Got up at 4:15 and out the door at 4:45 with family. I drank Instant Breakfast and ate a piece of bread. Picked up McDonald's pancakes for Alexa and a banana for me on the way. Arrived at transition area a few minutes after it opened at 5:30. Found my rack, which was close to the bike in/out this time, and set up. I almost got the end rack spot!

Ran around tranisition for a bit, put wetsuit half on to cut the chill, and dunked myself in the water a few minutes before the start.

Course must have been longer than planned as all racers have longer than average times. Water seemed very choppy with all those swimmers. I started far right but seemed to drift to the left I was focusing on breathing to one side as instructed. I got caught in a lot of traffic. I rounded the first buoy beautifully and then almost missed the second into on-coming traffic. I had to go back to get it! It seemed like a long time on the last leg, but I tried to focus on finding someone to draft off of. The swim-exit was covered bleachers, but they weren't set very far into the water. A volunteer had to pull me out of the water because I could reach the bottom step.

Swim straighter if I am going to focus on breathing on one side. Also, if I am going to start on the far right, I need to stay on the far right.

Had really wobbly legs after the marathon long run from the swim exit. Seemed really shaky putting socks and shoes on. Had trouble getting helmet clipped. Had to try 5-6 times.

Practice equipment change more.

I started out strong and focused on both speed and cadence. I kept the speed about 16mph and cadence around 85 where I could. The hills did affect me, and it was hard to keep a steady cadence. I was concerned I was pushing too hard, but I felt as if I was getting passed a lot. It turns out, this was my worst event in my age group, and it usually my strongest. I don't have an explanation for that yet. A course at the venue in 2005 gave me 16.2 mph, so about the same. My bike computer registered an average 16.2mph this time, so I am not sure why the official times report a different average yet.

Drink more, stay in aerobars more. I wasn't able to stay in my aerobars as much as I wanted to because of the need for shifting and all the turns. I could do better on this with practice.

Pulled bike up too high to re-rack again. Threw hat on and ran while attaching racebelt this time. That was a good change. Gave me 4th fastest T2 time.

Lift bike lower.

Felt fairly wobbly for the first 3 minutes. My breathing was hard to begin with, so I was worried I wouldn't be able to keep the pace. My HR was in the 180s, so I felt I could sustain it. There were no mile markers, so it was hard to judge the pace. It felt about right, but I passed the 2 mile racer's turnaround point at a disappointing 11:30. I hit our turn-around at exactly 14:00, so I thought my pace was way-off. I picked up the pace and reached my puke point 100 yards from the finish. I ended up gagging as I finished. Probably not a great finish-shot. It turns out the finish was shy of the start, so those turn-arounds were not exactly half-way, so my pace was close to my personal best.

Hope for mile markers to judge pace better, drink at stations. More practice! Get a tri bike :-)

Trying not to puke. Drank lots of water and some Accelerade. Signed up for massage but never got called for it in time.

Power, stroke techinique, aerobar comfort

Almost no food for the athletes. I really felt like they skimped here. Just oranges and half-bananas.

Race Reports Modeled with Permission from
Endurancecoach's Triathlon Post Race Analysis Sheet.