My timing chip nearly fell off in water. Instead of trying to restrap it on my ankle, I pulled it off and put it inside my wetsuit and put it back on in T-1. This means that I didn't have a time exiting water, only exiting T-1. Times for T-1 in my age group ranged from 4:30 to 7:30, I estimate I did OK so I have to guess my T-1 time as 6 minutes and therefore guess my swim time from T-1 exit, subtracting estimated T-1 time... I suck in the water. I nearly hypervetilate and have to keep stoping to catch my breath. I was lucky to put 25 strokes together at a time between breaks. I was disappointed by this because I had been feeling much more relaxed in the pool.

Learn to swim.

I took my suit off right out of the water and ran w/ it to T-1. Had shoes on bike, ran out of T-1, jumped on bike and put feet in shoes, barefoot. I had practiced this about 20 times a few days before race and it made it happen real smooth on race day.
See comments on swim about estimating T-1 time.

T-1 was very smooth for me.

My time was nearly identical as the year before. Forgot my garmin in T-1 so didn't get any HR data.

Train.

T-2 was OK. Into transition was good, but I forgot what it was but I got distracted by something in transition that probably made me waste 10 seconds...

Stay focused

I felt like I was not moving quickly, but my time says differently. With about 100 yds to go I felt a slight cramp creeping into my right hamstring. I kept going and thought it had gone away. With about 50 yds to go, I passed my girlfriend, smiled and gave her a thumbs up. With about 40 yds to go my right hamstring seized up like a mother. I had to completely stop running and pull up along the fencing. I think I lost about 30-40 seconds before the muscle relaxed and I could start moving at a slow trot to the finish. My finish line photos are not pretty. I think I lost about 50 seconds total from that between stopping and finishing the last bit at a much slower pace.

Train.

Drink and eat like crazy. Got a massage.


I was on vacation for 3 of the last 5 weeks leading up to the race and did only 1 run on vacation...