Dumb mistake number one. I *always* hang back a bit and to the side to start the swim, because getting tangled up with a bunch of other hyped up males ends up doing more harm than good (at least for me). This time, I started to the side, but too far in the front. The first part of the swim, I paid for that, as I got clocked pretty good a couple times and in general had a rough time. Finally got into my own space, and was able to settle into a good rhythm. The winds were unusually strong for that early in the morning, so there was a lot of chop in the water as well; especially on the way in. I was very happy to get out of the water, and ended up with a swim time of 36:49. I knew I'd lose time from last year's swim, when the swim course ended up being short, but that was about 2 minutes or so slower than I hoped.

smarter start

Transitions were very different in this race, in that we actually had two transition sites; one for the swim to bike; and then a different location for bike to run. In order to facilitate that, we had to take all our swim gear (including wetsuit) and any loose items that weren't going on the bike - and stuff them into our T1 bag before we headed out on the bike. The race folks grabbed those bags later and brought them over to the race finish. Ended up working out great, just slightly more confusing. Got through it fairly quickly, though, and headed out on the bike.

I am not a power biker, I like to get the longer flatter sections where I can really wind up my cadence and fly. So, this course is a little tougher for me than a flat course like the Lonestar triathlon in Galveston. A lot of up and down, a couple good hills, and fairly rough road surfaces. And a pretty good wind as well, so the bike ended up being a challenge. I could track my average pace on my Garmin, so I could tell I was not going to make up any time on the bike. I actually had to work pretty hard just to keep in the same range as my bike time from last year. I didn't want to overdo the bike at the expense of the run (classic and most common triathlon mistake), so I just kept chugging along and trying to keep as close to 20 mph avg as I could. I completed the bike in just over 2:48 (19.9 mph avg), and have to admit that I was a little frustrated at that point. I knew breaking 5 hours was no longer achievable, and hoped that I still had a good run in me to keep it close to that 5 hour target.

As mentioned earlier, the transitions were in different locations. I had left my running gear in a bag at my T2 bike spot the day before. So, I pulled into transition, racked the bike, and pulled my shoes and hat out of the bag and took off. Pretty simple and quick.

The run course was 3 loops, which was a nice way to break up the half marathon distance. Each loop was a do-able 4+ miles. I started out on the first loop, and I could tell I was going pretty fast; but my heart rate was OK and I wanted to make up some time - so I didn't back off much. After a couple miles, I started settling in and could tell that I would have a pretty good run; barring any unforeseen issues. The sun had come out to play, so it was warming up into the 70's (ended up in upper 70's I believe). The second loop I was still holding a pretty good pace, and feeling pretty strong. The last loop ended up being the gut-check part of the run, not surprisingly. I started to slow a little, but was determined to keep pushing and finish it strong. When I got past the 11 mile mark, I got that "smell the barn" feeling where you get that extra push of energy knowing that you are (finally!) almost done... I finished with a run time just over 1:35, which I was very happy with.