I started in the back of the pack. As soon as the wistle blew, we went running into the water. After just a few hundred yards, I was questioning why I was doing this. I almost talked myself into turning back. But I told myself that I had just gone out too fast. I made myself slow down a bit. I quickly got in a good grove and felt a lot better. I tried to find someone to draft off of, but couldn't find anyone. It was hard for me to site for a couple of reasons. First my goggle started leaking from the beginning, so I had to swim with my right eye shut the entire time. Then the course was counter-clockwise, so the buoys were on my left side (which was weird). Apparently others were having trouble siting too, because I got hit several times by people who seemed to be swimming sideways! I stopped very briefly a couple of times just to get my bearings, but each time I did my calfs would cramp up. I was worried about that a little because I wasn't sure what it would mean for the bike and run. When I got out of the water, I glanced down at my watch. It said 35 minutes. I was thrilled. That was my goal for this race (after the times from my last race, I had prepared myself to be disappointed).

This was the best open water swim I have had in a race so far, so I wouldn't really do anything different. However, I am still very slow - so I would say swim faster.

My rack was very close to the bike exit/entrance - so it was a fairly long run from the swim finish. I pulled my wetsuit down to my waist as I ran and that went pretty smoothly. When I got to my rack, I pulled the wetsuit off the rest of the way. It got stuck on my heels and that cost me a few seconds. The rest of the transition went fairly smoothly - I put on my shoes and helmet, then stuck my gels in my pockets.

Practice getting the wetsuit off faster.

I ran out of the transition area, got on the bike and I was off. I had a bottle of Accelerade in my aero bottle and a couple of gels in my pockets. There was a water bottle handoff about halfway. I noticed in the first couple of miles that my heart rate was 173. My LT for the bike is 160. I knew I couldn't keep this HR up for the entire ride (if I did, I would lose it on the run). So, I tried to slow a bit to try and let it come down. I wasn't successful for the first half of the ride. There is something about racing - I can't seem to make myself slow down willingly. The hills started almost immediately. I was fine at first. I passed several people during the first half. But then the hills really started to wear me out and my legs started to get tired. My hip started to hurt around the halfway point. By mile 20, all I wanted was to get off the bike.

Need to ride hills a lot more!

I ran my bike back to my rack and reracked it. I took off my helmet and put on my Nike hat. I sat down and took off my bike shoes, then put on my socks and running shoes (I thought 6 miles might be too far to go sockless). Then I grabbed my race number and took off at a run. The transition went smoothly, but I probably could have shaved a few seconds off if I wasn't talking to my husband!

Not talk while racing!

I wanted to run a 8:00 pace. But I wasn't wearing my Garmin so I had no idea how fast I was running. I had to go by feel. I had a little trouble starting out. My legs felt like they were asleep from my knees down. It took a couple of miles before they felt all right again. About the time my legs started to feel better, I felt a blister forming on my little toe. The seam in the toe of my socks was rubbing on my little toe. I thought about stopping and moving the sock, but I didn't. I hate to stop running in a race, so I just kept going. I thought my pace was a bit slower than I wanted, so I tried to pick it up a bit. I was able to keep the faster pace for a while, but I had to slow quite a bit on a couple of bad hills. I did run all the hills though (I passed a lot of people walking the bad hills). The pain I have been having in my right leg lately didn't bother me today, thankfully. I was a bit disappointed in my run time. I was capable of running the 8:00 miles. I am sure that going to hard at the beginning of the bike affected my run time.

Run more hills and pace better on the bike.

I found my husband at the finish line. We walked around a bit and I got in the food line. I grabbed a banana and a bottle of water. There was a chiropractor there, so I went to that tent. But the line was too long for my to want to wait. So once I had cooled down enough, I went to the transition area and packed my stuff. We then walked the half mile back to the car. We drove to the Chinese restaurant up the street from the race site and had lunch. Then we drove home.


This was my first olympic distance triathlon. I was hoping to break 3 hours and I came close to that. Overall, I think it was a successful first oly race. The one thing I do need to work on for next time however, is more hill training. I used to work hills a lot more when I live in the city (hilly neighborhood). But the new neighborhood I live in now is pretty flat. I need to search out some hills!


This was definitely a male dominated race. There were about 700 people competing in this race, but only 174 were women.

I think this was a well run race. I had a great time and will probably come back next year to hopefully improve my times.