There's no way that was a 1/3 mile swim. It had to be shorter than that. The swim was pretty shallow and lots of people walked for quite a bit of the way. It was frustrating swimming along and not going much faster than those that were walking through chest-deep water. I also had a difficult time getting into a rhythm. I couldn't slow my breathing down and stood up a number of times to catch my breath. About 1/3 through the swim I was able to start breathing regularly on the left side, but I couldn't breath slow enough to breathe bilaterally and that was frustrating.

I passed people regularly, so there wasn't much drafting to do, and I quickly made it back to shore. I made the mistake of standing up too early and quickly saw how tiring walking through the deep water was.

Exited the water and made my way up the hill to the transition area. Time was taken at the top of the hill at the entrance to T1.

Practice ows more... much more.

T1 time is lumped into the bike. No problems at all here except on the gravel road down to the highway. I got into some softer stuff and even up on to the grass a little. It didn't really hurt my time more than a second or two though.

Nothing.

Bike computer said my average speed was 22.5 since that didn't include T1 or T2. Bike time was ended while leaving T2.

Was in 2nd place overall through about 1.25 miles into the bike and 3rd place until about 8 miles in. Came in 4th overall.

Had a very good bike leg. It was a little windy, but not too bad. Tail wind going east was great and kept the speed between 27 and 30. Even with the crosswind going south and headwind going west, I kept up a good pace and made a conscious effort to push myself.

While taking my feet out of my shoes, my right shoe unclipped and was dangling from my toe. Somehow I was able to keep it from falling off and tumbling into the ditch and then proceeded to more carefully get out of the shoes again... I need to change the tension on my clips. That was the biggest problem on the bike.

Nothing.

T2 time was included in the bike leg. Didn't have a reference point for where my transition area was and lost a couple seconds finding it. T2 was pretty quick otherwise.

Look more carefully for my spot. Otherwise, nothing.

Stomach wasn't feeling the greatest during the run. Alternated with feeling good and really wanting to walk. Sometimes that cycle would come and go in a matter of a minute or so. Kept plodding along at an ok pace. I don't think my pace varied all that much from the beginning to the end. I tried to pick up the pace a few times, and may have done so moderately, but I just couldn't push myself any faster. Looking at mile markers I know my 2nd mile was about 7 minutes as was the 3rd. The first and last .8 must have been slower.

Passed a kid who flew on the bike but ran slowly, but got passed by Dave and another guy. I kept them in sight, but just couldn't pick up the pace to catch them.

Collapsed at the finish.

Train more. Then train more still.

lay on the ground. Get a hug. Have pictures taken. Stagger about. Stretch when I've already cooled down.


Not enough OWS training and not enough running and speed work.


I enjoyed this race quite a lot and was very happy with the result. It's small, laid back, and maybe short in the swim, but pretty well organized and the volunteers were great. I would love to do it again.

T-shirt was pretty ugly though. Ugh.