I went out well, stayed smooth, and no panic. I was far enough from the melee to avoid the usual triathlon beat down. Just tried to stay smooth, streamline, and keep my rhythm.

Put out a bit more effort. You don't ride or run with your arms, so why save them?

This went shockingly fast for as slow-motion as it felt. I thought I was forgetting something. Last year I almost left T1 with my helmet unbuckled, so that was on my mind. Mount and start went smoothly.

Practice multi-tasking during T1.

The hills, while not killer climbs, come quickly and often in the beginning. For some reason I wasn't finding my groove. Not as bad as last year, though. I think I may have been reserving my legs for the run, or just taking advantage of the low (12-25) gears on my cassette. Still, I had some very fast sections.

Attack hills a touch harder.

Lost my mind for a half second and started taking my time during shoe change. Had to wake myself up and get going.

Any sub-1:00 transition is good, IMO. I do need to grab and go more, especially with visor and number belt.

Saw some team mates doing well, and gave Eric a "good game" as I ran next to him. At the 1 mile mark, I said "Are you freakin kidding me? That's it?" That first mile just felt really long. And then came the wall we were supposed to run up. Olivier was at the top, suffering, so I didn't feel too bad for feeling rough. As the turn around neared, I could see where I was at relative to others. Back on the highway, a guy from my AG came up and got a few feet ahead of me. I decided to latch on and pace him, at which point he sped up to try and shake me. We ran like this for a while, and I went just past him for a bit. Then he went past me, but as we turned back into the site it was go time. He came up on my right and we entered a dead sprint. I said, "Let's go man!" and he said something like, "You got this one" and I came across 1 second ahead. Nice strong finish, much like last year's sprint finish. Still, not a fantastic overall time.

Descend the wall a bit better.

Pounded water and waited for Mendy to finish. Wanted to go run, but didn't want to miss her come across.


Training.


I still would rather do most other races than this, but it's a great chance to meet a bunch of local friends. After the awards, we went to Wild Wing with friends for some wings, beers, race stories, and general unwinding. That was, by far, the best part of the race day!