this swim felt pretty good to me, although I had the same sighting issues I always do in open water. I settled into a pattern of 10 strokes/5 breaths and then 1-2 breaststrokes to sight but I still ended up zig zagged.

There was a gal in my same wave (red cap) who was just barely ahead of me the whole time. she was swimming with her head above the water and her goggles on top of her head. I decided I HAD to pass her and started swimming faster to catch her the final 500 but she also started swimming faster. I caught up to her at the very end and we put our feet on the sand at the same time, but I technically beat her according to the chip timer because I ran out of the water to the timing mat (about 100 yards) and she walked so I ended up beating her by about 15 seconds.

At about 30 mins I started to feel that familiar mild headache most likely from my goggles. It was less intense this time and I think that's cuz I loosened my strap a touch before the start. I could probably loosen it even more next ime. I washed my face with soap in the morning and did not experience the same sunblock eye sting problem....though I did have a bit of an eye sting problem at about 1200m which I think was actually just a little bit of sweat getting into my eyes. I blinked a lot and swam through it and problem was pretty much gone within about 3 minutes. I was close enough to the end that I thought I could just swim the remainder with 1 eye closed if needed.

Attempted to draft a couple of times, but those swimmers were quickly gone. it is nice to be able to see swimmers around me so I don't have to sight as much. I think if I could somehow manage to stay with the group I'd swim A LOT faster because of easier sighting. I swam this whole damned thing in a zig zag!

According to my watch I swam this leg in 46:21 tilll I was all the way out of the water. but they placed the timing mat at the beginning of the transition area which was about 100 yards away and it added 40 seconds to my time. if we go by swim time only, my actual pace would be 3:09 per 100m

nothing really. just train harder and be faster.

took a little extra time to put on more sunblock

passed 2 people, both females on mountain bikes. 1st pass was just after the turnaround in the cul de sac on Mullan Trail Rd. 2nd pass was near end on Mullan street.

drank 1 water bottle full of Nuun. ate half package of powerbar energy chews. probably should have drank more, but I didn't have a lot of breaks where I was just peddling flat and straight.

train hills harder. a lot harder. and just train the bike more in general.

girl next to me had all her stuff spread out on the rack, her wetsuit, towel etc so I had to move her stuff just to rack my bike. otherwise a decent transition

passed 11 people total. 2 had white bibs (sprint triathlon?) and 9 had yellow bibs which were definitely the olympic triathletes.

Finished my pack of powerbar energy chews (strawberry banana) and drank my entire frozen water bottle. (camelback). my frozen water bottle stayed cold almost the whole time and I had just barely enough liquid to make the race. being able to skip 3 of the 4 aid stations definitely improved my time and allowed me to pass a few extra people.

there was a lady who passed me on the bike and was just barely ahead of me on the run. I made it my goal to pass her, but it wasn't looking very good. then in the final 2 miles she started running with her friend who kept a slower pace. I still wasn't probably going to catch them except they stopped briefly at aid station #4 and I almost caught them....then there was a small hill just after that and they jogged up it quite slowly and I decided this was my chance. I've been running up that hill at glendoveer and this was smaller than that so I charged the hill and passed them and they never caught me after that.

nothing really. training more to be faster

refilled my water bottle. peed. ate half a piece of cheese pizza. dunked in the lake


lack of training especially on the bike. I say this every time, but it was especially true this time because the bike course was hilly and challenging.


absolutely beautiful course! Even though I found the bike course to be too challenging based on my abilities, I would not change it because climbing those hills is what gives you the breathtaking views.

Lots of volunteers and spectators, actually this race easily had more spectators than any other race I've ever done. not just friends/family of the athletes but since this race goes through the heart of downtown plenty of locals and tourists grab a coffee and a lawn chair and cheer you on. the community support was far above average.

the race organizers took advantage of all the most beautiful streets and trails so that you're constantly either on the lake, on the river or have a view of the water.