I'm not sure why, but the race results are only giving Men and Women but not doing a mixed ranking.

Anyway, the swim went pretty well, but it was getting a bit choppy in the bay. Swallowed some salty water, yuck. There were a lot of arms and legs flying. Got hit a few times, I really hate people doing the breast stroke anywhere near me. I swam further from the buoy line to avoid some of the mess, but it did not help much. Overall swim felt really good. When I exited the water someone yelled, "damn, that girl is hard-core, no wetsuit!". Just laughed to myself and ran to my bike.

Start closer to the front

Hands were shaking from the swim and could not get my socks on or my helmet clipped on. Right out of transition I could not get my left shoe clicked in. I think the shims under the cleat are giving me problems, even on training rides it takes a while for the left shoe to clip-in. Stood there trying to clip-in, cursing my shoe!

Start training without out socks for sprint distance races, don't think my feet could survive it for anything longer. Take my shoe over to the tri-shop and have him fix the shim/cleat so I can click in easier.

There was headwind, tailwind and crosswinds at different points along the course! I HATE wind! The course out of transition sucks. Basically it is uphill and then a 180 degree turn to the left. It's a narrow path and dangerous. The girl next to me fell riding up the hill. Yikes! The course was hilly and lots of switch-backs. I had a good ride and passed people on the bike, yippee!

Toward the end of the course it's down-hill and then a left turn into the park. I almost had a huge crash here. I had lots of speed going down-hill, more speed than I thought because when I started to break the whole front end started to wobble. I thought to myself, "oh no, I'm going to crash my beautiful tri-bike!" and the second thought "this is going to hurt bad" Somehow I recovered about 3 feet shy of crashing into a cop and a side-walk. The girl behind me yelled, "Nice save. Actually, that was a really nice save".

At the top of the hill down into T2, we had to dismount and walk the bike down. My hands were shaking again, but this time it was from my very close-call on the bike. I should have tried to undo my shoes while on the bike and hop off rather than dismount and take them off, but having never done that in training, decided not to. Walking the bike down the hill while carrying my shoes sucked.

Glad I recovered on the bike at the end. Just saw my rankings, wow!!

Get out the bike shoes while riding and hop off.

Shaking hands, could not get my helmet unclipped, also made it a little harder to get my shoes on.

Hopefully next year I will avoid the close-call on the wipeout and my hands will be steady :)

Out of t2 are a bunch of steps. Just walked up them the best I could. Quads were a bit tight from the bike, but I think it was from all of the hills. I told myself toward the end of the bike that I would not walk the run. Although I walked the steps, there was no way I could have run them any faster than walking them, so in my mind that does not count as walking. On most of the run I felt really good. Kept telling myself this is only a 3 mile run, nothing compared to the half-IM I have next month. Only had 3-5 people pass me on the run, which for me is pretty good. At the turn-around I looked at my watch and saw I was at the 1-hour mark and thought I could finsh in 1:15. Kept my pace steady and on the way back into the park it's uphill, of course! So I shortened my stride and there is a guy right behind me panting in my ear, and I was getting annoyed. Of course at the crest of the hill he passes me, thankfully because I could not take the noise anymore! Then I suddenly get pissed that I have listened to the panting and he is going to cross the finish line before me, so I sprint to the end and pass him. Glad I did because I was able to finish before the click read 1:16, yipee! Oh, no picture were taken at the finsih line, so I did not mes that up for him.

This was a good run for me, no acid reflux issues and no cramping...so no complaints here on the run. This was my best run for me during a tri since I got into this last year. I am a slow runner, but I'm working on it.

Saw my husband Matt, got a kiss and hug, then stretched. It still amazes me that he is willing to touch me when I am a sweaty mess! Although maybe he will chage his mind when I finish my half next month :)


Great run for me!


Great race! Love the 5pm start time. The only reason I did not give this race a 5 rating is the hill in and out of transition, it's very dangerous.