My first OWS in my first triathlon...that was scary enough but then there were the waves! Yikes! I tried to be good and do the freestyle I had been practicing so diligently. No luck...only gills would have helped me. So, I switched to a side stroke. That worked pretty well but it was making my legs tired. So, I switched to, ahem, the back stroke. Oh dear...I hope there aren't any pictures. Anyway, it worked. I got around the buoy and I didn't drown. That was my only goal for the swim portion.

Continue to working on my swimming and try to be more calm in the water. Oh, and try (somehow) to get used to rough water.

The long run out of the water gave me plenty of time to strip off the top part of my wetsuit. I had a little trouble getting the socks on and in buckling my helmet (which is new and somewhat different from the old one). But my overall time in T1 was okay.

Practice drying my feet and putting my socks on (or going without). Practice buckling my new helmet.

This is a tough part to write about. I got about 0.5 miles into the bike ride when I heard a clunk. I looked down and the the left crank arm had come off the bike and was hanging from the bottom of my shoe. I got off the bike, collected whatever pieces I could find, contemplated walking my bike 15 miles, and then just started walking back to the transition area. All I really wanted to do was to finish the race. I found some race volunteers (THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH!!) and they helped me diagnose the problem and locate a tool so I could reattach the crank arm. By the time I had finally gotten my bike back in working order, I was dead last in the bike part and the leaders were starting to come in. Talk about depressing.

Anyway, I did get back on my bike and finish the bike portion (and ultimately the race). I'm taking some solace in the fact that by my watch (and not counting the time spent on the fiasco), I did the race in about 1:30...which was my goal. But, the whole thing was pretty frustrating.

First, learn enough about my bike and bike maintenance so that I don't get derailed by something like this again.

Second, carry a couple of tools with me.

Third, include a pre-ride bike check in my routine.

Fourth, go back to the bike shop where I bought the bike only 4 months ago and find out why this happened. It doesn't seem that a crank arm should just pop-off a nearly new bicycle like that.

The T2 time is completely messed up due to me wandering back into the transition zone trying to fix my bike. I'm confident I can bring that time down next time though!!! :)

My muscles felt pretty good during the first part of the run. The bricks seemed to have helped. My stomach, however, did not feel good. I had a GU and some Gatorade on mile 10 of the bike ride. That only gave my stomach about 16 minutes to deal with it. Apparently that was long enough because I felt like I was running after downing a huge turkey dinner. I felt better by about halfway through the run. My time was okay for me...

Either not eat during the bike ride on a sprint or eat earlier (halfway point maybe).

Sipping water trying to get my stomach to settle down


Broken bike


This was my first tri, so I don't have much of a basis for comparison. But, it seemed to be very well organized and the volunteers were great -- very helpful and very cheerful and encouraging.