Swim went well - I was seeded first and made sure to take the first 100 out hard to make sure no one dragged off of me. From there I kept the pace/effort pretty steady. I could see the other swimmers behind me and knew I was putting a fair amount of time into the rest of the field. At the end of the swim I used the stairs to get out - not sure why I did that. It is faster to just use the side and get out of the pool rather than walk each of the stairs. Probably cost me 2-3 seconds. Swim time included a 50 or so foot run to cross the timing mat.

Not use the stairs.

I was the only one in the whole race to wear a wetsuit and I still had the second fastest overall T1 time. It went as well as any transition I have ever done. Wetsuit came off very quickly.

Nothing.

Came out of T1 and immediately was pushing hard. My HR was higher than I had ever seen on the bike (low 180's) for almost the entire ride as I dont think I am/was recovered from LP.

The lead van took off and I followed it. At the first big left turn the van stopped for some reason. I tapped on the window as I went by and sure enough they started leading me again.

At the first out and back (around mile 5) I was able to get a good look at who was chasing me. As far as I could tell there were only 3 people I really had to worry about. A guy on a QR with HED3's who was the first one after me into transition and had gained a little bit on me, A guy with a P2C with race wheels and an IM tat and another guy with a soloist who was moving well. After that there was a big gap to the next pack.

Approximately 9 miles in the guy on the QR went by me fast....really fast. I later found out he is a current CAT2 biker who has been doing triathlons for 10 years. My legs were hurting by this point and I could tell I was not generating the same power as I was on the first lap. My goal at that point was just to keep the leader in sight and not let him put too much more time on me. The other 2 guys I was worried about (one is a CAT3 biker and the other has done a bunch of IM's) were not gaining on me and I had put too much time on them in the swim for them to be a real threat at that point.

Came into tranistion and got off the bike...at some point I am going to have to learn to do a flying dismount.

Not have LP 2 weeks before the race - I should be at least another 1 - 2 mph faster on a course like this.

T2 went fine. I had the 7th faster overall time and the fastest was only 7 seconds quicker than I was.

Nothing.

I had purposely biked the run course the day before as I knew this was a first time event and these have a tendency to have some issues. Unfortunately the run course was not the same as was listed on the website or the same as the course map they gave us.

As I was coming off the bike into T2, I saw the leader exiting which by my estimation meant he had 1:40 or so on me. I thought that might be too much as he looked solid but not great.

Out of transition I started running hard as I knew there was an out and back about a 1/2 mile away and I figured that would let me know if I had a chance of running him down. At the turn around I had gained considerable ground on him and knew I had a shot at running him down. We slapped hands at the turnaround and each nodded to each other as we knew it was going to be a close race. I did not see the 3rd place guy for a while which confirmed that this race was going to won by one of us. Over the next mile I slowly gained on him but was paying the price as my left hip was starting to become a real distraction.

I went by him hard and fast at the 1.75 or so mile marker but knew that he had started 40 seconds behind me in the swim and I needed more of a lead. On the way back (around mile 2.25ish) I came to an intersection without a volunteer (this was part of the run course they had changed). A few hundred feet away I saw two volunteers talking and started yelling, asking which way I should go. They kept telling me to go into the tunnel, which I kept telling them I had just run through. At this point I had stopped as I had no idea what way to go. Finally another volunteer came running from her post and told me the correct way to go. My lead of 20 or so seconds had vanished as the 2nd place runner was close to me, though he was asking which way to go as well. I started off down the path the volunteer told me and just ran hard the last mile or so. I later learned the 2nd place runner was sent down a different path then I was that likely cost him some time (20-30 seconds by his estimate). I think it about evened out as I lost my 20 second lead waiting to hear what direction I was supposed to go.

Not much - competing with someone for 1st place OA helped really push me.

Told the RD about the volunteer and she got someone back at the point of confusion.

Walked around and talked with some of the other competitors and had some really good food - lots of fruit, pop tarts, granola bars, subway, muffins, gatorade, water, etc...they really had nice spread.

Picked up my prize which ended up being a month free of coaching and a 1 hour fitness evaluation test (hopefully it is a VO2 max test or something like it). I think everyone really wanted the third place prize which was 1 free pair of shoes from PRR - they carry some great running brands - newtons, zoot, asics, nike, brooks, etc.


Doing LP 2 weeks earlier and not being able to train much in between.


This is a new tri company that ran this race and overall they did a good job though they could have done a few things better like not changing the run course the night before the event, different prizes and keeping the volunteers at their assigned spots.