The water went from 82 F to 68 F in two days due to all the rain and cold temps. I was not looking forward to swimming in it especially at that distance. Took time to acclimate myself in water and it was good that we could wade and wait for the start. Plan was to just relax through entire swim and not worry about time. After 200 yards, I really wanted out due to cold and all the people smashing into me. Finally crowd cleared out and I relaxed.

At the second buoy, I was 25 yards off course and had to swim 90 degrees back to the buoy to properly go around it. For most of race I struggled to stay on course since I drifted right ALOT. After turn, about 2 buoys from finish, I got way off course. When I tried to figure out where I was, I was really disorientated. Saw groups of people swimming the opposite way I was facing and thought it was the sprint people going out. Realized I still hadn't hit the sprint section and it was my group swimming toward the finish. It took a while to get my bearings and when I did I had a long way to go to get back on course.

Swim was good and bad. It was so cold and I'm not very adept at handling the crowds. However, I did manage to relax for parts and enjoy the swim, though I got off track this way. I think I am going to look for a wetsuit because you can't trust Michigan weather and water temps. Also, I need to find a lake and people to practice open water swimming with, especially since I got so far off track. I think I was so busy trying to tell myself to relax that I couldn't focus on my stroke and one side was pulling harder than the other, which made me go so far off course.

It was raining and I needed to catch my breath a bit after the swim. Took a bit longer in T1, but I still was fine with it. Didn't need to really run with my bike since the mount line was right next to my rack.

I planned to practice getting on and off my bike a couple days before the race, but it rained and I couldn't. I didn't get on my bike very well since I was worry I would either slip off my shoe or my tire would slip. Plus, I was cold and stiff. I think I gouged my shin at this stage since I noticed I was bleeding later in the bike race.

Getting feet in shoes and up to speed was poor. I was concentrating more on where to go and not falling in the rain than on properly getting up to speed. I even forgot I had straps to pull my shoes on. I definitely need to practice more and not wait until a couple days before the race.

Never road in the rain before and wasn't quite sure how to manage the slippery roads with barely any traction on tires. There wasn't much of a shoulder either. So had to sort of stay off white line, but not too far off since there was a trough in the road where water pooled. Also, there was a good 10 to 15 mph headwind all the way out to the turn. At areas not protected by trees, it seemed even stronger. Guy behind me yelled for me to stay put so he could draft me, which he did illegally the whole way out to the turn. My feet were also freezing until I made the turn.

After the turn, wind was on my back and I was able to go much faster. The guy who drafted me sped right around and flew away. Chain was rubbing on front derailleur and I thought if I just made a slight nudge it would stop. Instead, my chain flipped off. I did a pretty good job to get it back on though and didn't lose much time, maybe :30.

Not worry about my chain rubbing and just keep pedaling.

My rack was right at the T2 entrance, so only had to jump off and rack it up. My dad was right at the gate and didn't see me pass him. I yelled and yelled at him, but he didn't have his hearing aids in and he just kept staring out at the course waiting to see me. I had to turn around and yell right next to him so he could take a picture. Got shoes on no problem and took off.

I was happy with my transition, even though I had to stop and turn back to get my dad's attention. Looking at the times of the leaders, I would have been right at the top if I hadn't lost that :10.

I wanted to average 8:00 per mile, which I basically did since I walked at 3 stations to drink water. When calculating my pre-race run times and goals, I never thought about water stations since I never did a race where I needed any. Now I know to add in that time when setting goals.

First 3 miles were no problem. Toward end of mile 3, I was starting to get tired. At mile 5 my right side started to cramp up. Pushed through and did sprint across finish.

Probably didn't need the water, but it felt good to grab some and take a small breather. I still need to know how to push myself harder for a race. If I do it during training, I know that if I go too hard, I can just walk. But I need to develop the feeling of upping my effort without tiring myself out so much I can't finish.

Just grabbed some water and tried to talk to my dad who was at the finish line.


The weather and not ever practicing in the rain, especially on my bike. It was cold and I should get a wetsuit.


The swim, bike, and run courses are all well marked. Though it would be nice to have the swim course buoys be a different color on the return. It was a bit hard to mark which buoy to target since the out and return buoys were pretty close together. The entire course is very flat. It is very well organized and they gave lots of updates as the weather continued to cause changes to the water temp and wetsuit rules. The race results were up on their website within a couple of hours. I would race this again and also race any event put on by these organizers.