There was more body contact on this swim than any other race I've been too. This is also the largest wave I've been a part of so that's expected. I didn't take any kicks or elbows so that was good.

Goggles started to fog up about 20 minutes in and I had trouble sighting once I made the turn around the second turn buoy. I let a little water into each side of my goggles to clear the fog and that worked well. I probably should have done that from the start to help prevent the fog.

Everybody in wetsuits were quite a bit faster than me. Having a wetsuit would probably help my speed but I wasn't cold at all since the water was warmer than the air.

Stubbed my left big toe and hurt my left ankle a little getting upright out of the water and was VERY dizzy once I got bent over at T1 to clean off my feet and put on my socks/shoes. Long uphill run to T1 was great for spectators but tough for athletes. Stuffing my swim stuff into the gear bag as required only cost me a couple seconds - no big deal.

Planned to take the first 10-15 miles at a decent pace and then settle into a good pace for the faster section or the course. I was able to catch a decent legal rolling draft as I seemed to pass lots and lots of people through the entire course. I knew I was pushing the pace a little but I didn't think I was overdoing it as I felt good near the end. Cool seeing my cheering crew (wife, parents, and in-laws) near the end.

Drink more and stick to a better nutrition plan. I only drank my 2 24-oz bottles of Powerbar Endurance drink that I brought with me. I planned to drop an empty bottle around mile 36 and pick up a water but I didn't feel like I needed it. In retrospect, I definitely didn't drink enough. I also took 4 Powerbar gels...not sure if that was enough or not.

Able to hop right off the bike, ran it to the rack, swapped shoes, grabbed my helmet and I was off! Quick and easy.

I started off way too fast! Ran 7:24 on my first mile and immediately slowed down a couple notches. Next mile was 8 min. Still needed to slow down as I was shooting for 8:15-8:20/mile. I finally got my pace in check after 4 miles and I was feeling pretty good except for my quads cramping up a little.

Started really breaking down at 9.5 miles though. My quads and calves were cramping along with my sides and my heart felt ready to burst out of my chest. Had to walk up hills and couldn't run/jog much on the flats since my HR would shoot right up. I had plenty of breath and my legs could still run despite the muscle cramping but my heart was done.

I was able to pull it together in order to run into the arena and across the finish but I was wrecked.

Not push so hard on the bike, go easier than I think I should at the start of the run, set my pace earlier, drink more on the bike, have a more solid nutrition plan for the run.

Drink drink drink drink!! Ate some fajitas and ice cream too. Stretched a little but my muscles were not happy with me.


Heart rate sky rocketing. Need to get that under control. I see a HRM in my future along with a HR-based training plan as opposed to the RPE training I have been doing.


Great race production and organization. Email communications were a bit confusing but a combination of BT threads and applying logic and common sense helped quite a bit.