Not the best swim time, but I think the way they did the start and finish times were part of it. The mat for the timing was pretty far from the swim exit, and then you had to run about 500m to the transition area! Ridiculous! Wetsuits were legal, but it was the gray area ,which means that if you wear one and do well enough to place, you technically can’t place (the wetsuit would give you too much of an advantage). I decided not to wear mine, because this was a good excuse to not have to deal with taking the damn thing off. I really don’t think it hurt me, I felt good, even though my times don’t really reflect a great swim.

Not a bad transition. No wetsuit to contend with, but a very long run from the swim out to the transition area, and another long run to the bike out.

Good bike other than the aforementioned comments on the course. Definitely a rolling hills course. The good news is that for every 12 mph uphill, there was an equal 40 mph downhill. Fortunately, I once again employed the Lance Armstrong method of a lower gear and pedaling with a higher cadence. Hmmm, might be something to the fact that the guy won 7 consecutive Tours de France. I felt good on the uphills and still had plenty left for the run. The hamstrings started to tighten up even at the beginning, so I knew the run was going to be tough. Other than that, pretty uneventful bike.

Obviously, I need to work on my transition times. This one was terrible. I knew it too. I was having problems with my socks and took forever to get them on. Ugghhhh

If nothing else, I was consistent in placement within my age group. I was fairly happy with the run. Again, lots of hills with very little flats at all. On the bike, that’s nice because you can rest and make up time on the downhill. With the run, the downhill doesn’t take your wind like the uphill, but it’s still tough on your legs. I felt okay most of the run until about mile 5. That’s when the left hamstring really started to tighten up. At one point, pulling up one of the last hills, I wasn’t sure if I’d finish! I did though, and I’m glad I did.