Not forget my goggles. Swim more. Practice in open salt water more.

Consider a wet suit, although I wonder if any speed I gained in the swim would be lost trying to remove the wet suit.

Well I didn't take my suit off because, hey, its a sprint tri. I thought I had dried off pretty well until I tried to put my dri-fit shirt on. I promptly got it rolled up into a ball between my shoulder blades and I couldn't dislodge it. After jumping around for like 2 or 3 minutes I had to ask someone to help me. My shoes went on great. I was ready to go.

Put my shoes on first. Put my shirt on second. Dry off better. I was really doing good until that shirt messed me up.

The road was a bit pocked but it was an easy course so I am not complaining. The swim kinda pooped me out a bit and I was slow on the hills. I used my MP3 player even though they were being really strict. I figured that I am not in any kind of group of riders, I have a rear-view mirror and I keep the volume low. I did hide it on the way in though.

Calm down at the beginning. Take the first mile to maybe chill a bit and relax.

Well here is where things went a bit awry. I know that you run out the opposite end of where you bike in. I somehow forgot this though and ran out where I biked in. Being close to last no one else was running out so I didn't see other runners to follow. Also, no volunteers were there to point me in the right direction. The transition wasn't entirely clear but I should have known this. In the future I will add checking out the transition area thoroughly to my pre-race overview.

Run out the right rabbit hole. Other than that I did really good on this transition. I hope the results don't show me as having a 50 minute transition but I bet they will.

One of the nice things about being at the end is that all the people coming back as I am running out say encouraging things. 22 people encouraged me today just on the run. Very nice.

One old bat who was running in and was probably 1.5 miles ahead of me felt the need to inform me that my headset wasn't allowed. I told her everything was going to be okay. I am probably 5th or 6th to last, there is no one around me for MILES either on the bike or the run. I keep the volume low enough that I can hear myself breathing, I can hear someone's normal voice from at least 5 feet away and I can hear traffic. If they penalize me 2 minutes or 5 minutes I really don't care because I AM NOT GOING TO WIN. I just wonder why she felt the need to try and police me in the middle of the race when I am so far behind her that I am irrelevant to her. Maybe she wishes she was wearing her own MP3 player. Wearing mine increases my enjoyment at least 50%.

Bring my running shoes.

Buy that old lady an MP3 player.

Starbuck's iced venti sugar free vanilla soy latte with a Rice Krispie treat.


Training, not paying attention in the transition, being too wet to put my shirt on.


Again, I wish the organizers would try to take care of us back of the pack people a bit better. I will say that this race did have all of their volunteers still out on the bike course and the run was very clear and easy. I just had a brain collapse in the transition and wish someone could have pointed it out to me. Oh well, it just makes me look like I ran my race at a minute faster than normal pace.

I am really happy and I will do this race again.