The swim was pretty good. The water was a good temperature at 68, which was much more pleasant than the 61 from this event last year (in a different lake). The water was really pretty choppy along a good part of the course. The most difficult part for me was the last stretch into shore which was nothing but a sea of arms and legs fighting for position.

Not much. I think this went fairly well. 78/515 is pretty good.

Transition began with a 1/3 mile run (uphill, those sadists!) from the beach to the T area, so everyone had a pretty long T1 time.

Arrange my area a bit differently but otherwise, just work on doing everything a little faster.

There were a couple of moderate hills right in a row that were fairly challenging for these flat-land legs! I still managed to pass a few people on the way up though, so I was glad about that. Traffic control was not great in places, which was kind of disappointing compared to last year's awesome traffic control. It was ok overall though.

This was a fairly decent ride for me. I just need to get in more miles in training. I need to find some hills around my house to train on! Not easy amidst miles of corn fields. I also ended up with a side cramp from drinking a little too much, so I'll try a little less next time.

So, this ticked me off. The racer next to me left me about 4 inches of room on the bar to get my bike on. I understand that everyone is in a hurry in the race, but come on! I just shoved her bike over and racked mine.

Rack bike faster. Work on switching from bike shoes to run shoes faster. It went ok, but I'm sure I can do it better.

Yes folks, that is a 9:58/mile run average. Sub 10:00 for me is nothing short of a minor miracle, especially after that bike leg! Yippee! I also actually passed a few people on the run that started in heats ahead of me. I didn't do that once last year that I can recall.

Try to sprint at the end a little earlier. I did a bit, but could've started the kick a little sooner.

Waited for my husband to cross the line about two minutes after me (although he ended up finishing 8 seconds faster than me after adjusting for start time--darn him!) Lots of IT band stretches.


Lack of intense hill training; only one brick in training. Choppy water during swim.


This is a great race! This race committee has its act together, totally. Very organized, very smooth, tons of volunteers, lots of aid stations, GREAT swag, and, amazingly, plenty of clean, well-stocked port-a-johns. This is only the second year for this event, but you'd never know it. Highly recommend if you are in the area.

This year they added the Oly distance also, and had a couple of pros there to race (Becky Gibbs-Lavelle and Doug Friman). Pretty cool.

I was pretty darn pleased with this race as the first one of the year. The encouraging points for me personally:

- Passed a few people on the hills on the bike. (I didn't pass anyone on the bike until my third race last year.)
- Passed a few people on the run.
- Didn't feel the IT band until the very, very end of the run.
- Didn't feel like I was going to drop dead at the end of the race.

Next year this event should be at the same location, so I can do an actual comparison. Last year it was at a different location and the bike was 2 miles shorter and much flatter, so I can't really compare the two years' results.