Felt good on the swim. I started near the back and I passed a lot of people. I probably should have started closer to the front so I didn't feel like I was constantly trying weave in and out of people. I was pretty happy with my navigation too. It was a little hard to see the buoys on the way back to shore as we were headed directly into the sun.

Start closer to the front of the pack.

This was my first race wearing a tri-jersey under my wet suit. It saved a LOT of time not having to put a shirt on after taking off my wetsuit.

Maybe organize the sequence of events in my transition. I didn't have a particular order of things and that could probably shave off 20 seconds.

Started out hard and didn't let up. My legs were on fire from the get go. It wasn't until about mile 18 that I started feeling ok. For most of the race I wasn't sure how long I'd keep up the avg on the bike but I managed to get through it. I forgot about all the rolling hills. I'm from chicago so I'm not used to any kind of hills. This was my first race on my new tri bike and with the training I've done so far this season I blew any bike split from the past out of the water. I don't think I've ever averages more that 20.1 mph so to average over 21 was such a boost in confidence.

Maybe not start out as hard.

I need to get some Yankz or something. The whole "tying the shoes" thing takes WAY too much time. My hands were shaking from the bike and it was hard to slow down and tie my shoes. I could have taken a bunch of time off if I could just slip the shoes on.

Get Yankz

Felt pretty good going from the bike to run. Then legs felt ok. Not like last year. I kept a great pace compared to my splits in the past so I was happy to be under 8's. I wish I would have drank more though. I really started to feel it at the end. There is a killer hill at the last mile which takes you up and then around the lake. It's not a big hill just steep. Plus it started to get hot with the sun shining directly on us. I probably should have drank more on the bike.

Try and drink more on the bike so I don't pay for it at the end of the run.

Little stretching. Sat for a while and saw people get thier age group awards.


This was our 3rd year in a row doing this race. It's a great first race of the season. It's very well run and not too crowded.