Being that this was my first open water swim, I was surprised how mentally bad I felt in the water. When I first stuck my head in the water I couldn't see but 3 feet in front of my face. I felt very claustrophobic and had a hard time for the first 1/3 of the course. As I got used to not being able to see, my swimming did improve. My goggles leaked a lot and I had to stop to empty them multiple times. It didn't help that I was wearing my contacts and I got worried about losing one of them... this didn't help mentally either.

I definitely need to do more open water swimming. I think I am also going to switch from my swimming goggles to a larger aqua sphere type goggle.

Since I lost all my data on my watch I don't know exact times, but I think I was probably there for about 2 minutes.

I'm getting a tri bike on the 10th of july (my bonus) and I'll get tri shoes that can be dedicated to the bike. that should save me plenty of time. I used my road bike and shoes. It did take a little longer to put on my socks and that slowed me. I will train on the tri bike without socks and see how that works. No socks should save me a few seconds. This was my first tri so I'm going to put this as a below average transition because I know I can do better next time regardless.

I need to get a tri bike....

Nothing different. I flew by probably more than 50+ bikers.

My bike rack was close to the start of the run. I got off the bike and ran to my spot. Racked it up and took off my helmet. Shoes came off smoothly and I slipped on my running shoes. The yanks laces worked perfectly. I grabbed a bottle that I left in my running shoe, picked it up and I was off. (yes I had prepared a bottle specially for the run.) I forgot to take my garmin edge from my bike. I was planning on putting it in my tri top back pocket.. but I forgot. :(

Not much.. remember to grab my gps from my bike next time.

I felt like crap for the first 1/2 mile. but after that I felt ok. Didn't push myself because i was following a guy in my age group. (I could see that he was in my age group by his marking on his calf) Anyway he had a good pace so I just followed him then with about 1/2 mi to go I passed him on a small hill and pushed a tiny bit to the finish. I ended up finishing about 17 seconds ahead of him. :) I felt kind of like a dick just following him, then passing near the end... but I guess that's the way it goes.

I have learned that I need to do a few bricks from now on. If I would have felt good/better right off the bike I probably could have improved my time by near 1 minute.

Stretched out and drank plenty of fluids.


I'm a newbie. Next time I'll be much faster.


I'm a newbie and this was my first tri so I don't have many comments on race evaluations.