Found a spot on the front edge of the pack that I felt gave me the straightest line to the buoy...for some reason most people were seemingly starting out too far to my left. I figured with the sprint race there would be plenty of first-timers and I was confident enough in my abilities to be up front that I wanted to avoid the carnage...better to have a few people go around me than to try and navigate the wreckage.

I wanted to really keep my heart rate down for this swim...my previous OWS's have required some sort of break, whether it was back stroking, breast stroking or treading water. So when the gun went off, I lightly jogged into the water rather than sprinting off with a lot of the folks around me. And I was very methodical in my swim strokes. Glad I did all this, because it was somewhat of a cluster&*#! out there on the way to the first buoy. And it didn't help any that my left goggle lens was dislodged when I dove into the water. Having a leaky goggle at the start of a race really bites...it ain't very easy to just stop and fix it without being water-buffaloed by the herd. So I tried to just close my left eye for about 20-30...quickly figured out that wasn't a permanent solution. So then I figure maybe I can just open my left eye and deal with the water...that didn't work either. Then I come up with a brilliant solution to try and adjust it while I'm swimming...with my face still in the water. Needless to say that didn't work either...but made me laugh at the things you'll think of during a race. The good news with all these hair-brained schemes is that I was now about 100 yards into my swim and had enough space to stop for 2-3 seconds to pour it out, re-seat it and be on my way.

Holy off-course navigators, Batman. I'm not sure where some people were going. I don't think I'm particularly great at navigating, but a couple of times I had to do double-takes to make sure I was going to the correct buoy. This happened on all three legs. But I was happy because when I rounded the first buoy, I found an awesome lane of clean water directly to the next buoy with no one in my way (no one to draft off of either, but since I suck at drafting I'll take the clear shot). Needless to say that it is rare to find a clean line directly from one turn buoy to the next...speaks volumes for the field's navigating abilities! Made a nice tight turn around the second buoy, grazed it as I went by, and then started sighting to the giant green run finish to bring me back home.

Figure out how to dive into the water without dislodging my goggles.

Jeebus, that was a long trek up to the bikes. Ended up running on the grass beside the path for most of the way...RD will be correcting race literature next year to reflect 5.2K run. Put my helmet on, buckled it and started running with my bike out to transition. Looked down and saw my Halo headband hanging from my aerobars. Son-of-a-motherless-goat! Knew I'd need that on this humid-arse day. Stop, unbuckle helmet, put Halo on, put helmet back on, buckle helmet and resume jog to exit. I cross over the red mat/mount line and am just about to hop onto the bike when one of the volunteers starts yelling. I stop in mid-hop, turn around to see what's the fuss, and she's hollering at someone behind me. Run a little further with my bike just to make sure I'm not involved in the ruckus and then hop on to bike and slip into shoes.

Uh...not forget to put on Halo.

This course was much hillier than I expected. Who knew they had these types of hills in North Texas.

Didn't seem like we were going uphill while leaving the park, but I felt like I pushing it pretty good when I looked down to see 17.5 mph on my computer. Ugh. Started hoping I was on some sort of false flat. either that, or I was in for a long day.

Got out on the road and the tempo picked up...except when climbing up aforementioned hills. The shoulder really sucked for the first part of the race...lots of rocks, gravel and other road trash. Most of us ended up riding in the only lane of east/north bound traffic...at one point going three-wide in the only lane of traffic...hope there aren't any cars coming behind us!!!

And the depressing thing about being in the FIRST wave of the entire race and putting up a decent swim time is that it means getting passed by lots 'o folks. And not passing all that many. Booooo! Took comfort in the fact that it was lots of disc wheels and aero helmets that were whizzing by.

Did get to pass at least one person...as he walked up the semi-nasty final climb shortly before going back into the park. I had a chuckle as some guy that had just whizzed by me in a fancy red Kuota tri-bike with an aero helmet and the whole nine yards was jogging his bike up the hill. I'm thinking he must have slipped out of his pedals mid-hill and couldn't click back in...hill was steep, but not THAT steep so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

Not much. This was a good bike for me, especially given the hills.

This was my best overall T2 to date. I have fun with transitions, so I get a kick out of nailing them. I stayed in my shoes as long as possible and got out of them just before the left-hand turn into T2. Was off to the left side of the bike about 20m before the dismount line and hopped off right on to the red mat. Boo-yah!

Racked my bike smoothly, took a swig of water, and shoved my feet into my pre-tied shoes. Right quad screamed at me (loudly) for about two seconds as I shoved my right shoe on. Hoped that wasn't a sign of things to come.

Grabbed my race belt and put it on while I jogged to the exit.

Maybe get some Yankz so I don't have to shove my feet into the shoes.

Thought I was going to hyper-ventilate the first mile. I could not catch my breath...just a bunch of short, shallow choppy breaths. And I constantly have a bloated feeling when I start out on my runs...can't figure out what it is. Feels like I've had to much to drink, but I only had one water bottle out on the bike course...maybe I'm drinking too much lake water!

Eventually got the breathing under control and got rid of the standard telephone-poles-for-legs feeling after the first mile. Was able to stretch out the stride some more and put together a pretty decent run. LOVE the water sprayers on the run course...should be mandatory every .25 kilometers! Extra motivation was provided by seeing my race buddy about a minute-and-a-half behind me at the turnarounds...he's a stronger runner than me and I thought for sure he'd run me down in the home stretch. Gave a few glances over my shoulder the last mile and gave it a good kick down the stretch just to be sure I'd have bragging rights for the first time.

Even though I'm more than happy with sub-8 miles, I've got to work more on the run...relative to the field that was my worst leg and I'm giving up some time here. Not too disappointed though because I strained my calf in early June, which meant no running for two weeks and I ended up making pretty much all of June a "bike month."

Log more miles pounding the pavement.

Sweated my arse off for about 30 minutes. Good grief it was humid...even the Vitamin Water and watermelon couldn't cool me down. And pizza didn't sound even remotely appetizing until about an hour after the race.

Hung out and saw lots of folks. Band was mediocre...would be better if they didn't have them tucked into a back corner behind the line of tents.

Waited a long time for award ceremony because I was getting some hardware, baby (thanks only to the fact that they went 10-deep on the awards)! A cute, nice woman was handing out the awards, but I nominate someone (er, anyone) do the awards next year. She had trouble pronouncing names like Michael Anderson ("Ummm...Mike? From Coppell?). And then her speaker crapped out, which made matters worse.

Next year, bring the band to the forefront and use their sound equipment for awards.


Lack of run training.