This is the first beach start i've done other than Xterra, and I didn't know what to expect, so I was no in the fray at all at the start. Once I got to swimming, I found myself windmilling, and not paying attention to form at all. After a few minutes, I realized that the field had left me because of it. I got my act together, and payed attention to Front quadrant swimming, reach, catch, head position, and digging deep. I started to catch people as we hit the first bouy, and quickly passed 3-4 people there, and on the next stretch caught a couple more, hit the turn bouy, started catching more, and then the wave behind me started to swim over me. Overall a decent swim, Im not surprised with the pace

Go a little harder. I was incredibly comfortable and the HR shows it.

4th fastest T1 in my AG
Most everyone swims faster than me, so I hoped to make up time in transition. Before the race, I had told Aaron that I hoped (and expected)that I would find lots of people in T1 and be gone before them. I made sure that I was deliberate. but fast, and wasted no time.
The run up to T1 was 300yds maybe, and my rack was about 1/2 way. Everything went fine, but putting the shoes on was slow.

Get some tri shoes so i can have them clipped in and runner banded and be faster!

I didn't take an easy few minutes out of T1 like usual, I immediately went hunting. The out on this course is faster than the back, so I settled into a hard pace(for me), but making sure to save a little for the back since the hills are a little longer on the back. I passed more people than I ever have on the bike! And they weren't on mountain bikes!We got a little rain heading to the turn around, but never enough to even make the road wet. As we were heading out, I had a girl passing me, sit up and says "hey....are you Doughboy?" Uh, yeah, who might you be? It turns out that SuperBird has seen my blogs, and recognized me, or my aero helmet with the doughboy on it, as she was blowing by me. Saw Marcy after the turn on the bike and I still had about 4 minutes on her. I felt like I took the gas off a little bit more than I should have on the way back, but I am pleased with the speed. I could have hurt more coming back than I did. At least comparable to the out. This is the fastest ride I've ever done, and this isn't a PR course.

Go harder on the hills on the way out, and make sure to keep up the intensity on the back.

4th Fastest T2 in my AG
I had 4 people pass me once we were in the park. But once we made it to T2....I passed them all at the dismount line as they were taking their sweet old time. Flying dismount went very well, even though I came in a little hot. I even caught a couple of others at the line. Helmet off, hat on, fought with the shoes a little, grab race belt...gone.

Nada

About 1and 1/2 minute outs of T2, I hear Jill from behind me...Calling out for Marcy coming in from the bike.....Damn, she may catch me yet! Ran the first up section to the 1st aid station, took a walk break, took water, started running. This is a little out and back section. I saw Marcy on the out and back, and I still had about 2.5 minutes on her. The next sections had a reasonable downhill, and mostly flat from then out to the turn around. After the turn, Marcy was about 1:30 behind me. Damn she's catching up! There was only one more walk break for me. Once we hit the short uphill, I was noticing more that my shoe was rubbing a big blister, so I stopped and checked the shoe to make sure that there wasn't anything obvious causing the problem. With nothing found, I knew it was run in the rest of the way or Marcy WILL catch me....and I need to go harder too! I did....Around every corner, I looked, I couldn't catch a glimpse of her, but I knew she was there. In the last 150yds, I turned around and looked for her to see if she was there, but no. Everyone was yelling..."Don't look now!" I had a girl run up next to me and wanted to sprint it out....I said.."You're already 6 minutes ahead of me!"

Not let my head talk my legs into walk breaks. I probably took 4 walk breaks, but I probably only really needed 1.

Waited for other BTers in the Sprint and the Olympic. Drink lots, eat watermelon


Weight....Pure and simple


This was a great showing by all the BTers! Lots of hardware all over! It was great to meet a few new people, and even better to feel like I had give alot more than any other race, and it got me hardware!
I made a concerted effort to take all the "free" time I could in transition. Im really happy with that! If you look at the placing for each event, none are 5th or better, so the only way I got that was in transition.