The swim went well. I started all the way in the front on the left edge. I swam the first 50m going about 30 degrees too far to the left to avoid traffic, then focused on sighting the buoy. It was overcast, so I had a hard time determining where the buoys were until I was about halfway there... I spent alot of time relying on other people's sighting. Too much, to the point where on the 2nd lap I looked up and the group of 4-5 people I was with were headed off course by 30-40 yards... I corrected and beat them all to the turn. The long back of the triangle I chased the bubbles of the guy in front of me for about 400 yds - he was sighting pretty well and I was keeping pretty relaxed.

I went into this with the intention of taking it easy, which I accomplished pretty well! I felt good out of the water and headed into T1.

T1 was long and uphill. I had a semi-disaster because I forgot to set my socks out next to my cycling shoes. I had to be careful running in my cleats, but I didn't fall (I heard some others did)

This took too long! I could have placed in my AG had I been quicker... could have dropped a minute easily...

Going into this race, my strategy was to conserve and hold on. I feel like I was undertrained and I had a weak taper to go in. I think this resulted in me being too conservative on the bike.

There was a timed hill climb, which I paid no attention to because it was only 1-2 miles into the 25 mile ride. The first lap was good and I approached the climbs cautiously and kept a good pace on the downhill. The turn up Chard for the 2nd lap was just plain evil, it took me about 10 minutes just to get up to the top in my granny gear. My legs felt pretty depleted.

At the top, we merged into the sprint traffic. Since I had just ridden the loop, I knew where I could safely push and where 1the big hills were. I attacked the downhill - I hit 44-45 mph both laps!

The uphills hurt, and I couldn't eat any of the nutrition that I had brought. But I kept hydrated and made it through ok.

I undid my shoe straps coming into T2. The ground was wet and I was warned that people were falling.

This was a disappointing split - I should have ridden the course to familiarize myself with it. I have been doing a lot of slow miles on my commuter bike but I need to also do a lot of fast miles on my racing bike!

Barefoot off the bike, jogged into T2, racked the bike, helmet off, bars out of jersey, glassed off, socks on, shoes on, out!

No socks on the bike meant my feet were numb with cold for the first mile or so. Jelly legs went away by mile 2 and then it was just pain. Reached the sprint turnaround and was tempted to take it, knowing that I was only 1/4 of the ay done with my run. Past the sprint turnaround it was only intermediates, and we were spread out. I passed 2-3 people and plenty passed me, some running so fast it was as if I was standing still. There were three, maybe four big long hills as far as you could see, to get the the top to be greeted with another hill and no turnaround in sight.

Finally the turnaround came into view, and I did a little jig-spin as I rounded the cone. Bringing it back was difficult, mostly downhill which was just pounding the crap out of my quads. I kept going and finally made it to the 5k turnaround. I picked it up a little and then had to slow down a little, repeating over the next mile until the finish came into view. I picked it up to a tempo pace with 1/3 mile to go, wondering where the finish line was.

The finish was a left turn down into the park, down a steep hill then across some grass... the turn and hill were perilous, and I almost lost it on my tired legs but somehow I managed to hold on. I had a great sprint to the finish as they announced my name on the loudspeakers and I was suprised to see several people I knew cheering me on (in addition to the ones I knew that were there).

This being my 2nd Oly ever, I was a bit more cautious than I was last year. I had dropped the ball with my taper training and didn't practice bricks like I did last year. I haven't been on my racing bike as much as I had wanted to.

It was as good as I could have hoped for given my training. I met my expectations and finished strong!


The course maps and information were incorrect. The signs at packet pickup and the website and the papers all had different start times. There was no map for the intermediate course and many were confused about the swim course. I heard of a few people who did the incorrect bike course length.