First 1500m open water swim. When the distance is all out there in front of you it can be a little daunting - ok, a lot. That said, I did as well as I could've. I tried to draft or at least keep someone to my right and sight off of their course. But I did have to sight a lot on my own. Luckily, there were plenty of tall landmarks near the lake for sighting.

I didn't really hit a consistent rhythm that often due to the other swimmers. We were bumping into each other the entire swim. At one point I noticed the color of the swim caps around me were different than my wave, they were from the wave in front of us. But then I noticed several caps from the wave behind us. I hardly saw any of the caps from my wave so I had no idea how I was doing.

More long open water swim training.

I was told that T1 is notoriously long at this race. Guess what, it was. made it to my spot quickly but had issues with the helmet. It seems that with all the throwing it around in the car it somehow got tightened and wouldn't fit so I had to waste time adjusting it. And again, the socks slowed me down, too.

Check helmet beforehand. Get bike shoes that fit so I can go sockless.

Coming out of transition the course went straight into a hill. This was probably the worse hill on the course, too. After the first hill this section was fast. After the turn to El Dorado the course flattened out but once it turned onto Stonebridge there was a stiff headwind from the north. The wind would also shift slightly into a crosswind that pushed me to the side a few times. I didn't do too well on the first 2 loops but by the start of the 3rd I had hit a good pace and my cadence was steady. I cruised into T2 feeling pretty good since the last 2 loops were much better than the first 2.

Side note: my nutrition schedule was spot on. I took a GU 10 min in and then a Clif Shot at 60 min. Drank all 24oz of Gatorade I had and about 2/3 of the water.

Get into a steady cadence earlier. Relax a little bit as that probably caused me to be a little spastic on those first 2 loops. More hill training, too.

No issues here. iBungee shoelaces worked great.

Can always be a little more urgent, but overall I have no complaints about this transistion.

Since I have never run a stand alone 10k I really had no idea what to expect. I had a pace goal based on some of my time trial runs but completely blew that out of the water. I knew I was booking it and was really happy with the end result. I think the cool weather played a big role in my time.

Side note: before the race I really struggled with whether or not to wear the Garmin on the run. I'm glad I didn't. I would've kept with my goal pace of 7:30 and missed out on finding out what I can really do.

Also, my nutrition schedule on the bike was able to sustain me enough so I didn't need anything from the aid stations on the run.

Stick with RPE, forget the Garmin!

Fluids, light stretching and food. I caught up with the family and found all their good spots so we could cheer Mary on as she cruised into a 2nd place AG finsih for the sprint. Great job, Mary!


More OWS training and more hill training on both the bike and the run.


Great race. Very well organized and very well planned. Challenging course - but fun. Great place for family/friends to cheer you on while you race, too.