Tried to start on outside right in back. Looked up about 100 yards in and was in middle of pack. Good: meant I was moving up some. Bad: means I was drifting to the left. Made for a hard time getting into a rhythm. After first turn, was able to find some space and settle in. I was reminded again that OWS is much harder than the pool swim. Between the number of people, not being able to see, and the wetsuit, makes it much harder to swim for me.

Train more in OWS with wetsuit.

Decided on the fly not to wear socks for the bike. Also, didn't put on new jersey, just wore base layer under wetsuit and wore that through the race. Big improvement for me from T1 last year.

Improved from last year, so was happy with this Transition.

Felt good on the bike. Improved swim fitness for me meant better performance on bike from last year.

Nothing.

Decided on fly again to not wear socks for run. Turned out fine for 5k.

Nothing

As with last year, really happy and surprised by run performance. I tweaked my calf at the end of January, and hadn't really run much during all of February. No pain in calf for run most importantly, and this was the fastest 5k I have ever done. Had hoped I could do 8 minute miles, but turned in 7:30, which for me, is great.

Be able to train more consistently on the run and maybe even improve this time.

Performed pretty well, very happy with performance.


Overall, very happy with my performance. Dropped about 9 minutes from time last year. Improved all three legs and in T1 and T2. This was a good race for me.

I did mess up my age category. I had thought (turns out correctly) that racing age is age at end of the calendar year, which should be 40. When I picked up my race number, they had me at 39. I asked, but the guy told me race age is age on race day. So I ended up in the wrong starting group. Made my swim time on the prelim results look really good, but timing people were able to correct it. It was my bad for not pushing what I knew was the right rule, but glad it turned out ok.