The first lake may have been the most pristine piece of water I have swam in my life. You could see everything and it was a perfect 73 degrees, which was refreshing after the 30 mile bike and 4.5 mile run. I swam steady and easy. I started the first swim with my shoe bag tucked half in my shorts and half in the jersey but it popped out, so I stuffed it up my jersey and that worked well. The only problem was it raised my shoulders level a little high and I couldn't rotate my shoulders as deep as norma, but not biggie. Passed about 20 people on the first swim.
2nd swim was also in perfect temp, great water. Pretty clear and very clean. Followed the buoy line on the right (breathing right) the whole way. I though this was the $$ swim so I moved a little faster, but still pretty smooth (I knew I wasn't touching the guy doing 1:05/100). Passed about 8 more people.
3rd swim: felt great to hit the cool water, the afternoon sun was strating to cook a little on the 8 mile run. Not many people left out there but passed 3 more on this swim. The climb out at the end which people had made a big deal out of was very easy, almost like rock steps.

When I left the house they said the tropical storm would hit around 6-8 AM on race day, so I decided to ride my road bike for better handling, climbing, etc. Well it was perfect out, but with the winds I would have liked the aero bars as well as I little more in the legs for the runs, but not real the end of the world.
I took the entire ride very smooth, kept in Z1-Z2. Started in gloves and armwarmers which I shed at the base of the climb.
Lots of people just blowing by me on the bike, but nothing different there.

Ride my tri bike

I did the opposite strategy as Brad by waiting by putting the transitions in my runs, he put his in his swim times).
Run #1: Smooth slow run, walked the one big hill but ran the entire rest non-stop. Nate passed me about 1 mile from the swim but I caught him @ the transition area and passed hime 50 feet into the swim)
Run #2: waited for Nate out of the swim by walking the first hill (approx 1-1.5 mile) he never causght me so I starting running at the top and didn't stop till I hit the next swim (3-3.5 mi). Another slow smooth effort and the prettiest run of the day, had to slow down at the vistas to suck in the view.
Run #3: Ran the first 40 minutes nonstop. The pavement downhill to start this run triggered my left shin splint, but not enough to be real ad. Ran 10 min, walked 5 for the next 3 miles, then walked the enitre last big hill. Jogged down to the final swim
Run #4: Except for about 100 feet I walked this entire beast. Legs were too juiced to even think about running this thing.

Run train during the summer...turns out golfing doesn't help your run fitness.

None


Training


This is the best and coolest race I have ever done. From the variation of events, to the views, to the perfect water temps, the shaded crushed stone trails, et al. Running 18 miles is so much easier and enjoyable when you get some cool refreshing swims in between. I was planning on it being a training day and that's how it went, just up to plan. The temp was great, the support was wonderful, and just a real cool idea for a triathlon. The meal afterwards is bountiful and excellent, to say the least. The two comments I heard before we started that really rang true were that the race is the antithesis of an ironman and that the prior partcipants didn't want to brag about how great this race is given that other people would all want to come do it. Well both are very true. It is a homegrown grassrotes race (although extremely well run) and doesn't have the big bells and whistles of an IM, not like those are needed. Also, I am now wary to give such rave reviews given that it may make it harder for me to get into in future years...