I started out ok, but I quickly fell back from the pack. There weren't many in my age group, so there weren't many left to hang with. I had an extreme difficulty finding the first turn buoy. We had the shorter style buoy to look for, and it just seemed non-existent for a long time. A lifeguard raft also drifted in my path to help someone and confused me as well in my quick siting. After the turn, I did find someone to draft off of, and the time passed much more quickly. After the second turn, she veered off course, so I used the finish to site. It seemed to go ok. I also finally got my arms pulling stronger by this point.

My breathing was erratic. Sometimes 2 strokes, sometimes 3. I was just trying to stay calm and not let my HR soar out of recovery. I did whatever seemed comfortable at the time, but I didn't stick only with 2 strokes as that makes me even more off course!

Practice open-water swimming more. There weren't many opportunities this year. Also need to work on "finding still water" better.

Long uphill run to the transition area. Took it slow but did run. I didn't want to get my HR up as there was so much race left! Forgot to have my watch search for the HR strap while I ran, so I had to set that after I got on the bike. Since most of the swimmers came out ahead of me or were men in the earlier wave, my bike was easy to find in the desolate transition area. Good thing, as I hadn't practiced coming to my rack from the far side. The transition was not marked where the swimmers would be coming in, and I guessed wrong. The volunteers didn't know either, as I had asked before the race started.

Good mount and start to the bike.

Set HR on my watch while running to transition.

I rode this course with caution on my speed. I wanted to average 16mph, but I wanted to not push too hard so I had enough left for the run, my biggest concern. I was excited to see I hit 36 mph on a big downhill, though!

For nutrition, I took two water bottles, one accelerade bottle, and one pack of Cliff Blocks. It was more water than needed, but I was happy with all of the choices. I did lose one Cliff Block, though, when it stuck to one I pulled from the bag. It unstuck itself at just the wrong moment and fell to the ground.

I started to feel tired with about 4 miles to go. I was fatigued from the rough road and ready to begin the challenge of the run. I came into transition with a 16.1 mph average, so I was pleased with that. I am sure that was slow compared to others on this course, but I am ok with that. My challenge was to just finish.
When I first got onto the main road out of the park, I felt like I was out there all by myself. There was just no one around, and there wasn't any return traffic either. I started to see more as I past one of the legs the half-iron athletes came out from.

Push just a bit harder now that I know I can finish. It is also harder to keep pushing when there is little traffic. I will try to keep my concentration and speed in tact in those cases.

So glad to see my and Teri's families and as I came to the dismount line. Came off of the bike slowly and walked a few steps. I picked up the pace when Greg hollered to get going!

Lost my rack spot and had to hunt for it. I got the right rack but just couldn't find the spot. It was further down than I had remembered. I switched shoes quickly and grabbed the belt and hat to assemble on the run.

David ran with Alexa to meet me at the run exit, and that was wonderful to see as I was heading out on the hardest part of the race for me. Guess it was good I lost my rack, or they wouldn't have made it around!

Mark my spot with one of those wired flowers if I am in a sea of bikes?

A very good run for me! My pace after the first mile was sub 10:00, but I thought it had been 9:14 as my watch autolapped after 1 mile of transition plus course. That encouraged me to keep going fast, though! Mile 2 seemed noticeably downhill which is also reflected in my pace. The last two miles were slower as my left knee started to ache. It was defintely the deciding factor at that point. It was stiff to bend and prevented me keeping my previous steady-eddy pace. I tried to ignore it for the last half mile to get done. Not to mention, I thought I was almost as either the course was long or my watch measured short. I am thinking it was the former as my watch reads very accurately.

I was very pleased with my performance as I even had energy to run faster to the finish. My knee was problematic, but I still set a PR pace for a race. If you add up the first 3.1 miles, I even raced a 5k PR!

Took a quick pause at each water station and alternated taking water and Accelerade. I also dumped cold water under my hat at the main road water station as the sun was more noticeable out there with no shade relief.
My pace for the 6.4 miles my watch calculated:

dist pace HR cad stride
1.0 09:51 172 84 3ft 2in
1.0 09:27 177 84 3ft 4in
1.0 09:51 175 83 3ft 3in
1.0 09:54 177 83 3ft 2in
1.0 10:19 179 81 3ft 2in
1.0 10:23 180 81 3ft 1in
0.4 09:35 181 81 3ft 5in


Get that knee fixed. :-) Otherwise, nothing. Hopefully pace will continue to drop with more practice.

Walked around, stretched, and deparately searched for water which seemed in short supply at the finish. Grabbed a slice of pizza once I got cool again.


Held back on swim and bike to make sure I could finish the run strong. I could push harder on my next attempt at this distance.


Great venue, with a rolling hill bike course and a partially shaded run course. The roads are a bit rough in some parts, but a very enjoyable event. I thought the volunteers were great, and there was surprisingly little chaos even though 3 different events were going on. They need to really keep the athletes on the left side at that crazy water station, though. Cross traffic occurs once the athletes switch sides. The organizers also need more water at the end of the race, though!!! There were not bottles of anything left, and the water jugs were set well back and unlabeled. I hope they found more before the half-iron finishers came in.