The swim was my fear going into this event and proved to be my toughest portion on the day. With not knowing what to expect, I thought the entrance to the water and the start was fine. It was a little congested but I moved to the right and avoided alot of that. My stroke was not good at the beginning of the race as there were many people in the water so I just tried to swim with my head out of the water to get going and then once some of the people moved out, I went into the freestyle stroke. It was hard to not go as fast as you could just to try and catch the people ahead of you. I was still a little panicky until I reached the half way point, then I settled down and started swimming. I put my head in the water and really started catching people. That was the highlight of the swim and I really began to feel confident. Swimming is alot of work though and I was pretty tired when I came out of the water. I saw my wife and daughter as I was running up the ramp and that gave me a little boost of energy. Swim wasn't as bad as I made it out to be.

Try and get my stroke going a little earlier instead of makeshift swimming.

The transition was my first ever and I ended up putting one of my socks on upside down. I rolled them up but apparently I had them in the wrong direction. Plus being a little disoriented after the swim was a different feeling than I have had before. Getting my bike shoes on was okay, and I fumbled around with my helmet and getting my shirt on. I definitely think I can do better next time around.

Work on the socks and get a little more organized prior to the race.

I felt really comfortable on the bike. My bike rack was right at the end next to the "hop on" point so I didn't have to run too far in my bike shoes. The course started with a bike trail right away that was kind of narrow and had some sharp corners and kind of hilly. I felt really good on the bike and seemed to drink the right amount of fluid. I wasn't needing a whole lot of fluid once I got off the bike. I probably could have pushed the bike a little harder as I felt great on the run, but for the first race, I think I was right where I should have been.

Maybe pushed a little harder on the bike portion as my legs felt great on the run and I had quite a bit left after the run. But I had a great time on the bike.

I opted to not used Yankz or anything like that, and that cost me some time. Also, I had a little problem getting my bike back onto the rack so that cost me some time as well. This was not my best transition by far, but I think there are definitely things to improve on. It was also a little disheartening getting encouragement from guys that had already finished the race, but nonethe less I was competeing and had a great time. I also stopped and got a drink out of my water bottle on the bike and I probably didn't need to do that since there was water at the start of the run.

Use Yankz or lace locks or something similar. Tying my shoes probably cost me 45 seconds or better.

My legs were a little tight at the start of the run but felt good about 1/2 mile into the race. I followed a guy who had passed me at the start and kind of used his pace to judge me since I forgot to start my watch. Once we got to the turnaround point, I decided to pass him as I felt great and could go alot faster. I think I should have pushed harder on the run a little earlier. I thought my time was a little faster than it was but I was still happy with it. I can't believe I finished as fresh as I was. I really felt good after the run.

Push harder a little sooner. Maybe going into the turnaround start to increase my pace. I still need to work on drinking water while running. It always seems to go up my nose.

Didn't really do much, which is normal for me. Stretched a little bit and just walked around looking at the people and their bikes. Being a first timer, I was impressed at the bikes around me.


Swim for sure and possibly just not knowing how my body would feel at the end. I think I left some on the table as I felt great at the end of the race, which I am glad. My family was there and it was great to see them without me being just flat out exhausted.


I think this is a great race and pretty well organized and run. It started on time and I thought they did a great job with the course markings. This is an excellent race for first timers. They limited it to around 200 people so that made it nice that there wasn't a huge crowd of people. Overall I was happy with my performance and would definitely go back to this race again next year.