I never saw so many people drop out 50 meters into the swim. This is a very newbie-inhabited race and there were many unprepared athletes.

Wear my wetsuit!

Lots of ground to cover for such a small race site.

I have nothing against newbies, people on mountain bikes or people who are slower than me and I am far from an elitist...BUT...the people riding all over the lane were crazy! I have never seen so much blocking in a race. I must have yelled 'on your left' 50 times. Sometimes they'd move, sometimes not. One girl just kept looking at me over her shoulder while she rode the yellow line as I told her three times I wanted to pass. Another guy almost took me out as I passed him on the turn coming back into town. I guess three 'on your lefts' and leaving him 3/4 of the (wide) road weren't enough so he cut over and clipped my ankle with his pedal. Lucky for both of us we didn't go down (those Thursday night criteriums are paying off!). I wanted to go hard the whole way on the bike and feel that I could have gone a small bit harder but I'm satisfied with the effort. I lost some time slowing repeatedly for the blocking riders.

Drink more. I think I was pushing so hard I didn't want to drink. That's ok for a sprint but wouldn't work out too well in a longer race.

The 50 meter run on sharp gravel felt great on my bare feet. If you've never tried it you're missing out. Having to run around the transition area and back through cost a few seconds but not too much.

Nothing.

I didn't feel like I was pushing like I should be. I was pushing fairly hard but was falling into a comfortable zone when I should have been trying to blast the run.

Try to push harder.

More standing around talking.


My fatness and my sucky swimming.


The organizers did a good job. There was good post race food including Chips Ahoy cookies! They had a DJ playing music and the awards started in a timely fashion. I hear this race may not return, the town doesn't want it. That would be unfortunate since it is a nice race for beginners. My wife saw a local resident back a truck towing a boat back out of a driveway right into a pack of runners (who had to stop since the trailer blocked the whole street). At least one runner unleashed a string of 'F' words at the guy. I can understand both sides, the residents don't want to be stuck in their homes all morning, the racers don't want to be held up.