I held back when our wave entered the water, giving myself plenty of room between swimmers. My only goal was to complete the course with a slow, steady, relaxed stroke. I started out with no problems but the water temp. soon got the best of me and I struggled with breathing. It felt like my lungs were paralyzed. When I rounded the bouy I had to call the lifeguard over and hung onto the surfboard for a couple of minutes to rest and gather my composure. I continued on and by the time I had become acclimated to the water it was time to head for the bike. I was in the last wave so fortunately didn't have to deal with faster swimmers coming up behind me.

Although I have been a lap swimmer for many years this was my first OWS, I should have worn a wetsuit and practiced outdoors before the event. I was confident that the swim would be my strongest event, boy was I ever shocked when my face hit that cold water.

Was a little dizzy when I came out of the water, just tried to concentrate on remembering everything I needed to do and not to fall over when I jumped on my bike. Was still a little preoccupied with my dissapointing swim, found it hard to focus right away, tried to remember my affirmations and switch to a positive mindset.

Jog to the transition area.

I had flown in for this event and rented a bike from a local bikeshop. I've been training on an old Huffy mountain bike, my rental bike was a beautiful carbon road bike. I felt like Cinderella going to the ball. I loved the bike but wasn't familiar enough with changing the gears to use it to it's full potential. I did the best I could with the quick briefing the guys gave me in the shop. Ended up walking up a couple of the steeper hills. By the time I hit the bike course everyone was well ahead of me and I had almost the whole road to myself. Towards the end of my ride some of the Olympic riders started to pass and urge me on, was very encouraging.

Invest in a better bike, train more, and tackle more hills.

By the time I racked up my bike the transition area was completely packed with competitors who had already finished the race and were walking around with barbeque sandwiches. I started to panic as I couldn't even locate the start of the run. The path was completely blocked. I yelled to a volunteer who sent me totally in the wrong direction. I dashed down towards the water only to find I had to run back up the hill and around again to find the starting line.

Learn the exact layout of the course before I started.

I was happy with my time as my goal was to walk/run a 15 min. mile.

Train more, increase my running distance.

Grabbed a banana and guzzled some iced cold water. Passed on the barbeque as I didn't have much of an appetite. Packed up and walked back to the car in the pouring rain.


Lack of conditioning.


This was my first triathlon, my goal was to complete the course and gain some experience, from that perspective I was very happy. The race was well organised and the volunteers were terrific. I didn't drown, fall, or crash my bike, so even though I was 10th from the bottom I consider that a great accomplishment. Can't wait to sign up next year!