I was concerned the first couple hundred of meters as my breathing was too labored. I probably just took it out too fast. By the first turn all breathing was under control, but I was swimming alone and never found any feet to draft off of.

It was a foggy morning and the two buoys were hard to see. They were orange(?), and supposedly there were lights blinking on them. For the most part I just followed people I could see in front of me, and when close the the buoys I sighted off the buoys. Another buoy on the second leg (longer leg) of the triangle would have been nice.

Overall the swim felt good. The only bothersome moment was when my wedding band slipped right off my finger! The ring has been fitting loose for months from losing weight. On occasion I feel it starting to slip off when swimming and have the reaction time to wiggle it back down into place. This time it just flew off without warning!

Note: My official overall swim rank shows #42 of 229, which I'm convinced is not correct. Should be #24 or so. There appears to be a serious error in the timing of the M24-29 and M30-34 (and probably the M12-24) groups, with all getting a 3 minute break due to their clock starting at the next wave (my guess, anyway). I got an email late last night from the race director saying that they were correcting the error.

I need to learn to find feet for drafting. This whole OWS thing is still fairly new to me so I've been concentrating just on the swim. Now I need to concentrating on the draft.

4th of 225!

A thought I had a fairly average transition. I didn't practice, nor was I thinking about transitions before or during the swim. I didn't rush things. I didn't do anything particularly fast. But I was fast compared to everyone else! Part of this had to do with the rough/pebbly transition area. I think an unusual number of people ran with their bike shoes on; I ran barefoot with shoes clipped to the bike.

Practice T1 and mentally prepare for it during the swim.

My first flat tire during a race. Ugh!

I started out feeling quite good, except for that I was wearing my prescription sunglasses which were too dark for the cloudy/rainy day, and they were fogged up for the first mile. My legs were feeling strong, breathing under control. I was passing more people than were passing me. I spinned up hills in easy gears to save for the run, somewhat cautious for the next leg of the triathlon.

All good until about mile 20 or so when the front tire goes flat! I suppose it was my fault since the tire was terribly worn. I bought a replacement tire weeks ago; I just never bothered putting it on... I think this flat was avoidable if I hadn't been so lazy... In any case I lost 10 minutes or so changing the tire (I didn't think to time it) and got passed by tons of riders. I did the repair without my prescription sunglasses (too dark!) and I ended up doing rest of the course without them also. Fortunately I knew the course so riding semi-blind wasn't a problem!

If it indeed took me 10 minutes to stop the tire, that was the difference between hardware or not. I got not!

Make sure the bike is in top shape before a race! Be prepared with my regular glasses next time, just in case.

Terrible transition! I couldn't find my spot! I went up the wrong aisle, twice! Usually I remind myself a few times before the race exactly where I set up. This was a mental lapse.

On top of that, I was just plain slow. I had placed my running socks in a plastic bag to keep them dry, but I couldn't open the zip lock. The socks came on fairly easily, as did the shoes, so all OK in that sense.

Bag the socks and shoes in the same bag when expecting rain. And think about where my spot is!

I started the run all pissed off that my flat put me 10 minutes or so behind all these people I should be beating! My worst discipline is the run so not much chance of making up many places. Fortunately I started the run feeling fairly strong. Not much leg stiffness after the bike. I put my prescription sunglasses in my tri shirt pocket, from which they soon bounced out. Then I just decided to wear them even though they were really not all that necessary.

If there was a silver lining to the run, it was that I was actually passing people. This doesn't happen often! I passed far more people than passed me, but then again I should have already been 10 minutes ahead of them anyway.

While I don't really train or race by heart rate, I found that 160 was a challenging but sustainable pace, going a bit above it toward the end.

Take gel instead of shot blocks on the run. I found the shot blocks hard to chew and swallow while huffing and puffing on the run.

I was quite happy with the run and the results. This was my first 10k in a race so I didn't know what to expect. Very pleased with the pace.

Walk around. Eat. Drink. My 10 year old daughter and her friend volunteered to hand out water bottles at the finish line (the original volunteer couldn't handle the demand), so I hung out there and watched a lot of finishers. The kids didn't get as many "thank yous" as I expected (I'll assume due to exhaustion), though they did get a few big hugs from appreciative finishers!


Note to self for future reference: C race. No taper. Coming off my heaviest training week yet, at the end of my heaviest training month yet, including a 2hr bike yesterday. This was a training race for next month's 70.3. I added this race (my first Oly, though with a short swim) since my first real Oly was cancelled.

I'd like to see how I'll finish an Oly when fully rested.


Parking was an issue because the regular parking was pretty much mud. People were getting stuck. Right now it's about 24 hours from the finish and results are still not posted online... Update: Results now posted online, but I believe with some serious errors. I liked the race, but am a bit frustrated with the delay in posting the results and the errors on the results. The race itself I enjoyed.