As mentioned the swim occurred AFTER the bike and it was my second 1500m swim of the day. Prior to the race I read numerous reports about people cramping when they hit the water. With that in might, I was determined to focus on upper body strength and reduce my kicking to a minimum.

I must say that entering the water after 80 minutes of tough climbing was a weird, numbing sensation. Entering the water for your second swim made it that much more painful.

As with the other races, I found a good draft. This course was really good for practicing your drafting skills. I felt like I got through the first lap feeling good. The second lap was much more difficult. I was a bit spent by the last 500m and thought my arms were about to fall off

Nothing. The swim was less than 3 minutes slower than the morning session. I think that is a success.

This was a bike to swim transition. That meant after racking your bike and removing the bike gear, I had to get INTO my wetsuit and do it quickly. I managed to get it on and adjusted adequately. I ran to the beach and had Jess zip me up. I wonder how many people forgot their goggles, lol

Under three minutes to rack a bike, get into a wetsuit an run to the beach? I am plenty happy with that performance.

Hmmmmm....this was really tough. Time trial start where you couldn't go out too hard because you knew big hills were ahead. The first climb was moderate but good. The descent was nice. Again it was really tough on a tri bike to take the corners on the switch back. The course smoothed out for a little while before heading into another climb. This time you descended the entire mountain. It was brutal on a tri bike.

The section to turnaround was nice and flat. One of the cool aspects of this race is that you can race as a team and teams could draft off one another. You really began to see the benefits of strategy.

At about mile 16 you hit the mother of all hills. This bitch kept going up and up and up. It was probably a good 5-600 feet of climbing over about one mile. I also think this is where it began to go wrong for me. I was pushing it too hard. It is really difficult not to...especially when you feel like you are going to roll back down the hill.

The summit couldn't come quick enough. Finally some active recovery. I coasted back down the descent until I hit the final hill. I could tell how exhausted I was. I was searching for more gears.

Work more on descending on the tri bike

This was a swim-run transition. I was tired coming out the water and took my time finding my rack. I talked to jess for a minute as I took off my wetsuit. I also shook out my legs and hoped to keep my socks relatively dry for the run

I am pleased with it.

Second 6.55 run on the brutal course. My legs felt pretty numb at this point. The oddest thing is that I recall how hilly the course was on the first run. You definitely felt the inclines. This time...I was too numb. I knew I was climbing but it all kinda felt the same.

I kept a steady pace and walked the aid stations. I was relinquished to walking the steepest sections of the hill. I knew that my plan was to make up the time on the downhills.

I think I was really worried about nutrition and hydration out there. I overdid it a bit but I was hungry. In the last 2 miles I developed a cramp that I couldn't work out. How frustrating is it to walk and double over in the final mile of a run. Ugh.

I likely pushed it a bit out there.

First thing I did was take off the shoes and look at the blister that was forming. Then I stood in line for more food. Pizza...pizza...pizza...anything at this point, I was a hungry boy.


Um...not race that morning. I nearly hit my anticipated time goal.


Second race of the day so you knew what to expect. I knew where the aid stations were located. The bike-swim-run format was really cool and HFP did a really good job organizing everyone.