I was excited standing in the water waiting to go. This is a first for me. When the sound went off for us to start I put my head in the water and swam. It was very crowded but I kept my head down and pushed forward. Rounding the first buoy I was forced to stop and kind of float around it because there were way too many people. As soon as I got around my head was down and I was swimming. I got kicked in the face here but I didn't care. The theme of this swim was just kept swimming. There was a lot of traffic the whole way. This is also new for me. It felt great to finally be in the middle of a pack, even if it took newbies. :) I swam as far as I could and stood up and ran out of the water and all the way to my bike.

Nothing.

Good transition for me. Especially considering how long of a run I had in bare feet. I was efficient and deliberate here and as a result had the fastest T1 ever for me.

Nothing except maybe not wear socks.

Coming out of the park there were 2 speed bumps and on the first one I launched my bottle. I kept going but then thought about not having liquids for 13 miles and turned around. So I lost a few minutes here but quickly got back up to speed and just pushed it hard. I had a plan going in to the race and I executed it nicely. I stood when I needed to gain a little extra speed and really pushed going up hill. The course was extremely crowded and I was highly annoyed at all of the riders riding 2 or 3 abreast making me pass in the on comming lane of traffic. But I was not slowing down, so it took some manuvering at times but it was fun. I had no bike computer because well, it didn't work. I had no idea of where I was or how fast I was going, but I don't think that makes one bit of difference.

Fix my bottle cage, it launches bottles way too often.

A good fast transition. Again, I think my fastest T2 time in any race.

Nothing.

This was a tough run. I pushed the pace from right out of transition and just tried to hold on. I was completely out of breath the whole time but in control. It was a rythmic out of breath and I knew I would be okay to push it. It hurt going up hill and I didn't have bounce like I normally would as a result of the previous days 18 miler, but that run really had no ill effect on my performance. I was able to just run like I know how and it paid off.

As most people noticed, the run course was .6 longer than originally planned because of construction making the run 3.7 miles. It would have been nice to know that before hand but honestly it probably helped not knowing.

A loong 1.5 mile walk back to transition/car. That was a little rough.


Nothing. The weather was perfect and all of the race day needs lined up and I had a great race.


This is a great race and very well organized. The only bad thing I have to say is the shirts were way too small. I ended up standing in line for 40 minutes to trade my small in for a large.