Where to start? The lake is about 36" deep for a good 60% of the entire swim. It is a man made lake and it is nice, but not really a swim. It was small and the waves, I felt were too big, given the size of area that we were swimming. From watching other waves I knew to stay on the out side and dolphin until I got to deeper water. It was actually funny, I walked a good portion of it, but finally could make a couple of strokes without my fingers dragging the bottom. Was carrying a lot of speed to the turnaround bouy and probably was 2 waves ahead at this point. I had kept an eye on a guy i met before the start. He was fast! Made the turn, navigated through a few more swimmers and finally came to the beach and headed for T1.

I wish it was deeper so i could have actually swam.

Practice, Practice, Practice I tried putting my shoes on in the pedals and turned into a huge disaster. I probably wasted a good minute monkeying around with my shoes. Finally got'em and i was strapped in. Did I mention by this time it was raining?

Got a shout out for being in the Donkai. Pretyty cool to be recognized. I think he said his name was kev81? If your our there, blog me!

See above. Either practice, or forget it.

First, it was raining like crazy. However, I still rode to a PR for mph in a sprint. All I can say is that you can buy speed. Jenna handled great. It was really my first experience with riding that fast in the rain. it definietly takes some getting used to. The good news was that it kep me cool, but you definitely need to be on your toes. I felt really stong on the bike the whole way. I had switched rear casettes a few days prior and really haven't ridden since then. It took some getting used to, but pretty soon I found my sweet spot. The first 5-6 miles I was passing a lot of other riders. I was concerned at first, but then I just decided to keep the pace and see how it goes. By mile 5-6 I was getting passed by obviously faster cyclists. By mile 10 the race had segmented into your typical sub-groups. i was battling this guy on a Raliegh back and forth, it was quite fun. He took the lead into a tight left hander. He looked back to see where i was and he was continuing to peddle. All of a sudden, his back tire slides out from underneath him and slides all the way across the road and into the shoulder. I am a good sport. I stopped, made sure he was OK, and asked if he needed anything. He told me to get going and not ruin my own race. i took off, but i was a little freaked and was a little more cautious after that. It probably cost me a minute worth of time.

Pick a race with less chance of rain. I can't say I would do a lot of things differently. I felt really comfortable in aero position and I thought i navigated through traffic well. i love my bike and I think i made a good choice in choosing it. Never thought I would be able to average close to 21. My first tri my average was 15.6 mph. Totally fun to see the improvement.

Had my feet out of my shoes before transition and dismonted right at the line. I passed 4 or 5 people right there. I hopped off and then proceeded to loose my balance and almost run into the fence. Moron. Found my rack, threw on the shoes, took a big drink of Endurace, slapped on my hat and i was off.

Nopthing really. The wife said i was really quick out of T2, so if she even noticed, it must have been better than average.

Well, it is the same story every race. Great swim average bike (but getting better) and a 10:00/mile run. My HR was through the roof. Upper 170's out of T2. I drank a couple of huge drinks of Endurace, that did not sit well with me and sloshed around. Legs were OK, but stiff and I felt under control. The rain was kind of a blessing as it kept me cool, but I was more concerned about my HR. I'd slow down look at my watch and it would say 172! WTF. I ran the entire course, which is always a goal. I did get some stiches @ 1.5 miles but just contolled my breathing a little bit and they went away. i finished strong, but I may just not be a short distance runner.

Run faster!

It was still raining, so I quickly went under the shelter, grabbed some food and went to transition to clean up a huge mess. What a pain.


Great race with lots of dedicated volunteers that stayed in the rain. Great job everyone!