I entered this race on a whim last Tuesday. Putting aside the fact that the water was around 55 degrees (and as many of you know from my previous post I was considering not using a wet suit), I'd never done any bike rides longer than 10 miles, and the weather report saying there would be thunderstorms and 80 degree weather on the day of. The excitement set in even before I'd entered my credit card information on active.com. In the end I had a wet suit overnighted from Xterra, because as much as I'd like to believe it I'm really not that hard core. I really didn't feel well prepared for this race and was just hopping to come in around the 2 hour mark (but thinking it would probably be closer to 2:30). This was my first open water swim and it was nothing like I thought it would be. (Did I mention I hadn't had a chance to do an open water swim yet this season, I think the last open water swim I did was a couple of years ago lazing around at the beach) The water was super shallow, so it was more like a run/walk out to the first buoy. I'm a pretty strong swimmer, but it was very disconcerting not being able to see anything in front of me. I couldn't even see the person in front of me until I was on top of them. Just brown gunk and lots of seaweed and salt water. Yum! It seemed like that portion took forever, but finally I felt the bottom under me again and sprinted out of the water and up the beach to T1.

1/2 mile swim 15:28

T1 was pretty slow, def need to improve on that. 3:48

The bike felt really good, I pushed hard the entire way. I almost wish there were more hills though, because it seems like thats where I catch people. Although boy do I need a new saddle or I'm never going to be able to do longer rides. Owwsa!

14.4 miles 56:53

T2 was much better. 1:02

My legs felt pretty rough for the first half mile and the sun was really beating down on me here. I'm still working on my nutrition, this time I brought fig newtons. I can't seem to find anything that I like the consistency of. The last half mile of the run was brutal. The finish line was a really nice sight! I def got a nice burst of energy in the end when I really didn't think I had anything else left.

3 mile run 28:47

Total Time: 1:45:58

So much better then I expected, I'm really happy with my time. But def room for improvement.