And then the gun went off. Uggg the entire swim was terrible. I couldnt catch my breath, couldnt pull, couldnt keep form. I cant believe that i survived as long as i did, and i was only about 2 minutes down from the leaders. My original plan was to keep within sight of the leaders to make my move on the bike, but that went to hell with my terrible swim. Something to work on, and i am sure that when i get my wetsuit comes i wont dread the cold water as much. Exited the water right about 7 minutes and ran to T1.

Breathing, Breathing, breathing.

Mostly happy with this. First race with my Giro Advantage 2, and I didnt have any issues getting it on. sunglasses on, socks, outta there...

Got to the mount line and went to do the flying mount (like i normally do...) and rammed my gut right into my seat...needless to say, it wasnt pretty, but fairly ammusing. Stopped, regained composure and took off.

Mount the bike better, just need practice after the off season.

After the terrible mount, got my feet into the shoes and took off. The wind was very light, maybe 7 mph, and the first lap started out downwind. Got onto the loop part of the course easy enough, but was already down at least 1.5 minutes on the leaders from a terrible swim. I got a good pace going trying to control my breathing from the swim, and tried to keep it under 25 mph. About 1 mile in i let the pace increase. The backstretch was about 27-28 mph, and the front down to about 21-22. Continued to pick off people through the first lap, but after that, I had moved up to 4th overall and was only slowly gaining on the people in front. Laps 2 and 3 were pretty good, and on the way back to transition I backed off in preparation for the run. By the time i decided to get my feet out of the shoes, I had a bad realization...I couldnt even feel my feet. They were that cold from the swim, so I am not really looking forward to the Michigan Tri's. Hoped off the bike and ran the ohhh 10 feet to the rack.

Hmmmm... Not to much. I need to get my endurance up at higher power outputs. I felt like i should be up near 25 mph average for a race this short. I will take 23.25, which is my fastest bike split in my short triathlon career!

No time for this (official results arent really out yet, and they didnt time the transitions) so i am just guessing here.

Great stop for me, hopped off the bike, ran to the rack, slipped on the shoes, tied them, grabbed my race belt and visor and ran off.. heard some spectators talking and said "wow that was fast" and made me feel great. When i got to the rack, i saw 2 bikes so i knew i had to move out on the run.

not much, i need to get better laces for my shoes though...

Started out on the run, and the first thing through my mind was "ohhhh i cant feel my feet." Not a positive feeling. Saw the two people that i saw bikes of and set my sights on them. Picked off the first one fairly easily about .5 miles in and concentrated on the second one which i caught and passed about .75 miles in. At this time, i was pretty sure that i was in the lead, which is a completely new feeling. When i hit the 1 mile mark at about 6:40, i was really happy, so i decided to turn it up a little bit. Was able to hold my increased pace pretty well, and continued through the next two miles.

I got to the turn back to the college, and i wasnt sure which way to go, so it took me a second of my mental thought to figure it out. No real time lost. Picked it up for the last 200 meters and stopped my watch. I was really happy with this run.

Not much... More run training, would like to get down to 18:40 5k's in a sprint. (6 min miles)

a little bit more jogging. I found out at the end that i came in second, and the first guy had beat me by about 4 minutes! He was crazy fast and i have raced him before, so i was surprised that i didnt see him at all during the race. Really happy with the opener, and i feel like some of the races i do later this year will be good.


Swim Training... Cost me 1 minute easy here. What can i say, i suck at swimming in open water. Regardless, i feel alot better with a wetsuit, which is my next purchase.


This is a great local race. My only complaint is the short bike and lack of timing chips. It would be great to get all the splits, but that would drive up the entry fee.