The swim was the biggest disappointment for me. I'm generally stronger than my time would suggest (4 minutes faster last year), but I actually had to hang on to a boat for a minute! I got a stomach full of air and couldn't breathe. HUGE belch helped a lot. Finished the swim pretty strong, but still lost 4 minutes or so.

At least one open water swim session. Relax at the beginning.

This was kind of a pain. At least 100 yard run to the bike, depending on where you're racked. I left some shoes at the swim exit, just so I wouldn't step on a rock barefoot. Bike shoes were already clipped in and rubber-banded in position, which I though was the way to go since I had at least 50 yds to run before I could mount.

Nothing. I felt pretty good about T1.

Overall, I was pretty happy about the bike. As mentioned by other BTers, there was a strong headwind heading north on Lakeshore drive; conversely, there was a sweet tailwind heading south. My time was only slightly better than last year, but I had a much better ride given course conditions. (The road conditions were pretty bad, again. I saw many flats and one ambulance picking up a triathlete on my ride.)

Not much. Didn't take a sip of water during the ride.. probably could have done without the extra weight of the water bottles.

Good T2. Out of shoes right before ramp heading to the dismount line. Again, kind of a long run to my rack.

This has traditionally been my weakest segment, but I was more or less happy with the run. Steady (if somewhat slow) pace, with no walk breaks. Plenty of drink stations.

Picked up the pace a little, especially at the end!

Water, Gatorade, food. I would have loved some beer, but I forgot by red wristband, and they were being pretty strict at the beer truck.


Should have done at least one open water swim. Aargh.


This is a race for everybody: novices to pros. While this may have been frustrating to some (especially the pros who crashed on the bike course), it made for an interesting, fun, and well-spectated event.