Before daylight you could just see the white walls of water 5 feet high coming into shore. Remnants of Ophelia. The water was tough. Waves were terrible. I had to kick hard the whole way just to fight the currents. It was exhausting. The good part was I was in the last wave so we got to watch the other waves and make adjustments on the angle we took at the first buoy. ALOT of the swimmers could not make the first or second bouys, but with the crazy waves, nothing was said. I am just glad they did not cancel the swim part. I was in the last wave and we had moved way down the beach to try and get an angle to get around the first bouy, and just before we went the bouy broke loose, so as we swam out it came in, giving us a little reprieve on the increasing length of the swim. I spent alot of time on my back for this one. Freestyle was almost impossible for me. When I got to shore I could barely stand, literally. Then I thought about the rest of the race in front of me and just smiled. The swim, I knew, would be the hard part, and it was done.

Just keep training in the ocean. Honestly, for the conditions and it being my first time, it could not have been better.

I was whipped from the swim and did not really care about time. I walked mostly to T1 and tooke my time, rinsed my feet, made sure I had my helmet on and walked my bike out. I just wanted it to go off without a mistake. And other than forgetting my gloves, (and not missing them), It was great.

I could run to T1 and save alot of time.

My cadence sensor did not work and that is one of the tools that I use to set my pace. Other than that, it was a good ride. Passed alot of people, got passed too. Took a little longer than I wanted but it was actually 12.5 miles instead of 10 or 11. Still able to keep overall time under goal for my first tri. (If I had stopped and adjusted my cadence sensor, I may not have achieved my overall time goal. Never stop in a race unless you have no choice.)

Check the entire bike in T1 before the race for any obvious problems. If the cadence had been working I could have set my pace a little higher.

I did not have a time. I guess the chip messed up. According to my posted run split, I would say about a 1 or 1.5 minutes. (Even though there were spectators in my way in T2)

Maybe unstrap shoes while coasting in on the bike.

I jogged slow out of T2 and when I got to the bridge I walked most of the way up and drank my water. It was a small drawbridge and by the time I got to the top I felt good. I started running and felt great. Yea, I was tired but I have been running for a while and I was comfortable. The second time across the bridge, I fell on the way down. My foot twisted on a terrible road patch that I should have avoided, but I jumped up and felt ok. I picked up the pace on the last half mile or so and beat my overall goal. It was fantastic. I AM SO HOOKED. ( Sunday night my foot swole up, bad.)

My T2 time was probably added to my run time. My watch showed the run split around 31:30. Either way, it was good for me.

Nothing, great run for me. ( I am not fast)

Just kept moving. Lots of water. And some fruit.


Harsh swim. Small bike malfunction. Did not really care to be fast in transitions.


Multi-race and the Lake Worth, Florida Chamber of Commerce put on a fantastic race. Lots of volunteers. On time with everything. We were there at 5:30 am to register and pick up packets and they were waiting for us. It was better organization than any 5k I have done. And the volunteers were PERFECT. There must have been over a hundred from local schools there and they were Great. I can't imagine a better experience for my first tri.

The tri shorts were definately the way to go. Worth the price.

Reliving the race here in this chronicle is pretty cool, too.