I struggled w/ the sun in my eyes to the first turn buoy. They put the buoy's in the back of boats, which made it a bit difficult to see. I couldn't get in a groove and ended up way to the right off course.
After the first turn I could see better, but still struggled to get a rythm going. Then after the second turn, I suddenly got comfortable, caught a draft, and felt strong for the last stretch.

Need to get a better warm-up in. Felt like it took me most of the swim to get comfortable.

Had the 4th fastest T1 of the day, behind the top 3 finishers. Wetsuit stuck a bit, but not too bad.

Forgot to rubber band my bike shoes to hold them in position. Spent way too much time, after I got on the bike, getting my feet into my shoes.

This course loses 1600' net in elevation. Makes for a fast split, but there are some difficult sustained climbs that take a bite out of the legs throughout the course.
This is my strength and it showed today. Pulled back a lot of fast swimmers.
I sometimes feel like the guys on the expensive tri-bikes and carbon wheels, take it a little personal when a guy on a road bike w/ factory rims blows there doors off! It cracks me up ;) Some of them get the last laugh though.

Without nitpicking myself, I wouldn't really do anything different.

Because of the point to point ride, our run gear was waiting for us at T2 in bags. They took our bike from us at the dismount line and a young gal ran over to me w/ my bag.

TAKE THE TIME TO PUT SOCKS ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is where my race took a turn for the worse. The transition areas were pretty dirty and I ended up w/ sand in my shoes. I normally run w/out socks when I race and didn't put any socks in my T2 bag.
So........at about mile 2 I began to feel a blister starting on my right arch and things went downhill from there. Because of the nature of the course it made it even worse. By the time I hit the 2nd loop my feet were in bad shape with blisters bleeding on both feet. I had to take it pretty easy on the second loop and got passed by a couple guys in my AG.
At the end of the race both of my shoes had blood soaked through the sides! Yikes.

TAKE THE TIME TO CLEAN MY FEET GOOD AND PUT SOCKS ON!!!!!!!!!!

Ate some after race grub and hung around to cheer everone in. Visited w/ several competitors and enjoyed the sunshine.


Bloody blisters!


Fun race w/ top notch talent on hand. Lots of volunteers and drink stations were great. They told us to stay tuned for a course change for next year.
I'll be back next year.