As a lousy swimmer, this wasn't so bad, even with poor navigation and leaky goggles. My first time ever doing a dive--more like jump--start off a small jetty, so I was last one in (and last one out). At least I had plenty of room to swim! A very rocky exit from the water to a large boat dock, and had to breast stroke the last 50 yards so as not to hurt my feet/hands. Despite all that, I was shooting for 2:00/100 yds, and this was faster than that, so I will take it.

Do my warm up swim so I can adjust my goggles and start out with more authority.

This would be slow for a shorter distance, but I purposely took it easy and was fairly efficient.

I need to bite the bullet and practice transition with shoes on the pedals. It'd cut a minute off my time.

It was a good ride on a great course, although it was a little too flat for my tastes; the rolling part of the course was much more fun and interesting. I went out smart and had some reserves, but I took a wrong turn at mile 50 and wound up on a parallel bike path that had me dodging pedestrians and slowed me down by 2-3 minutes. I wasn't making the podium anyway.

Pay more attention/read the signs better. Between the wrong turn and hesitating to make sure I was going the right way definitely cost me time.

Meh. Frankly, I thought I was slower. Again, I was not pushing it.

I was on my targeted sub-2:00 pace for first half, but heat and cumulative fatigue got to me and I fell way off. I did a very good job of running the tangents -- my Garmin had me at 12.7.

Not sure. I think some more over distance rides would help give me more pop on the run. I also need to drink more, dehydration caught up to me.

Shuffling the .6 mile trek from the finish line to the transition area.


Hesitant swim start, goofy swim exit (I climbed the dock like a sea turtle crawling up the beach), getting lost on bike, and poor hydration. All of these are pretty easy fixes.


Good race, particularly for a first effort for organizers (they did Olympic and sprint last year), and I think it will only get better and bigger. Stacked field, however, with 13 of 73 racers finishing under 5 hours. As a MOP type, particularly at this distance, it got a little lonely on the course and probably why I got lost on the bike. Still had a good time and was please with my effort.