I was passed 25 meters in which was fine by me and allowed me draft off the passer the rest of the swim. It was crowed like always with my 105 second seed time netting me racer #296. The drafting allowed me to pass without much thinking. Our convoy probably went by 15 or more swimmers

I'm very happy with my swim time, a little under what I did in training after accounting for getting out of the pool. Slower than years past but those times I wore the wet suit. By far the faster non wet suit swim for me..

Seed myself a bit faster to avoid all the passing and back ups. With a wet suit and without my convoy things could have been worse with #296.

One of my fastest T1s and my bike rack, thanks to #296 was pretty far from the mount line. However, it's clear to me the wet suit doesn't slow me down much in T1 as my time really wasn't any better.

Seed myself lower, getting a closer bike rack and easier swim. Socks do seem to slow me a bit.

I was surprised my time was so good as I wasn't sure I had put enough into the bike training (2 days a week, one at the gym). I was just 7 seconds off my bike time three years ago.

Practice on the bike course. My third lap felt the best and I felt like I "figured it out" by then. I went pretty hard given my training leading up and perhaps that cost me on the run (?).

Also, I'm really BAD going up that steep hill 3 times. I often was passed by others and then quickly passed them back after the hill. Hill training or general leg strength improvement would be a big help for this bike course.

Last thing, I had a gel tapped to my bike but I never found the time to take it with all the hill changes. I'm wondering if the gel would have helped my run?

My time was on par with past years. The biggest issue I had was the feeling in my legs as I started to run up the hill in T2 to my bike rack. It was clear to me the run was going to be a challenge as my legs felt like bowling balls.

I did some bricks before the race but my legs still were in bad shape coming off the bike. Maybe I went out to hard on the bike or maybe I needed to gear down a bit towards the end.

I thought about grabbing my gel and taking it at the beginning of the run but for some reason I didn't. Probably a mistake.

OK, my run was a disaster. The second slowest run time for me at this race, only the first year coming off my mountain bike was worse. It's shocking to me that 5 years ago I went 4 minutes faster. I can't say I died on the run as I really never got going. The first step off the bike was sluggish and it never got any better. Even running downhill for the first mile I was at 9m30s pace. It just went downhill from there.

I did walk briefly in several spots but mostly just to drink water. The issue was general pace and my legs not feeling like them wanted to go.

My plan is to try to ramp up my running from 10MPW to 40MPW for the rest of 2016. Let's see if that's helps.

I was hurting at the finish line but quickly recovered and walked around until I found Amy and the kids. We all then cheered on Adam as he came up that last big hill. I stretched a little but certainly not enough.

I then grabbed some pizza and Sprite and shared them with Brayden.


Run training, lack of gel during the race, maybe went out a little to hard on the bike. No wet suit probably ended up stealing some energy for the run.


Can't say enough good things about the organizers of this race, they really put on a great rac. This having been my 6 time doing the race it was nice to see old friends.