My swim time has never been blazing fast, but 1:30 per 75m is about on par with what I've been doing on my FEW swim sessions. Glad it wasn't longer to be honest, I still can't fully extend my left arm and it gets tired even after 50 or so meters.

Got to build my strength back up from atrophy, then find my groove again. I could tell my form has slipped in my down time.

There is still plenty of time to be shaved off of my T1. Hopefully over the off season I'll have some motivation to practice putting on my shoes while riding. Otherwise, I felt like it was pretty quick really.

Learn some sweet moves!

Right after the Long hill, I shifted into my big ring and dropped my chain! I was unsure (didn't see the coarse beforehand) exactly HOW close to the finish I was, so I coasted down a hill with no gears thinking I might be able to ride it in. Another hill before the dismount brought that dream crashing down though, so I got off and found that my chain was STUCK in the Front Derailleur! Crap. It takes me a good minute or two to PRY the chain out, then I put it back on the ring (i think) jump on and, it drops immediately! Double crap! I jump off, get it right, and blow up that last hill as fast as I possibly can. I'm 100% sure that dropping my chain cost me a podium spot. Oh well, I can't be mad with a 16mph average considering I sat still for 2 or 3 minutes.

SRAM RED gruppo, you are looking sweeter and sweeter every day.

Seriously, other than the chain drop, and the fact that I didn't hydrate well on the bike, I couldn't have asked for it to go better. I was on FIRE the whole bike.

Again, my transitions need work. Staying clipped in until the dismount, then running in tri shoes is not optimal. Also, I need to toughen my feet up and get some sockless running shoes so I can skip that whole segment. Other than that though, it was an ok T2

WORK ON MY TRANSITIONS. With some VERY simple changes I could drop 30-45 seconds easy.

Came out of T2 and IMMEDIATELY regretted not drinking more water on the bike. My gut started giving me pains almost from the get-go. I will myself NOT to walk, just slow down and get some breaths, find my rhythm. The plan goes as well as you can guess... I never find my comfort zone and suffer the whole 3 miles. On the plus side, I didn't stop, and even managed to pass one or two people.

Got to get more water on the bike ride, I'm convinced that is what gave me the pain in the gut. I won't hate though, I've been running somewhere in the 8:xx fresh, so running it off the bike doesn't give me much room to B*tch.

Hugged mom (who was worried sick! she saw the black grease on me after the bike and immediately thought I had wrecked again) and let her know I was fine, got some water, walked back towards the finish and waited for my friend to cross. Gave him a high-five and congratulated him on being a triathlete. We went and got some cookies/pizza and chatted with some of the people we had talked to earlier.


1.) Chain coming off on the bike... I'm sorta sore about that one still.
2.) Not hydrating right on the bike. I know better than that.
3.) Transitions. I WILL have that one fixed before next year.
4.) Swim. This winter I have to put some hours into the water. Fortunately for me this one was short, but that won't cut it forever.


It was a first year event, so there was some of the obvious complications. Race day events does a heck of a job setting stuff up though, and I was glad when I saw their banner pulling in the parking lot (didn't know it was a RDE) The lack of police was the biggest gripe I had, the roads were only trafficed by volunteers with signs, which Drivers notoriously ignored ( I witnessed at least 3 such events firsthand) Otherwise everything was up to what I expected.