First non-wet suit race for me! Anyway, I'm a bit confused about my results here. My Garmin says I swam 2600+ yards, but I just didn't see that happening. I rounded each buoy and maybe veered off near the end, but I could not have been 500 yards off! My time on my Garmin based on the distance I "swam" was 2:00/100yard, which is spot on for what I would typically do a 70.3. Was the swim distance long in the race? Anyway, what makes my time look even more odd to me is that I felt fantastic during the swim; for that matter, I really thought I swam the best I had every done for a 70.3. My breathing, sighting, drafting, calm demeanor....everything was clicking. So regardless of the results for this leg of the race I can safely say that at least I felt good coming out of the water.

Not much. I generally thought I did well here, but my official split times do not show it.

With no wetsuit to mess around with I calmly got my glasses, helmet and shoes on without drama. Took a swig of Gatorade before leaving transition and I ran with the bike to the dismount line.

Nothing. All went well.

I really expected myself to do much better on the bike than my results as my cycle training this year has been going well. Personally, I think what happened is that when I circled around to face the wind during the first loop I just tried to burn my way through it instead of taking a more measured approach. As such, my quads started to feel the pain, I was worried about the run and mentally I got a bit frustrated. So when I faced the wind again I changed my strategy to spin against it and felt much, much better though my split times suffered. I like rolling hills so that didn't have a big effect on me.

Overall, I'm happy with the way I finished the bike, but know that I have to be smarter when it comes to attacking the wind.

Be smarter when going against gusts of wind. Don't let it affect my mental state during the race so that it affects my effort.

Found my spot on the rack with no problems. Took of helmet and put on running hat and shoes and picked up a pack of Clif Bloks. Took a swig of Gatorade and ran out of transition while putting on my race belt with number.

Nothing. Everything went well.

Well, this was the best run I've done in a 70.3 (PR!). I almost started off too fast, but slowed my pacing down knowing I wanted to finish strong. The rolling hills were nice as they were similar to what I train on back at home. Aid stations were wonderful as I made sure to slow down to drink water, dump ice chips over me, squeeze cold water from the sponges on me and take in orange slices (especially at the end). The sugar in the orange slices for the last 5k gave me a big boost; I will remember that for my future races (especially marathons). I found a husband/wife team to pace off of and it was nice to talk to someone while running (not all the time of course). I came to end feeling great and made sure I had a nice finishing pic......lol.

Nothing. Everything went well, though I will continue to push myself to get to 8:30 splits.

After picking up my water I walked down to the shoreline and did some walking loops to get rid of the soreness in my legs. Then I got some food at the Athlete tent as I was a bit hungry. With ice cream available I made sure I got some. Talked to a couple of people about the race and we shared our stories as well as upcoming races - good folks. Did some more walking before finally getting into transition to take a couple of pics, pack up and head on my way home (4 1/2 hour drive to Chicago suburb....argh)


Wind on bike loop; no doubt about it.


Overall I had a good race and I'm glad I tried out this venue. It did feel very "rural" though as the Athlete village was small and the bike loops were very boring. Lots of volunteers and the aids stations were great. As much as I liked this race, I probably will not come here again.