Lined up way to the left this year to avoid lost of contact at the start. Sun was right in my face on my left side breathing on the outbound. Water was clear and calm, there were a few very novice swimmers doing side and breast, thankfully I was able to pass. Tried to stay relaxed and was pretty successful until I had about 100m left I wanted to stand at the first yellow bouoy but realized I had to swim to the second one, woops. On the way out of the water I slipped on the ramp and had to catch myself. I was pretty winded after this swim.

Just keep practicing otherwise I was happy with my time.

My wetsuit has a breakaway zipper so you're supposed to yank Upwards on the ripcord and the whole zipepr comes loose, which would be fast unless of course you forget this feature and pull the ripcord down first. The zipper thus got stuck and cost me some time. Last year I was 2:35 in transition. As I attempted to run with my bike I realized how winded I was from the swim and had to walk.

Practice the wetsuit zipper, and also running with my bike.

Where do I start? I was really winded from the swim and the T1 run w/bike so I tried to take it really easy out on West Lake Rd. I had trouble with getting my HR back under control until about Mile 4 because I got to rest my legs on a couple nice downhills. At about mile 6 I saw a guy lose a water bottle right in front of me and I had to swerve. The guy behind me nailed it head on, he must have had luck on his side as he didn't wipe out. About a mile later I went to grab a gel and fumbled to get it out of my bike jersey. After I ate it, I had some stuck on my hand and as I went to grab my water bottle, it slipped out of my hand and onto the road. I was forced to pull off the road and run back and get it, which cost me a lot of time because I had to wait for a line of cyclists to pass me before I could run across the road. After recovering the bottle the rest of the bike ride was solid. I made it over Benson Rd. hill without standing and just hammered the pedals as hard as I could. I saw 3 cyclist walking up this hill. Got some good speed on Giles Rd, and the rest of the bike was easy. Saw my family and friends as I got to the bike dismount area and that was uplifting but I knew I had expended a lot of energy on this ride.

don't drop my water bottle.

Bad transition. Should have been 1/2 the time it took me but a wetsuit was stuffed in the area where my rear tire was supposed to be. Wasted too much time trying to figure out how to keep my bike upright. As I ran out of transition area I knew it was gonna be a tough run, I was very fatigued from the bike.

Throw the vagrant wetsuit into the lake.

I was very fatigued from the get-go. Just tried to keep a nice easy pace similar to training, 12 mins/mile is my normal training run, but it felt like I was crawling. At the golf course hill at mile 1 I was forced to walk about half of the hill. I also had to walk 2 other times, once near the drink station and once prior to making the final turn onto Main St. Seeing my friends and family running into the finish was so cool.

Probly needed to do more training runs this season, my endurance was lower than I expected.

Chatted up Bill and family.


Weight gain in the off season and back injury preventing me from training in the early season.