The whole swim was a mental battle not to quit. Every time I tried to swim freestyle the wetsuit felt tight on my neck and I started hyperventilating. Drank a lot of lake water. I couldn't deal with the slightly choppy water and panicked at times, resorting to sloppy breaststroke for most of the swim.

Train OWS in the wetsuit prior to the race.
Train in choppy water.

Took my time in T1 to try to get my breathing under control.

Had my Garmin on and when I got on the bike my HR was over 150 and my breathing was still labored. Purposely held back to try to get breathing under control. I was one of the last ones out of the water so didn't see too many other bikes ahead of me. Passed a couple mountain bikes and one guy fixing a flat. Tried to push harder on the second half of the bike and did pass a couple more people. My time was 11 minutes slower than last year.

Not wear the HRM in a race. I was fixated on the HR being too high instead of pushing hard on the bike like I'd planned.

Another slow transition.

Felt pretty good on this run but didn't push it... after my poor swim and bike I figured why bother. Met a girl who works at the hospital and we ran the second half together. She was doing the duathlon. We spotted someone in her age group ahead of us and I helped her to overtake her and move up a spot in her race. Enjoyed the run, wouldn't say I raced it at all.

Do better in the swim and bike, race the run.

Walked around, talked to a couple people I knew, had some food and went home.


The swim. Lack of OW wetsuit training. Paying attention to the numbers on the HRM instead of my body.


I'll be back next year.