Going north out to the first bouy was good. I was a little nervous, but everything quickly fell into place. The water was pretty choppy which made sighting the turn / sighting bouys difficult. The sighting bouys were slightly out of line, but not too bad. First turn went fine and which turned us to the east. It was about 7:25a so the sun was still low in the eastern sky which caused major glare on the water. Basically the people around me split into 3 groups; one heading to shore, the other out to sea, and the last group more or less in the correct line. I kind of split between the shore group and the correct group. I quickly realized my mistake and realigned with the correct group. I made it to the second turn bouy and could easily see the sighing bouys and finally the Red Bull Sea Gate. I kept my focus on form and relaxed a little from my prior focus of sighting and quickened my pace to the finish line. All in all a good swim

Buy polorized goggles to help with the intense glare. I currently own clear lens goggles.

It was a long run from the swim exit to my bike. That run alone took almost 1.5 min. Everything elese went pretty smooth.

Nutrition: 3 (28oz) bottles of Accelerade, 12oz of gatorade (from the aid station), 3 CarbBoom gels, 2 electrolyte tablets. -

Going out 28 miles on the bike felt good. There was one major hill and a couple of smaller ones. For the most part the "out" was slightly downhill with a nice tailwind. At the turn around I was averaging 21.3 mph. Coming back was pretty much a 20 mile constant hill. It wasn't so much a major climb, but it just never seemed to flaten out or go down hill. I confirmed this on my way home when we drove the course. Combining the uphill with a headwind casued me to lessen my pace. About 1.5 miles before the "no passing zone", (the zone was the last 1/2 mile of the bike course) I was challenged by a pack of 15. I had to raise my HR up to 170 to fight off the pack and not end up behind them going into the no passing zone. I was successfull at keeping them at bay, however this strong push at the end really zapped my legs which I think became my downfall on the run.

Let the pack go ahead of me at the end. It would probably only have cost me 1 min on the bike. Instead it cost me 10 - 15 min on the run.

Nutrition: 28 oz. of Accelerade (fuel belt). 2 electrolyte tablets, 2 CarbBoom gels, several cups of water at aid stations. -

This is where I had trouble. Coming off the bike I had the usual brick feeling. I pretty much ran out the bricks by mile 2 and I expected everything to come together. Unfortunatly this never happened. I was never able to settle into a good pace. My HR was lower than I had planned on, but my legs were gone. No matter how hard I pushed my legs they just would not go. Even the rolling hills started to give me problems by mile 7. My legs just had nothing left in them. I ended up walking a total of 4 times (about 1 min each time).
This segment was my only disappointment. I came into the event knowing that I could easily run 8 min miles, hoping to run 7'30"'s. I ended up fighting to keep 9 min pace.

Not push so hard during the end of the bike segment.

Minor stretch.


Leg stamia and strength


Two minor complaints:
1. There was no cold water before the race. I forgot to bring my own water and after 20 mins of searching I was relucantly guided towards a hose. The hose was giving out HOT water. Luckily Team In Training walked by with a 10 gal water jug and let me fill my bottles with their water.

2. The typical "not enough porta-john complaint". There was less than 20 porta-johns for 1200 racers and 2000 spectators. Prior to the race, the line was about 100 people long (about 25 people in line were spectators).

Those two negative things aside, the courses were very well marked. Every intersection was well staffed with police and volenteers. The aid stations each had themes and the people at the stations did a great job. The volenteers around the transition area were very nice and extremely helpfull.