I had a decent swim. It was cold putting my face in, but not shockingly so. I swallowed some water - this came back to bite me later. The water at the end is so shallow that I ended up standing up too early.

I should have swam further in. No sense trying to walk over rocks and such when you can just swim it.

This will go down as one of my slowest transitions ever.First of all, you had to run all the way to the other end of transition, and then back to your spot. I passed a lot of people on that run, though. Then, it was so cold that it was imperative that I do a little drying off and putting on of additional clothes. The gloves just did not want to go on, nor did the shoes on already cold feet. I skipped the leg warmers, and was glad I did. I also just went with a bike jacket over sports bra, and was fine with that.

I think I should practice putting on gloves on the bike. That would have saved a LOT of time. I didn't want to do it in the race, because I wasn't sure I would get them on.

Oh man, what to say. Well, first off, this was a race of doing everything wrong in prep. I've never ridden in cold like this, so I had lots of unfamiliar gear. Then, I made the horrible, horrible mistake of eating half of a Clif Mojo bar 45 minutes before race start. I've eaten them on bike rides numerous times, so I figured it was all good. But, I've never eaten them before a swim. Doh! Race start was 4 hours and 45 minutes post breakfast, so I felt like I needed something, but I should have stuck with gel. On the first big hill, about half way up, I suddenly really really needed to puke. It came out of nowhere. I'd had a great start on the bike and was slow but okay on the hill, and then, WHAM. I briefly contemplated just puking off the side of the bike. But, I was going so slowly that I'm sure I would have puked all over myself. So, I got off. I ended up NOT puking (dang I wish I could make myself). But, by then I had to walk the rest of the hill because the last time I tried to clip in and get going on a hill I crashed it. Bah.

Top of the hill comes, and I get back on and I hit the next hill and I'm almost all the way up it and I shift gears and bye bye chain. Arrrggghhh! So, I get off, get up the 10 feet or so left on the hill, put the chain back on, spend a second thinking, "You're a donkey, damn it - get back on that bike" and head off again. There's another big hill between mile 4 and 5. I finally hit my groove there and spun up it fairly comfortably. So, I started making up time and passing people.

Everything was good until I hit the very last big hill. Down shift and drop the chain again. UGH! I've been having some squeaking in a few gears, and I'm now quite sure that something is out of whack. So, when I get back into town I'm going to take it in to get it adjusted.

This was my first race with mechanical issues or GI issues. All things considered, I'm pretty proud of the way I handled it. And, I still beat a bunch of people.

NO solid food before a race.

Get my bike checked out.

My feet were sooooo numb. It was rather challenging to get them shoved into running shoes. I also stripped off the jacket and got a shirt on instead. I can't believe how many people were just casually strolling through transition. It's a race! Run!

Meh. I'm not sure there's much to be done about numb toes.

Holy moly man. I made up ground on the run! That never ever happens. This isn't a personal best 5k, but it's close. I can't wait to see what training for a half does to my running times.

I took one 30 second walk break. Then, I realized I didn't need it. Ah well.

Walked around and waited for Siri to come in. Cheered her on. Found the family. Watched for donkeys - but didn't see any.


The freaking crazy cold, the GI issues, my darn bike failure.


This is a fun race. I'm a little bummed that my time this year was slower. But, the transitions were a big part of it. Well, that and the bike issues.