I last did this race 2 years ago and I knocked 3 minutes off the swim. I did wear my skin for the 1st time and that had something to do with it but I also like to think I'm a much better swimmer than I was 2 years ago.

I got into a good rhythm right away as I seeded myself right up front. Got a good start and then tried to get on the feet of anyone that passed me. Got a good draft for a little while and then lost them and everything thinned out. I just took the clean water and went at a nice pace.

It got a little congested the last 200M at the last turn and I ran over some from the previous wave but it didn't slow me down a whole bunch.

This was a BAD T1. I probably lost 25 seconds here. This was my first race in my swim skin and I couldn't get the stupid zipper open. I wore the suit a couple times in practice and worked on getting it open but I had a hard time finding the zipper while running in T1. Then, I couldn't get it over my ankles. It was actually tougher to get off than my regular wetsuit.

Once out of the suit I was able to get going quickly on the bike. Shoes were clipped on bike and I was gone.

The first 6 miles of this bike is all uphill. I honestly believe this is the hilliest and toughest 23 mile bike that I do in a race. I know I recover from climbs pretty quickly so my strategy was to hit the first 6 miles uphill pretty hard. I passed a lot of people right away. My IMFL and race buddy had about 40 seconds on me out of the swim and I think I passed him on the bike 3 miles in. Felt good to pass a Kona qualifier but I knew I had to put distance on him because he's a stronger runner.

My computer didn't work so I was just going on RPE and felt pretty good the entire bike.

Good transition. Feet out of shoes. Rack bike. Shoes and hat on.... See ya!

I wasn't sure what I'd have for the run. Since I was feeling a little pain from the old injury I backed off my runs since CapTex and my longest run has been 6 miles with absolutely NO speed work. I knew I just had to hold on to stay ahead of Jim.

I felt much better than I thought through the first 2.5 miles and then I felt my quads starting to cramp. At this point I had to slow the pace because I knew if I cramped up I'd be passed. I knew I wouldn't pass anyone in my age group and all I could do was lose placing. I just had to look back once in a while to make sure Jim wouldn't catch me. He said he could see me but I never saw him whenever I turned back.

Happy with this run considering I really backed off my run volume and speed.

This is great local race. It's tough and you need to be fast.