Extremely belated race report

Work's been beyond insane, so I'm just now finding time to write a race report for the Hansen Dam sprint triathlon.

Swim: Eeeeew... Just.. Ewww. The "open water" swim takes place in the lake that's stocked with catfish for 'sport' fishermen - the water was close to 80 degrees and smelled like a dirty aquarium, which, I guess, in a way, it was. Gross buckets.  Also, I got kicked in the face at the stare - not a normal face kick, but a full on heel to the chin contact.

I had to stop at the first buoy and tread water for a few minutes to get my bearings. Of course, this then put me to the back of the really slow swimmers, so the rest of the swim was spent trying desperately to get around the woman who was swimming zig-zag and always seemed to be blocking my path.

No one from the group behind caught me, and I actually overtook some of the breast strokers from the previous group, so I guess I did okay. Not great, but okay. 500y in 14: 27. Okay, it's terrible.

Note to self: next time, don't get kicked at the start.

Bike: did I mention that Gary made that course his bitch? I did? Good, because he did. It was moderately hilly, with nothing really over a cat 2 climb. Once again, no one from the later group caught me, and I managed to catch some of the slower mountain bikers from the previous groups. More importantly, I felt okay going downhill at close to 40 mph. Yay! Bike: 11 miles in 34:02. Not it's not going to set a record, but it felt good.

Run: This is where I stunk up the joint. By the time I started my run, it was starting to get hot. Really, really hot. I gulped some water in T2, but was suffering on the run by about yard 100.

Compounding the problem was the running on horse trails - loose sand. Awesome. I gave up trying to run the uphills and just walked them. Also, I doused myself with water at every aid station.

Finally, I crossed the line after doing 5k in 36:47. Okay, that's bad, but I knew it was going to be bad. It's fine, though. I had a great time (except that damned sandy fun), and it's only two weeks until Malibu - first Olympic distance!