Struggle in first 200 meters with rhythm and breathing. Actually had thoughts that I couldn't do 1000 meters, but plowed on. Made the turn and was feeling better. Very pleased with rhythm and pace in last 500 meters.

I think that lack of warm up hurt me early. That is an event thing. I know that I am still not efficient in my stroke, so I bought the "Triathlon Swimming Made Easy" by the Total Immersion guy. We'll see how it goes.

Major improvement for me! Swam in Tri top so no changing. Socks on much faster than previous. Skipped gloves to save more time. Not even thinking about having my shoes already on the bike because I don't know if I'm coordinated enough to do that while riding.

Nothing right now except move faster!

I felt really good about the bike segment. Early hills and flater faster around the speedway. Easily my fastest pace so far, although apparently pretty slow comparatively speaking.

KC Multisport folks are trying to talk me into getting a road/triathlon bike instead of my trusty hybrid. I have to decide if there is really that much bang for the buck? Maybe Lance will let me try out his bike so I can compare :-)

Fairly good transition, but I had a problem getting my GPS out of the bag and on my arm, which probably cost me 20 seconds.

run while putting GPS on. run while putting race number on. Don't worry so much about putting everything away just so.

Took longer to get into rhythm after the longer first 2 segments. Ran pretty steady but go hot. Nothing special. Finished strong on the speedway. Just ahead of planned 8:30 pace

Faster, faster, faster!

First year of the Midwest Meltdown. This was my 3rd triathlon and, by far, the longest that I've done. Overall, I am very pleased with my performance, but a little down about where I placed overall. I race for me and not for a place, but it is a little sobering to know that you've worked hard and don't finish even in the top 1/2. Oh Well! This most encouraging thing to me is that "only" 18 minutes separate me and 1st place in my division. I definitely see room for improvement without training 15 hours a week. I am having fun!