Holy crap was this course hard to navigate - what with the sun directly in my eyes on the way out and the stand-in blue goggles as opposed to my preferred metallic ones... plus knowing that I'd have to chart my own path if I wanted to be out front. Luckily there was one other chick and I who battled it out pretty much the whole time. Although she was much more hardcore about it than me. She'd draft into me, kick me and claw me, and then keep thrashing around until she was ahead of me. Lady, fine... it just makes it easier for me to draft... whatever. Luckily there was a kyak that was helping us out by staying a few meters ahead of us so we'd have a nearby spot. Overall, it was a decent swim. Not too cold, but definitely chilly. Getting out of the water was another real treat. The BT'ers who chatted afterwards agreed - I think that some of the volunteers do more harm than good when they grope and yank as if they're trying to save drowning children.

In retrospect, I can say that I'd try to beat the girl who was ahead of me in the swim, but honestly, I'm not sure I would. I was comfortable with my speed and (no) kick, and it was really nice to have someone to pace with, plus the added bonus of a closeby spot. So maybe I'd do nothing?

I got really spoiled with those wetsuit strippers in Galveston. Taking off your own wetsuit SUCKS. It came off alright, I guess, but it did get a little hung up on my heels. Overall, not bad. But what a run from the swim exit to transition. My feet stung from hitting the pavement so much.

I can say be faster at getting my wetsuit off I guess, but I'm not sure how I'd do that without sitting down or getting help (which would probably cost me more time than I'd gain being able to physically get the suit off faster).

Going into this race, I made the decision to really try to hammer the bike since I know it's my weakest link right now. I figured the swim and run have been really strong in races past, so they'd be there for me regardless. My plan did not work. This bike course didn't like me, and I didn't like it. I threw somewhat of a mini-tantrum on the course because I didn't feel like I was going very fast, and I got negative and frustrated. I somewhat snapped out of it, but I'm sure that it affected my performance.

It's no secret that I desperately need to ride more and simply get stronger on the bike. I think that will solve my speed, confidence, and frustration issues. Plus, I feel like I owe it to my bike to be faster. I think she's getting embarrassed. :)

So I ran past my rack - awesome. I managed to somewhat save it, but oh well. I had to put socks on, which slowed me down. I have an existing blister in the exact spot that I usually get rubbed during tri running, so to avoid additional pain, I figured the :10 was worth it. I was right.

In the future, find my rack more accurately and probably not wear socks.

Talk about a negative attitude. I was absolutely huffing and puffing right out of the gate. Apparently tantrums were my thing that day, because I threw another one on the run. You know, the whole full of explitives "Why the F am I doing this? I hate this. This is stupid." thing? Then I got to the hill at the turnaround and lost it. I'm embarrassed to say that I walked up about 15 feet of the hill (feigning a side cramp to somehow make myself feel better about stopping) going through another round of explitive-filled negativity. What a brat I was being. I think during the whole run I just needed an attitude adjustment. Luckily I managed to pull out some better times and effort on the back half, which is likely the only reason my overall pace got salvaged. I made the mistake of letting my mind get the best of me and taking too much stock in what my watch was telling me. I also think I paid the price for pushing the bike a little harder than I'm used to. I see more bricks in my future.

Oh. I got told about this after I crossed the finish line. I apparently totally left the announcer guy hanging when he tried to give me a high-five when I was headed into the chute. THIS WASN'T INTENTIONAL!!!! I swear I thought he was telling me to put my race number to the front, so that's what I did! My friends laughed at me because I "denied" the guy. I felt so bad!!! I didn't mean to!!! :(

Do a better job of keeping myself positive and collected. Also, I definitely need more brick work to prepare myself for the craptastic leg feeling coming off a hard bike. I already have some workouts in mind.

Walk around, talk to friends who came to cheer for me. Drink some Vitamin Water (I love that stuff!) and eat a banana and pita. Later, I got the chance to meet up with a bunch of BT'ers and chat - KSH, JBrashear, JeepFleeb, hosayif, dockshock1964. It was great putting real people with names, and we had good fun watching the kids' races.

I missed the announcement for where the awards were being given, so an hour and a half after the time they were supposed to start, I finally found out that they were being given in the hotel. Great. I went to the car to put all my stuff up only to find that one of my car tires was really getting low. So I decided to skip the awards in favor of getting my car to the nearest NTB for a look-see. Got to the tire place (after driving a good 12 miles on a low tire) for them to tell me that it'd be minimum of 1.5 hour wait. Call me crazy, but I had friends waiting for me for an event we had planned in the afternoon and I know full well how to put the donut on, so I left. I got home, put air in my tire to hopefully hold me over (it was at 20psi, when it should be 44psi - holy crap).

My real warm-down was in the form of participating in the Crawl for Cancer in the afternoon. Suffice to say it was held on lower Greenville and consisted of 9 teammates, 5 bars, 20 pitchers, and free pitchers from 4pm -8pm after the official crawl. This was a simply fantastic idea for post-race warmdown. The evening was topped off by a Taco Cabana glut. At the time, that meal was the best food I've ever eaten, and I inhaled it. The surprisingly great thing is, I feel great today. My shoulders are pretty sore from not warming up properly for my swim, but that's about it - thanks to continued hydration throughout the crawl (I took a few of the tiny Vitamin waters in my purse along with a Cliff bar, like the nerdy athlete I am). I'm sure that nutrition and hydration probably saved me.


Overall lack of leg strength on the bike and somewhat on the run.


Overall a good race with TONS of events going on simultaneously. I was shocked at how well everything seemed to go given that there were so many events going on at once. The volunteers were great and lined the route pointing the way.