First real open water swim ever (longer than 100 meters or so) and during a race. Needless to say, there is room for improvement. I've never practiced sighting and found myself off course a little bit here and there. Nothing huge, but just enough to add needless distance. I also got tangled up a few times and reset. I had a groove going for certain stretches but was sort of trapped behind and in between alot of people and I could feel my heart rate and excitement getting too high so sort of settled in and coasted in. I saw the clock when I crossed the mat and was pissed off, but it actually wasn't so bad when you look at the overall times on the swim. There were still alot of bikes racked which is good. I saw Aaron Davidson from BT literally steps behind me going into T1 and he smoked through T1 and passed me never to be seen again. I actually thought I had a good transition too for my first one. Nothing fancy. I guess I could be a little quicker but am happy with it.

Practice OWS and sighting and be more aggressive pushing by slower people.

It was fine. I could hurry more but I'm fine with it.

Nothing, just be faster running maybe to the bike and ripping the wetsuit down off my ankles.

felt ok starting out and then quickly realized I was faster than alot of the people who got out of the water in front of me. The first 5 or 6 miles were sort of hilly...nothing major but just enough to slow down this 193 pounder. I passed my buddy Brian at mile 6 going up a hill who was 2nd out of the water (one of those x-college swimmers who finished in 12:xx). I was passing alot of people up until this point and realized hey we are almost half way through this short bike and I need to drop the hammer a little bit, so at mile 7 or so I just dropped it and started flying by people. I felt really good and was only passed by one guy on the bike I think which I was kind of surprised by. It had me thinking that wow, the fast people must be way up there and already in front of me because I really had no idea where I stood at this point. Then with about 4 miles to go my seat became loose and started hinging up and down and sliding up and back. I'm thinking you've got to be freaking kidding me. I just kept going and actually went out of the saddle a little bit to finish it up. I was thinking going in that it'd be cool to go sub 40 minutes and was pretty happy with my bike.

Damn running shoes took awhile to get on. I didn't end up using the yankz which was a mistake.

Onto the run. I was flustered after my horrible T2 as people were just burning me in transition. I started out and the first 1/2 mile I had some jello legs but a decent pace nonetheless as people cheered me on turning the corner. I did what I could here. I think I may have had a little more, but I'm really just not a good runner. I don't think it has to do with me going to hard on the bike. I'm too fat and haven't been putting the miles in and was sort of beating myself up as I ran thinking ya your paying for it now slacker. All that weight lifting is really helping you out right now isn't it. Half joking. Overall, just a little frustrated because a decent 21:xx here would have put me up another dozen spots or so. Anyway, I had to experience the poor run. Lesson learned. I need to drop 10 and up the mileage. I was frustrated to be that close to 22:xx...If I had been paying attention and looking at my watch...

I can't complain though, because when I set out to do this in January I was targeting a sub 24 and I did hit that. Only better things from here on out.

Run more and lose a few pounds to get faster.

Nothing really. Drank some water talked to a couple people and packed up. Then headed out with the wife and baby to the diner down the road with our cousins who were in town. I didn't stick around too long.