It was interesting that there is 5 minutes between waves. It is about 100 yards of walking and swimming out to the buoys from the corral. I wasn't in the first people out of the corral, but I had plenty of time to get in, swim some to test goggles, etc. and still tread water. When the gun went off though there were still a dozen or so people that hadn't gotten to the start buoys yet.

I started on the right side of the canal and got into a good rhythm early and just followed the canal to the finish. I felt like this was a good swim for me, but would have liked to been faster.

Sprint, it is a sprint after all!

Not bad

Left out of transition, and buggered up the Garmin so I had to reset that on the fly as I wanted to keep my power numbers up. Starting in one of the later waves, and being an average swimmer at best means I get to pass a lot of cyclists once I get out on the course.
Settled into a solid effort and maintained a good pace going up the first part of the course, which is a slight uphill.
About 6 miles in or so a State Trooper passed us with lights and sirens going and it wasn't but a few hundred yards further where we crested a hill that the reason became apparent. Right past the Varick Fire Department there is an incident of some sort with a fire truck pulled into the road and some activity in front of the truck. Several cars are stopped as well as a few racers. As I reached the back of the fire truck I could see that CPR is being performed on someone, but couldn't tell what happened beyond that. We are directed around the outside of the truck and some people are holding a tarp block what is going on, but just past that a bike is on the ground and the lady following me starts screaming when she saw the bike. Tough to know if that was the injured rider or someone that stopped to offer assistance but it was certainly heart breaking to hear her anxiety.
Tough as it was to not worry about what was going on, I just kept going. Made the turn back towards the lake and shortly after back north. It was nice to get a bit of a tail wind and some down hill to finish the bike with a decent overall average speed.

Not bad for me.

Ran out of transition and on to the lake path that the entire run is on for the 5K. I felt like I was struggling a bit with the effort until I realized I was running a 7:08 pace. I backed it down some to try to be closer to the 7:30 goal pace. Settled into a nice pace that I felt would give me a good race and leave something in the tank for the second part of the double mussel on Sunday.
Considering the outcome Sunday, I should have just gone wide open.

Good to see all the friendly familiar faces (Connie, Dud, and Mike were volunteering) at the aid station the 2 times through. Snuck a kiss from Connie on the way back through!

All in all, pleased with the run for this race.

Grabbed my gear out of transition and put it in the car and rode out to the aid station.
I heard when I was picking my stuff up that the person on the bike course didn't make it, which was later confirmed in the news. Sad new and my thoughts and prayers are with his family.