As I said in my pre-race routine, I was rushed to get ready. And I ended up in the second wave, just after the elites. Oh well, all was fine even though I hadn't had much time to watch, as I had hoped. The water was cool, but as expected. The swim was very little like my training swims in the pool. I practiced a couple of open water swims last year, when I was planning to do my first tri (but didn't), but I hadn't had the chance to do any open-water swims this year. I was worried about the mass swim but it was fine, a little contact here and there but nothing that I would say was deliberate or rude. All that said I really didn't get into my swim 'stride' until the last third of the course.

Focus more on getting into good form early. Sight better, I found myself weaving quite a bit.

I lost a ton of time on this transition. Since this was my first tri I had a bit of a laid-back attitude about the transition. My wetsuit came off fine, I peeled it to the waist as I ran from the beach and got it all the way off with no problems at my rack. However, I was using my 'commuter' bike shoes with laces and I also made the dreaded (and predictable) shirt-on maneuver, which ended up taking about 30 seconds when it got stuck on my wet body. These two points alone were probably a minute and a half of my transition time. Other than that I smiled for my wife's camera and then hoofed it out of T1.

Even though I took a long time I'm not willing to dump loads of money into gear I won't use for other activities (okay, I bought a few tri-specific things...). So I'd say I might practice more with what I'm using but I'm okay with my time, even though it was pretty slow.

The bike was fun, I'd never been in an organized ride before this race. I pushed hard, and actually had to slow my pace slightly when I saw my heart rate at 185 a few minutes in. I ended up keeping my heart rate at about 170-175 for most of the ride and averaged about 20 mph, which I'm happy with.

I was a little unsure of tri etiquette. Do you call 'left' when passing? When passed do you really need to drop back 3 bike lengths? Should you really follow 3 bike lengths back from the next rider? Lot's of folks weren't, as the course was fairly crowded. I suspect much of this only matters if you're placing well in your age group or overall.

I ended up passing lots of mtn bikes and a few road bikes, and getting passed by lots of 'aero' bikes. I was riding my standard Specialized Allez road bike with no clip-on bars or other aero gear. I leap-frogged with the same four or five bikes for much of the course, which was fun. I found that compared to the people around me I was pretty strong on the hills. I guess my bike commute, with a long, steady, gradual hill at the end, has helped. I'm sure I couldn't hammer the hills this way for 100 miles but for the 14 that we had it was no problem.

Overall the course was fun, with views of the lake from the road, the traffic enforcement was great (nice not worrying as much about traffic!), and it was neat to see so many tri bikes in action.

The one thing I had trouble with was drinking. At my increased pace and heart rate I had trouble taking water without spiking my heart rate.

This transition went much better than the first, although there was less to be done. I guess looking at the other competitors times my T2 time is still pretty slow. Oh well, I can console myself by looking at my event splits, right?

Hustle up!

The course was mostly cross-country, through a state park. It was fairly bumpy and muddy. With my wooden legs from the bike I had to be careful about not slipping or twisting an ankle. But I made the 'brick legs' transition fairly easily. I made an effort to dial back my pace just a little at the beginning. I kept my heart rate between 160 and 170 for the first half, and then went harder but just by feel for the second since my hrm cut out on me (dead battery?).

And at this point I was having so much fun it didn't matter. There were lots of cheering folks on the first part of the run which got me moving. And I've done lots of 'fun runs' so this felt much more normal than the swim and bike. And best of all was the BT.com sign at the half-way point. Thanks Zagagirl!

It was also fun to get to chat with the runners I was with. Not everybody wanted to talk but a few did and the feeling of camaraderie and accomplishment was cool.

The only slip up was when we rounded the bend back near start/finish. I saw a large sign over the road and a crowd of people. So I put on the burners and sprinted for the finish. Whoops! That's the 5K start group, I had another 1/4 mile to go! But thankfully I hadn't entirely spent it all and I was able to put on another sprint to the end.

My wife was waiting at the finish line cheering me on, which was awesome. I just about bowled over a little girl handing out water who stepped in front of me but we both came out unscathed (and hydrated) so all ended well.

Aside from spotting the correct finish line, nothing.

Walked and chatted with my wife.


I think I performed up to my training, which is all I was asking for. My times for the three events seem pretty good to me but I lost overall in the transitions, so that's something to work on.


Overall very good though with my late arrival I didn't really have much time to assess the scene. My one complaint is the number of bathrooms. With 700+ competitors I'd have liked to see more than 5 porta-potties and the existing restroom. Long lines meant less time to prepare or visit.