Felt good to start, set a good pace and kept it up in the back of the pack. However once it started to spread out I lost peoples feet to follow. My navigation was poor to put it mildly and I ended up adding several hundred meters and a few minutes at least to my time because of that. my stroke, my breathing, and my gear all worked perfectly though, goggles did not even fog up. Breathing was a mix of bilateral breathing every three strokes, 2 stroke breathing on the left and four stroke breathing to my left depending on how much effort I was putting in.

More OWS practices to navigate if I can find some areas with Buoys to swim around and sight on. Other than that just more practice to get faster overall.

Good transition, suit came down once I was out of the water, unzipped and pulled the top down. took of cap and goggles and ran it in. hit my transition area and pulled it off nice and fast WITHOUT sitting down, put on my socks, shoes, (need lace locks!) sunglasses helmet, gloves grabbed a gu and downed it as I ran out of transition to the mount line. Also had a Gu in my back pocket for on the ride.

Lace Locks, bike shoes/pedals, new bike...lots of stuff that has to wait for funds and time. Overall very happy with this transition though.

Felt good on the bike. I know that with an actual road/TT bike I could have gone 1-2 MPH faster overall. Lost a lot of momentum coming off the hills and lost the chance to pick up speed on the downhills. There were times I did not pass someone on a short uphill because I knew on the downhill they would just pass me. I feel my effort was great though, just a lack of equipment, I could maybe have gone a little harder but I was pacing myself for an average of 15 MPH and did a little better than that so no complaints. My nutrition was perfect. A Gu just after the last turnaround, one waterbottle of slightly concentrated Gatoraid and one of water. Alternated drinking water and GA every 10 or so minutes. Never felt thirsty but probably would have been ok with two gatoraid as well.

Get a new Bike!!! lacking that I don't think I could have done anything differently. If I was more familiar with the course I would have known when I could push myself harder and when to back it off a bit on the hills to maintain my legs. I really do think at this point it comes down to two things, new bike and more training with intervals and power to build the engine, number two is probably more important, but number one would be more fun :)

went really well, hoped off right before dismount and cruised in, started running at the line and used the bike to steady me and get my legs under me while still jogging. Hit transition and threw my bike on the rack popped off my right shoe and ripped on my knee brace. secured the Velcro and kept put the shoe back on. Could have used Lace locks again. Grabbed a quick drink of gatoraid and my cliffbar, threw on my race shirt with the number on front and started running.

Lace Locks! other than that I think I did awesome for this transition with my knee brace.

The run felt great from the get go. I loved the out and back part at the beginning (the course sucked with .5 miles of it, each way, being torn up dirt road with potholes and slick with mud.) if only because I could see the people in front of me as they went back and the people behind me as they followed and could give them some brief encouragement. The smiles they gave were a great motivator as well as the ones who returned the support. Just after Mile 2 I started to get mentally exhausted though I was still running well but then I got a pick me up in the form of a squirrel who ran across the road in front of me and paced me along a fence top chattering away (I have a thing for squirrels, they always make me smile!) so that kept me going and I knew it would be fine. I got back into the park and just had to run around the lake. The trail was ok but was rough again with a lot of up and down topsy turvey parts. Came in to the finish though smiling and happy to be done!

Was not expecting the trail to be as rough as it was so that part took a bit out of me. I also need to find a way to do some better nutrition wether it is Gu (instead of a cliffbar) or having a nutrition belt with my own hydration on it. only 3 aid places on the run and I just did not feel the water/gatoraid available was quite enough to keep me feeling good.

walked around a bit and did a little stretching until I found my wife and the dog (who would not stop licking the sweat off of me.) then got in line for food which, other than the desert and a roll with some PB on it just was not apetizing, though I did force down a couple of orange slices. I do need to email the race as I was supposed to get a post race medal but I could not find out where they were at for the life of me and could not find an Official/volunteer to ask!


Swim navigation training, lace locks, new bike and a bit more bike training, more running and better run nutrition. Also knowing the course better before the race would have helped, especially on the bike and run.


I think I will do this race again whenever I get a chance. Looking forward to doing the same course for the Black Diamond in September. I need to do a bit more stretching in practice and find a nice foam roller to help with my IT band as it was tight after the race and was causing my knee to hurt a bit. More Core training will also come in handy there so now I have some goals!