since the end was coming near and I knew I could handle the run even as fatigued as I was. I started to pick up the pace just a little bit. My shin finally felt loose enough and I started passing more and people. By the time I hit the turnaround, I caught up to and passed the GGTC guy I talked to before. I had a strong “I can do this!” feeling at this point. I picked up the pace just a little bit more and finally hit the home stretch. DW is cheering me on and I give it everything I have and finish strongly.

Final Results
Final time – 2:37:24 (159/650 OA, 22/65 AG, 130/397 Sex)
Swim – 0:29:40 (0:19:46/km, Rank 194)
T1 - 0:02:45
Bike - 1:17:41 (19.1mph, Rank 185)
T2 - 0:01:09
Run - 0:46:09 (0:07:26 min/mi, Rank 197)


Overall, I was pretty happy with my performance. It was my first Oly and the final tri of my season. I was hoping for a 2:40, would have been happier with a 2:35, and ecstatic with a 2:30, but then again, it was my first Oly so I really didn’t know what to expect. I thought I should have been faster on the swim, I thought I was getting smoked on the bike, and thought I did well on the run. It’s weird because based on the rankings, I did best (relative to others that is) on the bike, followed by the swim, and weakest on the run! In reality, the rankings were all close enough in each discipline that I think it says that I’m pretty well rounded and fairly even in each discipline. Regardless, the run was a 10K PR for me by at least 4 or 5 minutes since the only other 10Ks I have run were early in the season this year (one of which was a trail run).


Cool down
2 cups of water at the finish. Ate a perfect zone bar. Stretched. Walked around a bit. Went to the bathroom. Stretched some more.

Post Race
DW and I went to dim sum at Yank Sing back in the city. Yum! I’m sure I looked a bit funny though there in the restaurant with my hands and shoulders marked up with my race number.