First things first, that swim time above includes T1. Not sure why, but the race times don't separate out the transitions and I didn't bother with a watch, so I have no idea where my swim time ends and T1 begins, but I would guess that the swim was closer to 38min and T1 was maybe two minutes or more.

Oh, the swim... Even though this was my first tri, I felt prepared for the open water swim, since I had watched my friend do the same race last year, am used to open water (I used to body surf a lot) and I'd done a couple open water practice swims in training. So, I was prepared for it mentally. I wasn't even that shocked when the first person swam ON TOP of me to continue in his straight line to... wherever he was headed. I was mentally ready for all of it, but that didn't help with the fact that I'd physically never had to deal with it before. You can swim in open water all you want, unless you can do it with 300 other people and ask them to knock into you, crawl over you and kick at you, you can't really practice enough for an actual race to be zen.

For the first lap I tried to stay far to the outside of group so as to avoid all the body tackling, but in doing so, I found myself going way off course and zigzagging like a drunken butterfly. I found sighting much harder than I expected it to be, and I found finding a rhythm for my breathing really difficult when I kept having to lift my head to sight and then correct my course. I think in the first 750m lap I probably gave myself close to an extra 200 yards of swimming. It certainly felt like it.

The second lap was much better. I was so slow on the first lap that I there were far fewer people where I was for the second. This enabled me to stay close to the buoys without having to fight anyone and sighting became much easier, consequently, breathing and staying in a straight line became much easier. I think (but as I wasn't wearing a watch I have no way to confirm it) that this was a much faster lap than the first.

I came out of the water much more tired that I would have liked. To be honest, I felt like I was fighting for a lot of the swim and it was much more of a struggle than I expected. I definitely need to log more open water hours before the next race, although, without all the crowds, I don't know how helpful that will be.

Definitely log more OWSs, although, it wasn't really the open water that put me off so much as the three hundred other people I had to swim with, and I'm not sure how to simulate that.

I wasn't expecting competitive times this time around. This was my first ever tri and I was just hoping to finish within the time limits of the race. I will train more for any subsequent races and work on getting my times down.

I won't lie, I was tired from the swim and I was taking it easy through T1, trying to make sure I didn't forget anything and focusing on hydrating and getting the salt water out of my mouth. I was in no rush, I was just happy to be out of the water.

Next time I might actually have a bike with bike shoes and clipless pedals etc.

Again, this time includes T2, so I don't know how much time is bike and how much is transition, but again, I would guess that I was about 1:30 in transition. So, bike time is actually 1:35:22. Maybe.

I really enjoyed the bike. Probably more than I should have. Especially considering the fact that one of my front brakes was rubbing against the tire the ENTIRE ride. But I still had fun. It's entirely possible I didn't push myself quite hard enough on the bike, but even when I was pushing I was having a great time. Mainly because I knew that if I had made the time cut off for the swim then I was that much more likely to make the time cut off for the bike, and so I was happy because it was seeming more and more likely that I would actually finish this race.

I could be seen smiling quite a lot on the bike. Also, if anyone had been close enough to listen, I could probably be heard singing to myself.

A group of our friends had come out to support us for the race, had made signs, and were screaming their heads off every time we biked past, so that made for some serious warm fuzzies. It even made people who didn't know them at all smile and pedal harder. Yay for friends!

Oh, probably buy a nicer bike (I borrowed my friends old road bike while she rented one for the race) and it might be nice not to have had the break rubbing the whole ride.

I would probably get a nicer bike, AND more importantly, I would log more hours on said bike before the race. I think I slacked a bit on the bike portion of my training and I paid for it in my time. (Although I destroyed my training times by a LOT for this race, probably because I trained on hills and with a big heavy, POS, MTN bike.)

This transition was fast. I'm guessing at 1:30 but it might well have been less. I already had my running shoes on and all I had to do was take off my helmet and sunglasses and put on my visor. Plus, I drank some water and decided to change my top because my bike jersey was black and it was getting hot out as the day went on. So, I decided to rock a light colored (and hence sun reflecting) tank-top for the run.

Nothing. I think this transition went pretty well. Eventually I may decide to bike in a tri top to avoid the change of shirts, but as I was wearing a race belt it really wasn't a big deal.

I intentionally ran the whole run at a slow but consistent pace. I wanted to be 100% sure that I finished and that I didn't have to walk, so I stuck with a conversational running pace the whole time. I was actually surprised to find that I was close to a ten minute mile after the fact because I really thought I was pushing 11.

The pace worked for me and I had the energy to keep it up all the way to the end (though I think I would have caved if I'd had to do another 1 or 2 km) I even had enough juice left to pick up speed for the final 1/2km and while I didn't sprint, I picked up to a fast run for the final 50 meters.

Nothing. This was the only way I was going to finish without walking. In the future I will train to get my base run up to a better speed so that I can keep the relaxed pace going with something under a 10 minute mile. But I think the strategy was sound.

I did a 10k last weekend and finished in 57:11. So I know I can do faster, but I pushed myself the whole way for that one and there was nothing I had to do before or after the race.

After hugging all the people who came out to support (perhaps to their dismay as I was a sweaty mess)and almost crying at the joy of having completed my first tri I drank a lot of water and walked around the finish grounds for a long time trying to keep my legs from tightening up. The race offered free bananas, watermelon and bowls of curry to competitors and supporters. When my stomach finally calmed down I enjoyed a nice bowl of curry.



I need to raise my base fitness some more. I trained for four months for this event and raised myself up from over 12 minute miles and horrible cardio, barely able to swim for more than a couple hundred meters at a time, to being able to complete an olympic tri in 3:21:45. I'm pretty happy with that. I'll work towards being more competitive as I race more.



Ok, I give this a five because it's my first race and will always have a special place in my heart. I have no idea what other triathlons are like, so I can't really rate this one objectively. But the volunteers involved were amazing and went way out of their way to help. The supporters and other racers were awesome and encouraging. I had a fabulous time and am looking forward to my next race!