The buoys had been set the day before. Due to strong winds, the buoys had been moved further out to sea. Garmin showed swim of 557 yards. Part of that was not swimming straight line and part of that was distance more than advertised. I would guess swim distance was closer to 500 yards point to point.

Other than swimming a bit straighter and focusing better on stroke follow through, not much. Wind and current were pushing me off course, like the buoys, and so was difficult to maintain straight swim line, especially on the "across" portion of swim.

The run from water to Transition area was about 200-300 yards uphill and so that was a chunk of of overall T1 time. Garmin showed .22 mile of total running. I forgot to remove goggles and cap right away and so did that before helmet on and cost me about 10 seconds as the cap was stuck getting it off.

Remember to take cap and goggles off during run to transition.

Had a hard timing getting into high gears early. Head wind starting out didn't help. This ride course needs some work. Lots of pot holes on several miles, a section is chip and seal that never compacted well. I would say, to be fair, half the ride is decent to nice roads, the other half is poor to rough roads. Aside from the road conditions, the course is also up and down.

Try to be more intentional about getting into the higher gears earlier in the ride and push through the discomfort of doing that.

No issues. Dismount was rough.

Not much. Dismount earlier.

Slower than I wanted. Got into comfort zone and stayed in it too long.

Like the run, push into the discomfort zone earlier and then start finish sprint earlier.... at 1/2 mile instead of 1/4 mile.

Grabbed water, walked around, walked to transition, removed items to vehicle, ate, used restroom, talked with athletes, got podium photos, went home.


A few mental lapses during race.


The swim is nice in the reservoir, the run is always challenging, and the bike is likewise challenging. The swag is unmatched. If you want awesome swag, then this is the race for you. What keeps this race from being a 5 rated race are simply 2 things: a) the road for the bike needs some repaving. Half is good, the other half is poor; and b) the price. This race is about $30-40 more than similar races. That being said, this race does a much better job of giving away great swag than most races and the photos taken at the race and posted online are professional. I think if they can get the road fixed on the bike, this race can be a 5.