This swim was brutal. Simply brutal. There was a 1 mph current with major chop (2 ft waves, whitecaps) on top of that. It was hard to breathe, hard to see, and hard not to get swept upstream. The tide coming in was complicated by the wind from the other direction. So the swim out the first half of the V was *very* hard. The swim direction compared to the current was probably at 135 deg angle (where 180 would be head-on). There were 5 orange buoys out to the yellow turn buoy. The first two I managed to make it on the left (up current) side, but after that, I gave up on making it to the left of the orange buoys and just tried to get close. When I could finally see the yellow buoy, I realized that I would need to work hard to make it around, and that if I let myself get swept by the current, I'd have to fight it head on to get around the yellow buoy. The waves were big and coming at me from the left. I got walloped a lot. I did learn how to breath on the top of the waves (which meant the waves dictated my rhythm). My arms were getting so tired. I'm sure my stroke was crap. There was no gliding, my feet were low, I was breathing solely on the left. At one point I started to almost hyperventilate, so I stopped and did breast stroke for a while. Except I don't think my breast stroke was faster than the current! So I had to go back to free. I finally found a building on the shore to sight by. Still, when I got close to the yellow buoy, I had to fight against the current a bit to get around it. I looked at my watch. 24 minutes for 750 m!

Once I turned around I couldn't see any orange buoys for the swim in. Not one. And I couldn't see where on the shore I was aiming for. They had said to sight on a 3-story house, but I couldn't tell which house was the one. So I just swam. At least the current was now almost directly behind me and it was much easier to glide and breath. I regained some semblance of a stroke. Seeing where I was going was rough the whole way back, but I had kayaks on my left, so I figured I must be close enough. Finally I was able to see the flags lining the run up to transition. I think I did a good job sighting on the way in, and the current wasn't as bad. But boy, was I exhausted. Couldn't wait to get on my bike!

During the swim, I thought I was all alone behind most people, but it turns out I was basically middle of the pack. And my swim place was better than the other sports! That's surprising! But it was a small race.

Choose a different race! (Seriously, my two worst swims ever were both Naylor beach. RMS can't really do anything about it. It's just a hard place to swim.)

Ok, could always train more. Would have helped to get some OWS experience in this season. Practicing with current is a must. I noticed especially that as I got close to my target, I'd start looking at it, and then start getting swept away because I wasn't sight ahead of the target anymore.

...and when I say the overall swim was bad, I don't mean my effort was bad. But the results surely were!

I took my time on this transition because I was trying to recover mentally from that brutal swim. I was telling myself all would be better on the bike. There was another woman at the rack, and her shirt got stuck as she was putting it on, so I said, "I'll get yours if you do mine" so I pulled the back of her shirt down, and she pulled mine down. I did everything, including inhaler, but I was breathing so hard, I don't think I got a good dose.

-Make sure to get a good dose of albuterol, and try to get breathing under control before starting bike.
-Look into clothing options that don't require me to put on a shirt.

I was so happy to be on the bike! Unfortunately, I had some wheezing going on. But I tried to be chill and take it easy (for a race) because I really wanted to see how I could do on the run. I was still reeling mentally from the swim. My lower back was very tight, which has not happened to me before, so I assumed it was from the swim. I was also seeing spots from accidentally looking at the sun while swimming. I saw cornflowers (my favorite!) on the way out and it made me happy. Unfortunately, the wind was really strong and even gusty, so I was pretty slow. I ate 10 shot blocks on the bike (2 packages - 2 blocks) and I drank both bottles (1 gatorade, 1 water). I ran out of water with 15 min to go. It was hot, although I didn't really notice because of the wind. Overall, bike went well, but I didn't push it much, and resigned myself to being slow thanks to the wind. You know how it can be a headwind no matter which direction you're going? Yeah, one of those rides. I told myself the run would be good, that I would focus hard on the run.

Um.... I think nothing... I might have ridden more in the drops if my back wasn't so tight. In an A-race, I'd probably push it more.

My legs felt pretty beat when I got off the bike - much more than when doing bricks. I need to take my bricks more seriously! When I got to the rack, I squatted to get my shoes off (no, I don't do that feet out of the shoes while still riding thing), and my left hamstring immediately started to cramp. I stood up and stretched it. More inhaler, drank some water and put some on my head, stuffed gels into my pockets, etc, and took off.

I had some trouble between the pockets on the back of the shirt and my race belt. The race belt was under my shirt at first and caused some chafing. Gels in pockets first, then race belt.

Well, it seems that every part of this race had to have some unexpected challenge to it. For the run, it was the biting flies. I had to be swatting a lot of the way. Really annoying, especially that I couldn't outrun them! I need to be faster! (Poor volunteers were fighting the flies at the aid stations, too!)

First mile, legs felt exhausted. At least my left quad didn't bother me again. I knew legs would get better, and they did. When the first aid station was in sight, I took a gel even though I didn't want one. I did water on the head, and drank water and powerade at every station. Two cups of each, by the last couple. I let myself walk 2 min during mile 2. I didn't hit my watch for the transisiton, so I didn't know how fast my first mile was. Mile 2 felt better. I tried to relax and just run. It was hot, but there were some clouds for a lot of it. Gusty wind felt good on run. Visor was helpful. (I was so glad I had my sunglasses!) 3rd mile was hard. I was very anxious for the turn-around. They did a sprint race the same day, so there was the sprint turn-around well before ours. At least on the run out, I kept track of landmarks for the run back. "Up hill, then flat for a while, then around the bend, a bit of shade, downhill and then the end!" I told myself over and over. I was going to try and do 3 or so gels, but after the first, I didn't want any more. My shirt was chafing and uncomfortable. I had a couple bouts of sunscreen getting in my eyes. ( I don't know why; it was waterproof.) After the turn-around, I was able to pick up the pace, but apparently I couldn't hold it. It was harder to get myself running again after each aid station. I'd see the mile marker coming, and push it til I got there, and then take a walk break. Then I'd take another walk break at the aid station 0.2 miles later. I noticed I was wheezing pretty badly. So I walked a bit much on mile 6 especially. It felt like it was going on and on. On the plus side, I had a little gas, and little yucky feeling after the first gel, but really my stomach was in good shape. Finally, I could see the finish line and picked up the pace at the end.

-Wear a different shirt! Sleeveless bike shirt was ok during training, but caused chafing during the race. Boo!
-Need to see if I can stomach more gels in the heat. I just didn't want to try.
-I would like to have a bandana or something to wipe my face/eyes with.

Hung on a cooler and drank water. Eventually went to get pizza and bananas. Stayed and listened to awards. I didn't realize they put me in the wrong category. (Age group, instead of Athena. Here I report Athena ranking.)


Waves, wind, heat, flies.


If you are a strong swimmer, and want a challenging race, then this is the one for you. If you are a weak or nervous swimmer, or don't want a super challenging race, pick something else.