I was amazingly calm considering the amount of pre-race anxiety I typically have. Arrived to race site early, finished setting up transition (how miffed am I that someone moved my area about 3 feet..wtf?! NOT.COOL.) The transition area was ridiculously huge with nearly 4,000 participants so I had really focused on finding a prime position for my gear. Fueled with 2 granola bars, 3/4's of a blueberry muffin, water and gatorade. Walked over to the swim start to watch the elite and survivor waves before hitting the porta-potty.

1.5 mile walk/run from drop off site to the transition area. Light stretching. Swam 50-70 yards to warm up. Relaxed and found my "tri zen."

Healthy mix of freestyle, back stroke and a little bit of breast stroke. Had issues zig zagging a bit because of my problems with sighting the bouys.

My jaw nearly dropped when I saw my time as I was pleasantly surprised I pulled in under 20 minutes. I was anticipating 25-30 minutes in the water.

Invest in tinted goggles...sighting was damn near impossible with the sun glaring off of the water.

Be a little more aggresive in the beginning of the swim to get a better position.

Make freestyle the predominate stroke and less mixing it up.

Had some technical difficulties with my helmet and ponytail...and then part of the plastic interior on my helmet popped out, so I lost time fixing that.

In an effort to save my legs I didn't do any running in/out of transition.

Stake out a little bit more real estate in transition. My rack was right next to a grassy medium and the thought of setting up my gear there next to my bike never crossed my mind. It would've opened up a lot more space for me with racking/unracking.

Get bike gloves on more quickly and focus on speed rather than "taking it easy."

Also, no matter how good I'm feeling here...SUCK DOWN A GU IN T1. I thought I'd be okay foregoing this, but during the bike I wish I had taken one.

Don't hesitate to run in the transition area. I was focused on conserving energy for the bike/run...but in the end I had plenty of fuel left in my tank.

I was pleased with my performance here as I wanted to get as close to an hour as possible (I'm not strong at cycling, so I banked on taking more than an hour). BT calculates 12.6mph, but the official race results calculate 13.2mph.

My right quad was tinging up a little bit during the last 4 miles.

I don't have any complaints here since it's my weakest discipline, I'm just impressed I beat my goal time on this front.

Max. Speed: 23.6

Practice getting more comfortable reaching for water bottle during bike portion...I know I need to be hydrating myself for the run, but with the crosswinds I was nervous about losing control.

Put sunscreen on my lower back...I didn't realize that tri top would creep up a pinch in the back and I got a little sunburnt back there.

Once off the bike and in T2 I felt like Bambi trying to walk for the first time. But I actually ran with my bike here a bit, which definitely felt weird.

Water bottle fell out of holder as well.

Multitask. Remove helmet/gloves/unvelcro shoes while running back to transition area.

Hustle!!

I was hoping to pace around 11:30 but ended up averaging 12:29 which I'm a little frustrated with. I didn't get my running legs in place until the second mile marker.

Because of the extreme heat I opted to run with my fuel belt, which turned out to be brilliant because I needed to douse my head with water every half mile or so. I also sucked down a Gu right out of T2.

During the first quarter while my calf started cramping up, so I forced myself to do a walk/run combo.

Mile 1: 12:34
Mile 2: 12:54 (water station and hoses)
Mile 3: 12:08
.1: 8:24 pace (not sure if I believe this one on my Garmin)

Push through the jello legs and just go for it.

Fuel more on the bike so I have a stronger start on the run.

Quick stretching out on my legs. 1.5-2 mile walk back to the car with all my gear. Rehydration with 2 bottles of water.

- My complete and total suckage in T1 and T2.
- Lack of fueling while on the bike.
- The heat and brutal sunshine.
- And of course, convincing myself to take it easy to save energy in transition, on the bike and the early part of the run.

I'm pleased with my overall performance and I'm excited that I can finally call myself a triathlete!! Danskin puts on a great event and I'll definitely be adding this one to my race calendar next year.

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