Chisago Lakes Triathlon Half Iron - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Water temp felt great, despite sounding warm, and no chop/waves. I was perfectly comfortable in my full-sleeve suit. Swimming is not my strong point, but I was very pleased with how it went for me.

Nothing

Wetsuit strippers were available, but I chose not to use them - it was a steep short climb up to TA out of the water, and I decided to strip my suit myself once at my nest. T1 went fine overall - nothing great, but nothing bad.
The transition spots were really packed together (more than usual, IMO) - I struggled a bit unracking my bike and getting it "clear", but no big deal.

Let the stripper do her thing ;)

I crashed trying to avoid a pile-up at the first bottle exchange (why oh why was I not going slower??? Stupid me - I could've very easily prevented my own crash if I had just been a tad more cautious!!) - pretty gnarly road rash & sprained wrist. Bike seemed OK, so I put the chain back on & finished bike leg.
No drafting issues, and no issues with bad behavior from other riders.
For folks doing their first race with a bottle-exchange: GO SLOW THRU THE EXCHANGE (especially the first one!) - even if you aren't getting a bottle yourself. These exchanges are crash magnets - I emphasize again - you really cannot be too cautious going through them ;)

Go slower through that first bottle exchange in particular. Otherwise, was very happy with bike portion.

Tight transition space made racking bike slower than desired, but no biggie. Ran ~50 yards towards Run Out, and decided to turn around back to my nest, and dump my near-empty Gu flak out of my jersey pocket. Cost me a few seconds, but the flask bulge was irritating my road rash.

Ditch Gu flask before leaving my nest. In a more important race, I would've just dropped the flask, but no reason to dump perfectly good equipment in a normal race.

One of my goals was to run the entire run leg. I allowed myself to walk through each aid station to ensure I drank a water and Gatorade at each (sun was pretty brutal at that point, and temps was ~85), but I ran the rest - I was thrilled about that. I was happy my pace stayed consistent throughout the run, but was happy to see that finish line when I finally did!!

Nothing comes to mind.

Food & mingle & visited the medics to get patched up ;)


Bike crash, but that didn't hinder me too much


This was my first-ever 70.3 (WOOT!), and I'm thrilled with how well it went for me, despite the crash :)
The race is an extremely well-run race event, start to finish. Organiztion & communication was excellent. The volunteers were plentiful & very helpful. Would highly recommend this race to others.