The swim went great! We started out wading in the water, I was near the back slightly off from the middle. There were some very minor collisions, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I was anticipating. I was hoping to get a better warmup for the swim, we were only allowed 2 minutes in the water to get ready. I started off bilateral breathing for the first 100m or so and started out just a tad too fast, so I started breathing every stroke. I never do this in practice but it felt like I could push a lot of water and got into a good rhythm. I found a couple people to draft off for a little while and I passed a few people, mainly those doing back/breaststroke. I really enjoyed the swim and it went by very fast!

I feel more confident in my swimming ability, maybe start closer to the front next time. Oh, of course, more time in the pool!

T1 went well, I practiced my whole transition yesterday so I knew exactly what order I needed to do everything. Tried getting on my bike while it was still moving slowly, was too disoriented and almost fell over, should have just stopped.

Stop my bike to get on

Wow! I was flying! I had a GU a couple minutes in and I felt really strong, I was passing people like crazy. I got passed a couple times and I must have passed 40-50 people. I tried to keep up with a guy who had a disc wheel and we passed each other throughout the course, he got me in the end though! Super pleased with the bike, surpassed my expectations by a long shot. I saw a lot of sweet rides in transition, but just goes to show, a $200 bike and a good engine goes a long way!

Nothing, I gave it everything I had.

No complains, I did slow down early because I thought I had to dismount 100 feet before I actually had to. Shoes went on with no trouble at all.

Nothing, very fast transition

Kept a good pace the whole time, very steady. I "attempted" to drink some gatoraid right out of transition, apparently I'm not capable of drinking while running, I got it all over my face! I only got passed once and I noticed that half a mile from the turn around people were just starting to come back!!! This could only mean I was in a great position, I was pretty excited but I saw some younger guys running the other way, I couldn't see how old they were though but it didn't matter... I wasn't going to catch them. My knee did well, no pain! Of course later in the day I'm paying for it.

Figure out what's hurting my knee, I didn't have nearly as much training as I would have liked but I was thrilled about my performance on the run.

I should have jogged a bit and stretched more, my quads cramped up pretty badly and walking sucked.


Training on the run, being a new swimmer.


There were some problems with organization and communication with the participants. The transition area had ran out of water as the HIM racers were coming in, they were pretty upset by it. We had no idea where the food and award ceremony was, I guess it was announced earlier, but it would have been nice if it had been communicated before the race where all this was taking place. The course is absolutely stunning and I'd highly recommend it to anyone, overall I had a great time and I'll be back next year!