Snake swim in the heated outdoor pool, with thin rope lane dividers that don't cut the chop. Seeded start by projected times, I swam five seconds faster than predicted.

Someday I'll get some swim lessons, and learn flip-turns.

I don't have tri shoes, so I put my bike shoes on after putting on socks and before running with the bike. I'm too much of a weenie with the cold temps, so I put on a longsleeve shirt over my top. This was, as suspected, a struggle with a wet torso and certainly cost me time.

Toughen up and skip the overshirt.

The bike is my worst of the three disciplines. This is because I haven't really trained on the bike. In fact, due to various personal and family health concerns over the last few months, I'd actually only rode my bike once since doing the Hy-Vee Triathlon in June. The one ride was last week to see if the bike was actually in functioning shape. I did do some indoor exercise bike, which helped.

During the bike, I had some trouble with gears. I need to tune-up my front derailuer as it would sometimes refuse to shift for 10-20s at a time.

Actually train. Avoid freak health problems. Tune-up bike.

What's the deal with the volunteer yelling at people if they ran during T2? It's not a walkathon, I'm done with the bike and I'm heading to the run course!

Felt strong during the run. I like running, probably because my times don't seem to suffer much when I don't train.

I need hills and interval work.

After meeting up with my folks and my son, I took a slow bike ride back to the house to get cleaned up. Then off to Pizza Ranch Buffet. I skipped the post-race awards and grill-out.


See multiple comments above.


I had a good time, and there are a terrific number of volunteers helping with this small race. Thanks to all of them, as they did a great job. Since this trip doubles as a visit to the grandparents' house for my son, I'll likely be back year-to-year when work schedule allows.