Current was definitely stronger than the practice swim last Friday and way faster than last year. I was in the second wave since I am an old guy (over 40). Started swimming to the start line buoy when they call 1 minute til start. When they called 10 seconds I was still not there so I turned upriver and started my freestyle. Since I wasn't in the starting pack I didn't get jostled around at all. It was agonizingly slow to make progress to the next buoy. Started getting passed by females from the next wave and I tried to draft but they were too fast. When I finally got to the turn buoy there was a pile up like others have described but somehow I managed to get around. Then it was downhill to the exit dock. I was concerned about overshooting the dock due to the current but I did just fine. My wife told me later that many people found the swim too challenging to complete and I can believe it.

More OWS practice. Train to become stroger and more efficent.

My wife distracted me in T1. Afraid I would miss something and hesitated some. Overall TI went well.

Ask wife to hold her wild cheering until I am leaving T1.

Felt really good but it took me awhile to slow down my breathing from the torturous swim. I was passing alot of guys from wave 1 and 2 and also some of those mean ladies who passed me in the river and wouldn't slow down so I could draft. I passed my new friend Jonah (I didn't know she was such a good swimmer) and wished her well. When I encountered the first hill I thought it was the big one and slowed up too much. The real hill was tough but I got through it. From that point on until the end there was a group of us that kept passing each other and getting passed by each other. That help motivate me to keep pushing.

More hill work before race.

First T2 under 1 minute!!! Everything went well.

Hold race belt in mouth while putting on running shoes and then put it on while exiting TA.

I felt good going into the run. Okay, my legs felt weak like normal after biking hard for 18.8 miles. I was catching some of the people that had been ahead of me on the bike and I wasn't even at full stride yet. Someone came up behind me and so I moved to the right side of the trail to let them pass. The next thing I know my ankle is rolling under and I am following with a graceful shoulder roll flat onto my back. Whatever I came down on I never saw it. A few people asked me if I was okay for the second or two that I lay there. Don't remember if I said anything. I got up and put weight on my ankle and, thank God, it wasn't to bad. I was able to limp/run down the trail. As I was limping along I realized that because I was wearing my sunglasses I could not see the details of the trail very well which probably contributed to my fall. It took them off and everything was much clearer. After about 5 minutes my ankle started feeling better and I was able to run a more normal albeit slower stride. After the halfway point I was actaully feeling very good and picked up the pace some. I had no problem on the trail on the way back and new I would be able to finish strong. At the very end where we exited the swim from Hell someone came up very fast behind me and was able to hold them off until the finish with a good sprint through the chute.

Do not wear sunglasses when trail running. Stay in the middle of the trail where there are less trip hazards.

Gatorade, cookies, banana. Hugs from my 7 year old and wife. Went to the ambulance and got an ice pack. Then I grabbed some BBQ and another Gatorade and chilled at the RTC tent and watch peolple come in.


Strong current. Angle injury. Except for the swim I still performed better than last year.


Start delayed to shorten course. Good call.
This is still my favorite race. I learned some new lessons and hopefully next year will be even better.