This was my first pool swim in a race, and my first swim at a reverse tri. I remembered to put my goggles on as I was running to the pool, but when I got there I didn't know how to enter. So I just kind jumped in feet first and started to swim without kicking off the wall. I think I probably should have dove in. First 50 felt fine, and it was actually refreshing to be cooled off a little in the water. However, I slowed quite a bit after than as my form deteriorated quickly. Also, I didn't quite know how to duck under the lane lines, but I got better at this with each one. One guy was behind me the whole swim, and I was carefully to swim to once side of the lane so he could pass me if he wanted. I didn't quite know the etiquette here, but I thought I'd be nice. He hit my feet a couple of times with his hands, but he never passed.

I banged my knee pretty good getting out of the pool, and it's still a little sore today, but I'll be fine. Overall, pretty good swim.

Dive in, and swim a lot harder given it was only 200 yards.

This was a transition from run to bike. Pulled off my visor, put on my helmet and I was off. This was bar far my fastest transition ever. Simplicity is the key. This was the first time I tried putting my shoes while moving on the bike. I practiced this for about 30 minutes the day before, and it wasn't as hard as I thought. No real problems on race day. I will keep doing this now!

Nothing

I pushed hard most of the way, but I definitely slowed down a lot on every corner/turn as the roads were slick. There were a lot of turns on the course so I think this brought down my average some, maybe 1 mph, due to having to slow down and then speed back up at every turn. I passed one woman after about a mile, and I was 4-5 lengths behind one guy for the first 5-6 miles, but then he started to pull away. Unfortunately, I could stay with him as I just don't have short-course speed yet. But I haven't been focusing on it, so I'm not worried.

Overall, pretty good bike for me.

Do more zone 4-5 intevals in practice so I can know what it's like to go fast and have my HR above my LTHR for extend periods.

This was the bike to swim transition. Took off my helmet, shirt, HRM strap, shoes, socks, and grabbed my goggles. I probably could have saved 10 seconds or so by going shirt-less and sock-less. Maybe next time, but this was still another fast transition for me

Man, this was the toughest part for me. We started out at a blistering pace, and my perceived exertion was really high. In some ways, running after the bike is nice b/c you're all nice and warmed up. But here, it's just like a 5K. I tried to warm up a fair amount before hand, but I was not prepared to run as hard as we did at the start. This was my first non-trail race since December and I felt it! I was hurting the whole way, and I was getting passed occasionally too which didn't help my psyche! I started to feel a little better after about 2 miles and I got sufficiently warmed up. It takes me a while I guess.

This time is about a minute slower than my PR time so I'm pretty happy with the result considering I haven't done much speed work in training. I forget how hard and intense these short races are!

Practice more at higher intensities. Do more track workouts.

Hung out and talked with a few racers including Coby and Dana Bullard, the winners. Drank my recovery smoothie, ate a bagel and some cookies, and waited for results to be posted.

I was quite happy to learn I got 1st out of 23 in M30-39, and 5 out of 89 overall. This was my first time to get 1st in my AG in a triathlon, and my best percentage (top 6%) finish overall in any race! Needless to say, this was just the perfect way to get pumped up for Alcatraz on Sunday.

Also, I figured out that this was my first triathlon since my Ironman in Sept of last year. It had been 8 months since I had done a tri, and it felt SO GOOD to get body marked again!


Great race, and it was so close to my house. It took my 5 minutes to drive to the start. How could I NOT do this race!?