Sighting was really bad. On the first leg I found myself in the middle of the rectangle. The current had pushed me and I couldn't get a bead on the buoy for direction. Goggles fogged up horribly. Not enough buoys for sighting. After finally making the first turn I was now swimming with the river. The mid way sighting buoy had drifted horribly. Instead of being a straight line from turn buoy to turn buoy the top part of the course was more like an equilateral triangle. I don't know how much distance this added to the course , but judging from all swimmers times, it was quite a bit. After making a hard turn around the "sighting" buoy I swam towards the ferry pier where the turn buoy should be. Eventually I felt I was almost headed directly bac to shore and began to figure I must have past the turn buoy. But then I eventually saw it slightly upriver and that's when I figured out the real shape of the course. Anyway on the final leg I was swimming into the sun and should not have been able to see the next sighting buoy but I did and it was way up river from were the train of swimmers in front were going. Not knowing whether to follow the pack or head to the buoy I split the difference. At one point a later wave swimmer flew by me up river on buoy line. He really looked like he knew what he was doing so I felt confident to ignore the pack which was being swept down river by the current into the pier. Near shore the pack stood up very early and it was quite a line marching to shore. I stayed swimming till it got to shallow then stood up somewhat upriver and closer to the finish from the lemming line.

My zig-zagging on the first leg really hurt my time so must work on navigation skills and find a better solution to goggle fogging. Overall I felt faster in the water than in the past I just wish it was in the right direction. Don't know what me real pace was, but being 160/333 puts me dead MOP for the swim which is my typical placement

Long run to T1, struggled with suit.

With this kind of run to t1 I should have stripped at the water exit. The run really forces the water out creating a great suction bond between skin and neoprene. Also, the next time I want to try, just before standing up out of the water tugging the neck of the suit to let water in, maybe this will help lubricate the suit and make removal easier.

The goal here was to hold my planned ironman heartrate and effort level, not minimize my HIM time. My planned IM HRavg was 132 to 135 with a hard cap of 140. Well from my HR data you can see I failed miserably. The first few miles I pedaled easy but my hr stayed high as my swimming muscles still required some blood flow so I ignored the hr data and concentrated on a nice pedal strike. at mile 4 the hr drop 20 beats and I was good to go. But it seemed that no matter how easy I pedaled I couldn't get my hr down into the range I wanted, bu t I thought I was matching my IM RPE I practiced in training so I just went with it.

about 3/4's the way through I could start to feel my cycling muscle working and I started to believe I was going to hard and finally got my hr down where it belonged.

Didn't start to eat early enough so didn't take in quite the calories I planned and finished the ride with too much in my stomach going into the run.

Must work on being able to pedal smoothly at the proper IM RPE/HR.

Sucked, don't know why, just slow.

Well the plan was to go IM easy on the bike and hold near open HM pace on the run. I figured near HM pace would be 8:25-8:30, so that didn't happen. Of course I went out too fast but got it under control in miles 2 and 3. I did have to slow down quite a bit in the gravel trail section as I don't run off road much and am not sure footed. Second loop much slower than the first as I couldn't hold my test pace.

I did like the course, hope they decide to keep this route for follow-on years. There were lots of aid stations, making it easy to stay hydrated. Only had two gels on the run, must increase that calorie intake but eating late on the bike I knew I wouldn't be able to tolerate much for the first half of the run

For this IM field trial I should have gone easier on the bike.

Only had two gels on the run, must increase that calorie intake but eating late on the bike I knew I wouldn't be able to tolerate much for the first half of the run