I'm still learning a lot about swimming and am pretty slow. My goal with this race was to stay calm, stay on course and get some practice swimming and transitioning in my wetsuit. The start was a really rocky beach that entered into a rocky and slick lake. The horn went off and I picked my way into the water and started my swim. It took a few hundred meters to shake out, but I was able to maintain my pace and my stroke and didn't freak out. Navigation was good - I stayed on course the whole time. Second lap felt better than the first as I wasn't fighting for position. My wife was a 'puller' at the end of the swim, helping folks up onto the beach - so it was a nice bonus to finish the swim and get great words of encouragement from my wife, like "that's ok honey - you can catch them all on the bike!"

Just keep swimming. I'm getting better, just slow. It'll come around eventually.

Got out of my wetsuit quicker than expected. Took some extra time to put on gloves as I knew my hands would be slick and the course would require pulling up on the bars quite a bit. Decided to skip the socks, which would come back to haunt me. Ran the bike out of transition, hopped and and starting having fun.

Put on socks.

My goal on the bike segement was to finish with all my skin intact, to ride smoothly and to enter the run with my legs as fresh as possible. I set a comfortable pace and began passing riders where I could. There was a sprint-distance race going on at the same time as our full distance going on at the same time as our full distance one, so it was hard to gauge how many people I was actually passing in my race. Came into the transition area for lap 2 to find my wife had been redeployed as a bike course marshal. I was greated with further words of encouragement such as "pedal faster!". Second lap was better as I started to get more comfortable on the bike and there was less traffic as the sprint race folks were clear of the course.

Not much. I could have went a bit harder, but pacing will come with time.

Put on socks.

I entered the run feeling good and managed to pass a few folks during the first couple of miles. My pace was good and my breathing was controlled. It was very hot, especially in the open grass field section, but I tend to handle the heat well so I was ok. I hit the trail feeling good.

Shortly into the trail, I knew I'd made a mistake not wearing socks. The dirt had gotten into my shoes, and the technical nature of the course had my feet rubbing around a lot. It was like sandpaper and I'm a tenderfoot. My achile's heel area on both feet was rubbed raw, and I could literally feel the blisters growing in the arch area of both feet as well. I was going to stop in transition and put on socks between laps, but once I hit the grass I felt better so I kept going. Big mistake. I finished the grass loop and hit the trail for the second time and I just couldn't handle the pain. My legs were ok, but every step was painful. I stopped running and started walking, the stopped walking and started hobling. Only thing I wanted to do was get the shoes off and my feel in some cold water. It wasn't fun to get passed by a ton of people, either.

Wear socks. A few extra seconds in transtion would have made my run 20 minutes faster and not had me walking like an old man today.

Cleaned my feet and put on some neosporin. Drank some fluids and ate a lot of cookies. Rehashed the race with my friends.


Foot problems.


The race was very challenging and a lot of fun. I plan to be back next year, with socks!