Race results and reflections

(image is of the female age 25-29 division)

First, I'll start this blog with saying I'm happy with the results. Athletes in Boulder are all very very athletic, which gives lots of room for inspiration and encouragement  -- and room to improve.
At the end of the event I had a ton of endorphins and wanted to do more (after I sat around and ate some fruit), which is good news considering that I'm training for a longer event. Then I finally came down a bit and took a nap when I got home.

Anyway, here's a break down of the events, and reflections (which may lean towards the side of constructive criticism, but again, I'm overall happy).

Prep - forgot to get cereal for the morning, ate pizza at about 5:30 am

Swim (start at 7:10am) - water was so cold even with a wetsuit. It took about 5 mins for me to keep my head in for normal swimming, about half way for me to adjust and feel normal about swimming. During the first half I kept having to switch to back stroke to slow my breathing (again due to the cold). After turning around the halfway mark, it was smooth cruising and then I realized I forgot my timing ankle band. At the transition I talked to them about it, ran and found it in my bag, ran through the timing area and back to my bike.
My main take away is that I need to look into the best way to adjust to cold water swimming. And I have to put glide stick stuff on my neck.

Transition 1: felt a little overwhelm, and struggled to get the wetsuit off. For the Ironman, I think I'll need to try to drink more water to recover from the swim. I'll also need to have the food situation a bit more organized.

Bike: it was a very steady ride, I drank one water bottle and I think that was a good amount. I need to be better about getting in my bike workouts and I really need to get a new bike.

Run: Felt so loose from all the energy from the other events I had no problem keeping my shoulders relaxed. I paced behind Cassie for quite a while (see results), she really really helped me with rhythm. I didn't drink enough water, I was still fighting a bit of the nausea.  I probably drank at the rest stops 3 times and two swallows. It was less than half of the times that I passed them.

My list of stuff (as I remember it):

  Sports bra, tri shorts and top
  Towels

Swim
 wetsuit 
 goggles
 cap
 glide stick

Bike
 1 water bottle with accelerade
 1 package of sport gummies
 1 borrowed bike :)
 socks
 shoes
 helmet
 gloves
 sunscreen
 sunglasses

Run
 shoes
 visor


( additional workout)
 4400 yards swim
       4*75 (last 25 is back stroke)
       4*1000 (750 swim, 250 kick)
       2*50 easy