Was doing great until the turnaround. I've been having problems with my goggles fogging up. I even bought new Sable Water Optics goggles and they fog up, too. I think it might be the cold water or something. I may end up going back to my Speedo Bajas if things don't get any better. If I could stay with the feet of the faster swimmers for the whole swim it wouldn't be that much of an issue, but I couldn't see the next buoy until it was very close. I was off-course a lot of the second half of the swim and I think it really cost me a lot of time. I had to stop twice and lift my goggles to try to figure out where I was and get back on course. Very frustrating. I could tell I was out there for a while.

Work to stay on the feet of the faster swimmers. Figure out what to do about the goggle issue. Spend more time working on the swim! The swim is by far my worst of the three disciplines. Just need to put more in if I expect to get more out.

Looong run to transition from the swim exit. You have to run under the road and it's every bit of a quarter-mile. Thankfully, I had the best possible spot in transition. The swim in, bike in/out and run out were all on the same side of transition and I was the closest to the bike in/out. I can't complain about a thing. It took me a while to get into my shoes, standing at my rack. I probably should have left the shoes on the bike, but I didn't want to risk it since I'm not 100% confident in my ability to get up to speed and get into my shoes in traffic. I would have been fine.

Leave the shoes clipped in.

I felt alright on the bike. Even though I was passing people, it was discouraging to have the wind in our face right off the bat. After the turnaround (about mile 5), there was a dramatic change in wind and it was definitely at our back. I went from struggling to maintain 19 mph, to cruising along at 26-27 mph without working very hard at all. By the time we hit the north turnaround for the first time, the wind had picked up and it was a grind. I was trying to keep the cadence in the high 90s / low 100s, but would catch myself dipping down too low, pushing too hard of a gear against the wind.

Work in a lower gear into the wind and push the pace more heading north with the wind. Need to get cadence up higher. I think I should be up over 100 rpm for a 40k TT. The wind didn't help, but I still shouldn't have been pushing as big of a gear as I was - especially initially.

For some reason, I seem to have a problem with one shoe clipping the ground and coming off of the pedal when I dismount. I was out of my shoes in plenty of time and swung my right leg over and cruised to a stop. It got a bit jammed up and I ended up losing a shoe again. I had to reach down and pick it up. Not all that big of a deal, but not the prettiest dismount. It could have been better. That's two in a row now. Maybe it has something to do with the light-action pedals. They're too easy to de-cleat?

I also took time to put on socks and lace up Asics again. Boston is coming up next week and I didn't want to risk a sockless run in Newtons one week before one of the biggest races of my year.

I noticed that there were at least 5 or 6 bikes on our rack (including the two guys who had racked right next to me in transition). No one from our AG passed me on the bike. In fact, I didn't remember seeing anyone from our AG the entire ride. Two elites passed me on their second loop and one racer from the AG behind me passed me and that was it. I knew I would have my work cut out for me to make a podium spot, but I had no idea where the other racers were.

If I didn't have an A marathon coming up, I would definitely run without socks and use speed laces. I just don't like the way they affect the fit of shoes and with Boston coming up, I wanted a nice race pace effort in the footwear I'll be wearing in the marathon. It took maybe 30 seconds or so, but I don't think it really mattered all that much. And I didn't have hot spots or any blister issues.

This was a tough run. The first 2 miles were on sandy trails that weaved along the edge of the bayshore. There were stretches where we picked up the bike path heading north, but only for about a mile of the 3-mile north stretch. Then we turned back and hit the wind for 3 miles. That slowed things down considerably. There wasn't much to do but fight it. The last quarter-mile or so was away from the wind and back towards the finish.

I passed someone in my AG right at the start of the run, but I still had no idea of how many I would have to catch to podium. I was guessing I was in about 5th or 6th at that point. I knew my swim was not good and figured most of the top competitors were going to be out of reach. One of the top masters runners from the Tri Club flew by me (he's 47, long and very lean). I was running 6:30 pace and he blew by me like I wasn't moving. There was no way I was gonna match his pace. I settled in and started passing people. Mostly those from earlier waves, but I did catch the one guy from the wave behind that had caught me on the bike. So, I knew there were at least two out in front of me from our AG (the two guys I racked with) and probably at least 2 or 3 others. I kept plugging along. The sand running was brutal off the bike, but the miles ticked off and we got back on the bike path until the turnaround. I passed Clay Treska - he's overcome stage-4 cancer to take up triathlon - and gave him some encouragement. After the turnaround, we hit the wind and it was slow going. I caught another AGer and now thought I might have an outside shot at a podium finish. I caught up to my friend Chris from the 25-29 wave and gave him a pat and told him to bring it on home. Saw Clay again and told him the same. Caught another AGer with about a mile to go. There were a couple of younger women ahead and two guys in yellow Breakaway Training kits within reach. I passed both ladies and when we made the last turn, I saw the calves of the Breakaway guys. One had a 43 on it. Great. I had to go. I gave it all I had and tried to stay quiet. The younger Breakaway guy had pulled away. We were inside of 200 meters and I was 10 yards behind. I don't think he saw me coming and we wasn't matching the surge of his partner. I caught up to him moving pretty well and just didn't look back. I tried to catch the younger guy, but ran out of real estate. We stayed in line through the chute and after a volunteer handed me a medal, I turned and noticed that they guy I passed was the guy who had racked right next to me in transition. He made a comment, something like "thanks, Mike." The other guy from our rack was there in transition and I saw OC44 from the Devil Dog Du had already finished, so that meant at least 2 guys were in ahead of me. Turns out, that last pass just got me 4th. The 1st place finisher was David Haas, the Seal who was featured in the NBC broadcast of the Ironman World Championships in Kona last year. I had seen him in transition in the morning, but forgot about him during the race. Not like I could have done anything about it. He came in a good 7 minutes before me.

I think I'm faster in Newtons, but it wasn't worth risking it on this day. I struggled running into the wind on the way back and I lost a good 15 seconds per mile - but then, I'm sure everyone did.

Hang out in the finishing area. Ate some fruit and muffins, drank some water.


I don't know how much I can expect 2 weeks post HIM, and with Boston next week, this race just seemed like a fun thing to do. It would have been great to wind up with a podium spot and an extra medal, but that's gonna take some more work - mostly in the pool. I'm sure the top competitors were closer to 20-22 out of the water and 26 just didn't set me up to reel many people in. Still, I don't think I caught anyone on the bike and only 3 or 4 on the run, so I must have been in the top-10 from our wave out of the water. I guess I'll find out once the splits are posted later this week.


This race is well-organized and well-supported. The late Seal start made for a long pre-race morning, but there was no rush for the facilities and we got to watch the Frog waves start in the open ocean. I would like to do the Frog as it seems like a tough challenge, but since the event is so close to the Boston Marathon, I think I'll be limited to the Seal for the foreseeable future.