this was my first olympic and i knew the swim would post the biggest challenge. i thought i had prepared though, but clearly it wasn't enough. i felt great in warm up in the shallows, but as soon as we got to the start my heart started racing. gun went off, tried to freestyle, made it about 40 meters and panicked. i couldn't find my rhythm and was immediately looking for the canoes to come get me. i knew I couldn't do it. something else clicked then and i decided since it wasn't going to be the perfect race to just have fun and finish. i started doing the side stroke, but that got tiring and annoying because my back was to the buoys and i couldn't really see where i was going. i finally did the backstroke for about 75% of the course. obviously got passed, but i felt good and calm. overall, i was happy that i stuck it out. and shocked that my time was as good as it was considering.

i trained ALOT for this swim so i was a little disappointed, i guess the only thing left is to just try to find more open water to train in.

had about a minutes worth of trouble getting clipped in. no biggy since i'm not going to win.

just keep a cool head, and maybe have a better swim experience leading up to it:)

i took off 11 minutes from when i did this course last week. i felt good. i kept telling myself, though, not to forget to look around and enjoy it. it is a beautiful area.

hill training

i felt like i kept it slow and controlled. i don't have a good history of keeping my ankles in one piece on the trails. i made it through the first of a two lap course feeling good. i then proceed to roll my ankle pretty badly about half way through the second lap. i hobbled for about a quarter mile and it just got numb so i was able to continue. my shoe being tied too tight actually helped here. i was able to resume pace and finished with my second lap only a second shorter than my first.

not twist my ankle

I'm supposed to warm down?


the swim


the post race party was at the Biltmore Grill in Charlottesville. Free blue moon pitchers!!! woo hoo!! that was nice. There weren't alot of people there, though. It isn't near the event sight, and being a sunday alot of people just want to get home. while i thoroughly enjoyed my beer, i think it would be much nicer to skip the beer cost and get medals. this is the only race i have been to where there were none.