Was a little frightened by a swim of this length to begin with - probably what kept me up the night before. I did two things wrong I think:
1) Did not fix on a shoreside object to help me keep oriented. I ended up taking the first turnwide and had to double back to get on track again.

2)Took a solid breast stroke kick to the right temple at the turn as people bunched up and I got completely disoriented, throbbing headache. This was the worst I've ever felt in the water - it took my cap and goggles off. It took everything I could to finish. I think the adrenaline carried me through.


1) Need to walk the course the day of or night before. RGRBill and OLDAG92 had the right idea.

2) Practice more open water swimming.

I literally took a minute in T1 to collect myself. My head was throbbing and I was still not quite right when I got on the bike.

Bought a pair of Tri shorts TODAY. Will practice with them. I spent all of 2 minutes changing into my cycling jersey and shorts. Some people came in and out before I had even finished changing my shorts.

Started off in a nice high cadence - was making 85+, but didn't pace myself - tried to keep my gear ratio too high on the flats and my cadence (and eventual speed suffered). Headache was still pounding in my skull and whenever I got my HR up, it got worse. So, I'd back off - and with my gearing too high, I wasn't making any sort of speed.

Saw where a few cyclists got caught in the concrete seams at the turn - fortunately I did not get my wheel caught.

Should have backed off my gearing instead of trying to kill it when I had the wind with me. Did not ride smart - should have spun more instead of getting mad at myself and trying to muscle a higher gear.

Was disoriented from the ride - seriously thought about stopping and getting my head checked. Took another full minute to change. I knew I was not right because I was making stupid mistakes - putting on shoes before shorts and other BS - ugh.

Make an offering to the humidity gods to be gentle on me at my next triathlon.

All my running work - my dreams of maintaining a 12 min/mile pace - gone - I was a wreck and happy to just finish strong.

Should have encouraged the 14 year old little girl I passed (the ONLY person I passed on the run). I felt bad for her - she was jogging and crying at one point on the course.

Got to meet everyone at the finish line - Tiger Phil, RGRBill, Oldag92, Freeswimmingfish, Louis Velasquez and Cmikul. Got a tepid hug from my girlfriend as I was so sweaty and tried to stretch out a little as I started to cramp IMMEDIATELY after the run.

Thanks guys for cheering me on at the back of the pack!


Wear a helmet when I swim next time.

Shoudl do more brick work. I did not do one between tri's. Also need to do some weight lifting - felt very weak in my upper body.


Good course - I felt safe on the course and there were plenty of volunteers. Oh - yeah, on the run course a rain ditch had the BEWARE ALLIGATORS sign... Had I known that ahead of time, I might have swum faster. No ant attacks. Bike course could have used a sign about the concrete seams - might have saved 3 or 4 people from going down.
Overall though - a good fun course.