The start was a self assigned wave process starting at 6:40am. I placed myself in the 1:10-1:20 wave. I walked into the water as its very shallow the first 200 yards and I wanted to adjust slowly. The air temp was sub freezing and the combo with altitude made me cautious. The fog was thick so visablity was really poor. In addtion buoys were on the left making sighting tough. I added a done of distance to my race due to poor navigation. I'm usually tight to the buoys but not this time. The lake was colder at shore than further out. It was actually really comfortable in the wetsuit... nicer than the air temp.

sight more and actually do all the swim training. I was very undertrained for this race.

T1 was crazy! It was so cold my feet were frozen blocks by the time I got to the tent. There were tons of people. Between my slow swim and the slow T1 times of everyone it was a pile up in the tent.... bodies everywhere. I managed to claim a small spot and get dry and pack on gear. I helped several others zip there clothing up as their hands were frozen. I got my hand warmers going and headed out.

It was cold out and the time I took to warm up and help others was worth it. For this race I wouldn't have changed things

Holy crap there were some crazy climbs! My front shifter was frozen for the first 25 miles so I took Dollar hill in the big ring ... that was hard. My feet were frozen blocks but the rest of me was well insulated. The Martis climb was insane and by the time I hit Brockaway I was seriously wondering how I'd complete lap two. I didn't have a climbing cassette so I ran out of gears .... this totally shredded my legs. I had to did deep to make myself continue when I hit Squaw the first time. I'm usually a good climber and my bike has gotten pretty good but this course tamed me. That said it was beautiful out there!

I didn't train enough for this race and I knew that coming in. I moved and changed jobs this year and couldn't put the hours in that were needed. I own that and I'm just really happy that I didn't DNF. This course also requires a climbing cassette... it was just stupid of me to not make that change.

I was so burnt out by the end of the bike. I took 5 minutes to just chill out. I knew I had time to finish even if I walked so I gathered myself and refocused.

The run course is truely beautiful. I'm glad I got to see the whole thing in the daylight for my fiirst loop. I was able to run the first 2 miles and then started walking. I was more mentally drained at this point and I really just gave up. I was lucky enought to latch on to a fellow racer ( Jenifer) at about mile 11. She pulled me back to a jog and we kept eachother moving through mile 24. I owe her big time for keeping me under 16 hours! When it got dark it was very dark. We made it to special needs and my headlamp just in time. I was able to run the last 0.5mile but I was spent at the end.

I didn't train enough. Just so happy that I finished. While this wasn't a time PR I think this might have been a effort PR for me.

I was lucky enough to find a fellow racer to give me a ride down the hill to my condo. Walking the 2 miles in the dark with my bags would have sucked so Thank-you fellow racer. I'm sorry I didn't get your name!


I knew I was under trained and that this course would be a challenge. I know there will be many that think the course was too hard but I think they should keep it as is. There are plenty of flat fast options so having a good climbing/high altitude race is a great option. With the right training it would have been a different experience.... still tough but fun.


I think this is a great new venue. I know there were a lot of DNF's and the weather added challenge. That said could you imagine if this race were on Sat when it was pouring? Overall I think its an awesome course and a great IM option. There are plenty of flat options so this adds some variety. I say keep it as is and just tweak some minor areas.