The swim was very fast and current aided. it was also the grossest swim I have ever done. The water was completely black and smelled badly. There was a sand bar at about 500 meters that required navigating. The last 200 meters the water was about 4 inches deep. The bottom was muck and weeds up to your knees. You could swim or run through it. I ended up lunging forward.

My bike shoes insert wouldn't lay flat so I had to put shoe on several times.

I had to stop at the first aid station because my aero bottle was loose and in danger of falling off. It took a while to find an opening to return to the course. I lost probably 2 minutes. Otherwise, the bike was good.

Make sure all my equipment is working properly before the race.

This is the best run I've had in a half in a while. The time does include a bathroom stop at the start of the run. The second lap was getting hot. I actually ran the first 9+ miles before I had to spend some time walking. It was great seeing so many RTC people on the course.

Keep working on improving my run again. This is still over 15 minutes slower than my half runs from a couple years ago.

I went to hang out in the RTC tent with a large number of RTC people. After collecting myself, I had a burger and a beer and talked to the others.


I need to keep working on my run.


There are a lot of positives about this race. The swim in very fast. The bike is a good course that is mostly fast with a few ups and downs to keep you honest. I would recommend a new location for the second aid station as it was dangerous to be right around a curve on a downhill. The run course is nice along the Capital Trail. The swim, however, is very gross and in places not swimmable. I'm not sure what the answer is for this, but the swim is a problem.