I decided that if I was able to do 5:37 last year for this swim, I would go for it and seed with the 5:00-5:15 group. (I was much more accurate than the person I watched on the video monitor breaststroking amongst the 4:30 group!!!) The swim is a serpentine pool swim in a rec club pool that is shallow and is so poorly painted that you couldn’t tell where you were from the wall….somewhat unnerving when it comes to turning. Stayed in my gap and didn’t hammer too hard on this swim.

NOt much other than focus on being more efficient.

Uneventful. My assigned T area was way across the lot from the swim in and bike out so I ran as fast as I dared in bared feet in their rutted asphalt parking lot…

As I mentioned in the opening the course was somewhat hillier than I remember and with the winds kicking up it made for some interesting descents. I rode the entire ride just focusing on keeping my cadence up and not giving away any time on the downhill sections and not charging too aggressively up the hills. The next thing I knew I was at the end and running into T2.

Go harder on the hills especially given the short nature of the race....

Since I haven’t tried it yet I decided not to go sockless and took the time to add socks in T2. Other than that I was in, changed and running out.

Dismount out of shoes it the parking lot had been smoother....

Right out of T2 I felt like I had good tempo on my run. I felt a little sag heading out the far side of the parking lot but tried to keep my focus on rapid turnover. Not sure I would have been aware how smoothly things were going if it had not been for this one voly that I passed who yelled out “Nice Pace”…I took this as an indication that I was going well so I focused on that tempo/feeling. All the while I kept hearing one of my friends comments ringing back “Heck it’s only a sprint. Put out an effort and if you blow up, so what…it’s a sprint”. Very true! I felt like I was able to keep a nice steady effort throughout the run. When it came time to climb the last little section towards the finish, I was surprised how short the hill seemed compared to last year. Got to the top of the little hill and just let it go until I met up with my daughter about 50 yards before the finish for the final chute run! She just loves to run in with Daddy!

Go even harder....I left too much out on the run course.....maybe 15 to 20 seconds per mile.

Pizza and Beer with some of my local friends and fellow triathletes from St. Louis!!!


More my sense of pacing than anything else...I need to finally define where my upper limits are because at this distance I have not reached it yet......


EXCELLENT EVENT. As usual Ultramax Events put on a fantastic event. Well-organized, well-marked, excellent atmosphere. This is great race to take solid stock of your readiness for the season. Based on my results, I figure I’ve laid a good base to head into 2005…..Gulf Coast here I come!!!!!!!!!!!!