Good Swim for me....felt more comfortable than last year. I swam more freestyle and felt pretty good with my performance. I'm slow but I kept moving. I developed a side stitch on the back side of the swim but stretched out my side and swam through it. I spotted the buoys easily and was able to stay on course without too much trouble.

Swim more.

What was I doing for 4 minutes? Need to hustle more out of the water and keep the hustle through out. Felt good getting on shoes, camelbak, helmet and gloves.

Train more with water bottles instead of camelbak..to save transition time.

Good ride. I finally got over the panic that this course causes me...I can comfortably get up each and every hill. I may be slow, but I'll get there. This year I dropped my chain twice up Homewood on the ride out....last year I would have panicked and perhaps given up. This time I put the chain back on and kept going. I hope to continue to work on this course to increase speed.....though my speed on the downhills reached 34 mph...not bad!

Ride lots and maintain mental confidence to get up the hills.

I did pretty well with this since when I arrived at the rack, there was no space for my bike and I couldn't move other bikes over very easily. I racked my bike with my handlebars overlapping another and just got on with transition....it worked fine.

Keep moving...keep moving.

Running is the most difficult for me.....and often I have trouble keeping moving. I did okay, walked more than I would have liked but as I lose weight this should improve. I was encouraged by the sounds of the finish line area....lots of cheers and music to guide me in.

Run more, lose more weight.

Walked around with Jimbo, walked up several more hills to refreshments and back to car to pack up gear. In Columbia...there's always another hill!


Lack of training and weight. While I really wanted to improve my time from last year, I felt good that I beat 3 hours and put in a good race. Training hasn't been as consistent this year but I'm glad that I completed the race. This is a race that when you get to the end you really feel as though you accomplished something big.....

I worked hard during the race...I maxed out on HR at 187 and my average HR was 168. My heart rate monitor says that I burned 3615 calories. I'm not sure its accurate but it feels good nonetheless.


This race is very supportive and encouraging for all levels of athletes...I really felt great running into a finish where everyone was cheering me on by name....a great race and one that I will definitely do again! :)