Race start was a TT with 2 people going off every 10 seconds, so it's well spread out the whole way. I opted not to go in the elite wave as I wanted to actually see some people I knew on the course. Some part kind of wishes I had with Ryan Giuliano showing up, along with another fast guy I haven't really raced yet, but without a tri bike I wouldn't really have a chance to stay with them.

Swim itself was rather uneventful with the spacing. Easy to get around everyone. Just having a hard time going straight. I can see and find things fine when I look up, but tend to switch breathing sides and always go off when I do. And sometimes when I'm holding one side. Stroke rate seemed high as I had to almost gasp a bit to keep up, but not sure if I was holding water well. Calmed down a bit after the first turn and was able to get a better hold of the water along the back stretch, the longest part of the course.

Turn 2 seemed to be way down to the side this time. I've done this race before and watched it several more. Work at masters is paying off as the last leg felt like it was longer, but I wasn't feeling it at all. Cap fell off along here. They had bought some cheap ones that didn't stay on well. Surprised it stayed on as long as it did actually. Normally this is an issue in the pool as I can't see, but the water is dirt brown and somehow it stayed out of the way when I looked up.

Race day, I don't know. Need to work on going straighter. Also with pacing some. Effort was even, but probably could have gone harder.

The two guys mentioned before were a full minute faster. 15 sec or so would have been fine, but I should be a lot closer than a minute. Think the course was a bit long too. Not just by my swim, but no one beat 11 minutes. Previous years have seen guys get close to 9' before.

Had trouble running the pavement again. Also had a bit with the zipper. First time that's happened with this suit. Bags were a little smaller to put things in. Glad I like the sleeveless as sleeved would have been hard to do (split transition race)

Little bit interesting on the bike, not having the tri frame and going with a road bike and no clip-ons. Never raced like this before. Wanted to push myself quite hard on this to see what would happen. Felt very strong starting off, seeing 600-700 on the hill right out of T1 which was surprising as it didn't feel like anything. Still had an average over 400 more than a minute later, so knew I had to settle down some. Passed a masters teammate within the first mile and was already ahead of everyone I knew would be at the race.

The night before I'd noticed that the wind was still stronger than normal in the evening and made sure to check the forecast. Supposed to be low teens early in the race and climbing well into the 20's during the day. Definitely felt it there the whole time. Kept down low on the drops as best I could. Bike would need a lot of refitting up front to truly fit me now as I've adapted a lot since I got it 6 years ago, but still worked ok to get through the day.

Worked my way through the people out there. Had an average well up in the 340's going over the first 10 minutes or so, but it steadily dropped after that. Had wanted to hold that for the race (and training says I can), but think both fighting the wind and not having the tri bike hurt my motivation some by not really having as good of chance to go for the course record again. Fell down to a 330 AP/334 NP by the end. Strongest split I've had so far, so really wishing I could have fully utilized it. Wasn't as far off the one guy as I thought it's be (~40") and Giuliano split near my Garmin time from a couple years ago. Put the faster bike in with more motivation and me being strong than last time and this could have been really interesting getting to T2. Still a good day when I'm 3rd overall on a road bike.

Not really anything I could have done was worth it.

Got off the bike and walked it through transition. Wasn't going to push the run anyway.

Started the run just doing whatever my body felt like. I've done better letting my run legs come to me instead of pushing the pace. The first mile I was once again wonder why I ever do this, such a crappy feeling all over from getting off the bike. Something I did notice was that nothing was even close to cramping or really sore. Just tired. Realized I hadn't felt the danger when putting on my shoes either, which doesn't happen often.

Legs seemed to start coming around just before getting to the first hill. I barely noticed going up it and was averaging faster than the early going. Legs came around better on the downhill and carried on after that. Kept pace in the high 6's, where I'd hoped to average out. Run training has been so low that I didn't want to push it in this race. Just kept a nice pace. Last mile went down into lower 6's, but also trended downhill some. Legs still felt pretty good at the end and calmed down from the race rather quickly, so good to see with that.

Maybe could have run near the one guy had I really pushed it, but no chance with Ryan as he was near 22' as I guessed he'd be.

Ran it about right for the day. Would have taken a lot more run training or making this a focus race to run faster.

Walked around and grabbed some food. Waited for other people I knew to come in. Quite a few around today. Bt'ers included Whizzz, coredump and mr2tony.