Seemed like just about everything went wrong on the swim. As soon as I dove into the water, I got a cramp in the arch of my foot. By the time I got that worked out, my goggles had filled up with water. I tried swimming essentially blinded in one eye, but the problem was it was the side where the buoys and the rest of the swimmers were. I had to stop at least 3 times to get the water out of my goggles, but my navigation was extremely poor and probably added at least 100 extra meters to the swim.

I thought I had fixed my issues with the goggles during warm up, but it happened again during the race. In the future, I'll need to make sure I have my goggles situated before the race starts. I'm not sure I could have avoided the foot cramp, but maybe stretching more before the race could have helped.

T1 was slower than last year. Partly due to not running up the entire hill from the swim to transition, partly because of having to take off my wetsuit, and partly because all my gear was in plastic bags due to the rain.

My T1 was 38 seconds slower than the year before. Most of that must be due to the suit and I'm sure some was due to having to get my stuff out of plastic bags. Based on that, I'd say my T1 was about on par with last year in terms of performance. I could have run the entire hill from the beach to transition, that's about the only thing in my control to have done differently.

I felt like I was hammering on the bike. My average speed of 19.22 represents a personal best in terms of a race. I feel really good about that pace considering most of the bike was done in a downpour. The conditions were far from ideal, but I still managed to set a bike PR in terms of speed, which makes me feel like I would have really been tearing it up if it wasn't raining.

I had just a bit of trouble getting going out of transition, but otherwise this was the best bike ride I've ever had.

In the past, I would have don a flying dismount. But with being new to clipless pedals, I haven't really practiced that move. My bike dismount was slower because I had to come to a stop and get off the bike a little more carefully. Also, I had my running shows in my transition bag, so I needed extra time to get the shoes out of the bad and on my feet. Most of T2 went pretty well, but the bad weather made for a slower T2. Still, I was only 10 seconds slower than last year.

I had meant to practice the flying dismount with my feet on top of my cycling shoes, but never got around to it. I could have sped up T2 a little by getting comfortable with a flying dismount with the clipless pedals. Otherwise, the weather was the biggest factor and I can't do anything about that.

I knew I had gone hard on the bike, but the first 50 yards felt like I was going to be OK. Then, the calf cramps hit! I stopped twice in the first 1/4 mile or so to stretch them out. I got rid of the cramps after that 2nd stop and they didn't return. Still, the cramps and hills hampered my performance on the first mile and I clocked 8:59. I returned with a vengeance after that, clocking 7:57 and 7:52 for miles 2 and 3!

I had intended to do more bricks, but I haven't been doing them. I feel like last year I did more bricks and had fewer problems with cramps. They didn't go away completely, but it wasn't as bad as the previous year. I need to start doing my brick workouts. Otherwise, that was a strong run, especially after turning in my best bike speed ever.

Wandered around transition for a little while trying to get my breath back and then went and grabbed some grub from the BBQ at the event.


The weather was a factor. But the biggest issue was the swim. The goggles were a major distraction and had to have cost me at least a full minute, if not more. I think I also went out a little too hard and then my pace fell off more than it would have if I had paced myself better.


Nothing the event could do about the weather, which was the only negative about the race. Otherwise, everything else was done well. I can't remember thinking even one time that there was something that the race director should have done differently, so kudos to Alex and MRA!