First lap was a little crowded. Stopped after I got punched in the back of the head and resumed swimming again after it got a little less crowded. I could tell by the end of the swim that I hadn't really done enough long distance OWS practices. Close to the swim time I had expected to do it in.

Swim more in training. Not stop as much when people are trying to swim over me.

I thought I was missing something when I was leaving T1 because I felt so naked without my wetsuit on!

I thought there may be something wrong with the bike or with me because I was going so slowly on the way out... Feared a 4.5 hour bike time, which thankfully didn't happen. After the first turn-around (where the pirate girls' water station was) I managed to speed things up. On the first major downhill, I hit 60kmh and then heard a loud "Twang!" Feared the worst for a split second but then realized that the only thing wrong was my speedo no longer working. I guess the wind twisted the sensor around. At the top of the hill, at the next turn around station, I tried to quickly make the speedo work again. No dice right away, so I left it. The return ride through the valley was good. The headwind made the descents a little slower than I would have liked, but the big climb wasn't bad. I don't know what my top or bottom speeds were, but it was ok. The next few kms were tough against the wind, but then I got to the turn off back to town and I was cruising!
On the bike, I ate 1 clif bar which took forever to finish and was making me feel ill. I also took in 3 or 4 E-tabs and consumed 5 gels, which went down easily. Sipped occasionally on Heed, but mostly drank water.

Felt like I was moving quickly through T2.

Not take a wrong turn and have to turn around to find the exit.

First loop took me 1:12 and I thought I was on my way to my goal of 7hr finishing time. Second loop took me a lot longer as I walked quite a bit because I was so tired. Walked up all the hills and down the steep ones. Took in water at every aid station and ate 1.5 packages of sport beans.

Jumped into the cold lake to rinse off and cool down. Had my first ever post-race massage.


Lack of training and inexperience.


looking forward to doing this distance again. Turned out not to be as horribly difficult as I had feared. In order to do a full Ironman, I will have to do A LOT more training!! Especially on the bike, and the run, and the swim...