what fun! a quick sprint Sunday morning. My friend picked me up, took a 30 mintute drive to Sugarland. We got there, set up our transitions, and went for a brisk 3 mile run to warm up. His wave began at 7:10, mine started at 7:40. I finally psyched myself up to have a good swim with no nausea etc...even though I was a little grossed out to be in the second to last wave to go (having to swim thru all the previous pee). I got in, stuck my face in the water, it was about 80 degrees, I thought my goggles were on fine, I was wrong- the gun went off and I started swimming. Water kept coming into my goggles. I thought I would just tough it out, but my left eye started burning (must've been all that pee I was swimming thru) I kept having to stop to get the water out of the goggles...how annoying!!! Eventually it came right and I could focus on my breathing and other important swim stuff. The bouys were a little confusing -swim left of the first few, swim to the right of another one, but I made it through. Came out of the swim, onto my bike, I passed a whole bunch of people and thank goodness, no incidents to report on the bike. Finished that pretty strong, and decided last minute to run w/o socks b/c my transition times always suck (bad choice- got blisters) Ran pretty hard and the whole time I was on the heels of this kid who was about 9 years old. Whenever I wanted to pass him, he sped up, and whenever we got to a water station, he grabbed the cup I had my eye on- Glad he wasn't in my age group. Finished strong, but tired- great race!