Woke up at 4 am and left the house at 5 for the hour long drive. Ate blueberry muffin in route.

Tried to time the swim warm up but my wave went much sooner than the other waves. They were giving almost 10 minutes between waves.

Let's call this the big buoy blunder of 2016. I started off strong but so did the waves. I caught sight of the yellow triangle buoy finally and headed straight for it. I realized there was no one near me for a while and I wasn't catching the next group. I stopped and sat up to see where I was. (I wore the full tint goggles on an overcast day). Found out I was in the middle of the swim course headed toward the exact opposite buoy. I figure I went an extra 5-6 minutes based on splits.

Wear my regular non-tint goggles. Be less sure that I'm on the right buoy.

The transition area is in a parking lot with sharp stones. The DAR folks laid out a green carpet run way but it made running through transition difficult.

I was really trying to stay positive knowing I'd already blown the race on my 1 strong leg.

Nothing -

This was my first race to have nutrition. I didn't really practice eating in training because I just don't train much longer than 2 hours at a time. made the whole affair seem like a buffet that I was constantly trying to eat.

train with nutrition so it doesn't feel so awkward. I really want to get faster but I'm not sure what more I should do. Thinking the TT bikes really work well on this course. They went flying by me.

again with the sharp stones. They hurt changing shoes and standing in my spot.

put a towel down to stand on barefoot.

First 10k in the books. I'm equal parts proud of my journey so far and concerned of the distance I will have to travel to get where I want to be. I still swing my arms across my body when I'm tired and bend forward at my waist.

I wish I was faster and stronger. Some day I will be.

Walked around and ate bbq tacos. Overall these olympic distances are a lot harder than I thought they would be. I'll go back to sprints for the rest of the year and I bet I'll do this 1 again next year with a much improved result.

the buoy blunder, my tinted goggles, and my own abilities.

Good Race! The bike is through very rural areas --beautiful this time of year. I didn't care for the bumpy roads. The swag was good but the shirts were misprinted, the bag was misprinted, and my finisher's medal says sprint because they didn't print any Olympics. Despite all that - it was a good course close to DFW.