First time ever doing a start off the beach. Started a lot slower than everyone else as they continually passed me before the first turn. Started to panic a little bit before this buoy but was able to calm myself down.

Turned after first buoy and was blinded by the sun and the glare off the water. Swam in the direction I thought I was supposed to be going. After a while I could make out the buoy we were heading to. Once I got to this turn it was pretty smooth sailing. Had a few nudges here and there but was able to stay away from a lot of contact.

Possibly have some tinted goggles for races. I really don't have a gear I can crank it up to in the swim either. This probably kept me from keeping up with the lead people in the swim.

Very quick in transition since I didn't use a wetsuit. Once I got my bike I kind of picked up the pace with it so I could have a good time (transition is my strength). Got 7th fastest time for T1 and has me even beating TJ Tollakson!

Nothing really, it went exactly as planned.

Right away my legs felt tired. I was going fast but it felt like I was pushing too hard to go that fast. On the way out I was averaging 24s so I thought for sure we had a tailwind that I would pay for on the way back. The hills were pretty good. I was able to get into a nice gear and pass people on the hills.

When I saw the turnaround up ahead I remembered what happened to me at Bluff Creek so I started to shift down right away. I made a nice turn and realized there wasn't much wind! This was exciting for me because I was able to turn in a terrific time for the bike.

For some reason my legs felt tired almost the whole ride. I'm not sure if this is how I needed them to feel but it seems like they usually don't feel like that.

I made a mistake of swinging over my bike a little too far from the dismount line. They had lots of cones lined up but we had to go past the first cones before we dismounted. I decided I didn't want to sit on my bike anymore and jumped off it a good 30 yards from the dismount line and just ran.

I put on my race belt before my shoes. If I had done it the other way around I could have put the belt on as I was running! Just a minor adjustment.

I got out on the course and looked at my watch and was right at a 6:30 pace. I slowed down right away so that I wouldn't tire before the finish. The run felt comfortable the whole time which really suprised me. I never saw myself running over a 7:00 pace. When I got down to the last mile I really kicked it in and got myself to average about a 6:10 pace to finish up!

My body felt fine coming out of T2 but I slowed down because of previous races. I easily could have held the pace I started with.

At the first aid station I decided to take two cups of water and splash them on myself. I probably should have drank some of that.

I got a massage afterwards!


Slight panic in the swim and worrying about getting too tired on the run.


At packet pick up they told me that they had no medium jackets left even though I had put one on my order form. I'm not sure if they didn't order enough of them or if they gave them out to the late registrants but I think that was bad that they didn't save the right sizes for those who ordered them.