water was nice and warm and the waves were next to nothing. i was able to freestyle it without many run ins and only side stroked to get away from the current pulling me into the buoys.

nothing really, i was happy with this time.

it was a long way up the beach and the steps across the board walk to the transition area. i did stop to get the sand off my feet at the little shower. there was no line so it didn't really add too much time.

i need to get into my bike shoes faster. they are mtn bike shoes with three straps and no matter what i do they are closed by the time i get there to put them on. i did run with my bike though so that was good. a little trouble getting in the first pedal but the third try was a charm!

i thought i had a sign on back that said "talk to me". it was such a friendly crowd and everyone was so chatty, "i like your bike" "you are doing great" "don't ya just love long branch" and one doofus said "you left you swim googles on" which i hadn't but i believed him for about a half mile! the majority of the time i was doing 18 mph, but the dang course loops around neighborhoods and the turns kill me, i'm a spaz and slow down WAY too much.

turn better

i need to practice stopping and unclipping more. again the guy was like "you could still go" but there was a bit of a bottle neck jammed with people on the way in so i stopped short and ran it in. i did good again with the yanks but then realized i forgot to take my sports beans on the bike, guess i need to work on that too.

unclip with a little more grace!

so do we need to talk about this? my legs were rubbery. i took my sports beans at the beginning of the run and got my i-pod on some good tunes. i PASSED NO ONE! but was passed by that friend who was doing her first tri, so happy for her and so inspired to do better! high fived nora, mary and cousin christina all at different points along the route. with about a 1/4 mile to go i see a blue tri suit and white visor over my left shoulder and knew it was mary. so i said "i know you are there and if you need to pass go ahead" she said "don't let me pass you" so i kicked it up a bit then we agreed that we would cross together and if the picture turned out good we would both use it for our new BT avatar (sounds like a lot of talking but you know sisters, we didn't need all that many words to get our point across) so we both hauled a$$ to the finish line and crossed together. so cool!

i guess i need to write yet again that i need to train more for the run and more bike/run bricks. now maybe this time i will listen to myself and do it!

waiting for nora and brian and chatting again with the usual suspects


my run, my stinking nemesis the RUN!


again with the self serve drink stations on the run! i skip them because i just don't want the added time. but other than that it was again a great race!