Swim was short and I was in the 3rd wave. Lot of 1st timers in the waves in front being pulled out of water or hangin onto buoys so I know I would have to swim around alot of people. Started at the front and took off with the guy. Was swimming next to bkarhu or right behind from the start. Started catching the wave infront within 100m which considering they had a 4min headstart they were not doing well. Really started too fast and I think that caused my Hr to be elevated all day. Hit the long stretch were the chop was not interupting my breathing because I breath right and swam hard. Started catching the 1st wave pretty quickly. Really could not find anyone too draft off of so I just went for it. I figured 400m no problem. Got to the last buoy and it was a log jam. I could not get moving and started to panic. Settled down though and swam towards the finish. Stood up way to early and instead of starting to swim again I just ran. This really hurt me.

Start slower and swim farther till the end.

Bkarhu got out of transition slightly infront of me so I knew I would have someone too chase. Notice that my brand new TTT visor was missing and figure the wind blew it but it was overcase so I would not probably need it. Just put on helmet (no glasses) and race number. T1 should have been faster but I tried to take it slow to get HR down

Nothing.

Plan was to hammer and not look much at cadence/HR which I did and paid for it. Don't really trust avg cadence from Garmin.

I knew brian was not far in front of me so I figure I would try and catching 1/2 of the Cervelo/Hed3 Mafia. Got him within site pretty quickly but could never really gain any ground. Started passing people right out of T1 and only got passed a few times. The wind on the dam was horrible crosswind but managable. I had taken everything off my bike the night before included water bottles and seat bag. I figured I would be okay. I really wish I would have put a few ounces of water though as my throat started getting dry. At the turn around the wind was a slight tail/crosswind so it did help some. Caught Brian with about 2 miles to go as he took his feet out of his shoes (oops). Did the flying dismount into T2 and knew I was in trouble.

Not push so hard and ride my own race. Take a little water.

Still no visor and legs were sore and HR was sky high so I took my time.

Nothing I really could do given the circustances

Left transition with goal of #1 finish and #2 beat Brian. Knew this was going to be my worst sprint run so far and nothing I could do about it. I would run until my heart felt like it was going to burst then would walk. I kept looking back and could see brian slowly gain and then fall back so I figured he was in the same boat. Managed to slug it out to the end and accomplish both my goals.

Take it easier on the bike. I wanted sub 7:00 miles so I was no where near close

Stood around and watch the other finishers and talk to BTers


No breakfast in morning other than kudos bars


Good race and well run. RD needs to talk less though as people start to get antsy. Also with the swim they really could have used a first timers wave starting at the rear of the field. They caused alot of congestion on the course. The race was fun and I will definately do it again.