The wind was pretty brutal even at 7am. This made the chop in the Lake fairly rough. There were even some white caps. The first 200 meters was pretty tough. The level of chop was surprising and you had to quickly modify your stroke to get your head higher to breath. Drafting was tough because of the chop. My goggles fogged up early and I had a tough time seeing. Luckily, I swam fairly straight so navigation wasn't a huge issue. The last leg of the swim was directly into the sun. YOu couldn't see anything. I used other swimmers to sight and just hoped they were swimming in the right direction. This was definately one of the toughest lake swims I've ever done. The swim ended up being a little short. Apparently, the wind blew the buoys out of position.

Overall, I think I had a good swim. I was about 3 minutes behind some of the top guys and that's about right for me.

Try to draft a little better. I always have trouble with this. I seem to be in a position where I'm not fast enough to stay with the lead group...but faster than the big pack behind me. I always seem to be out in no-mans-land with only a couple other guys.

No problems.

The bike starts off with a rather steep hill. You really should rack your bike in the small right because the mounting line is at the base of the hill. My HR was through the roof for the first 5-10 miles. It was up in the high 160s and 170s. I really tried to settle down a little but I felt good despite the high HR.

The course is rolling and the wind was pretty bad. Some parts of the course had strong gusting winds and other parts were relatively calm. I don't recall having a great tailwind at any particular time but I do know that the headwind was bad in spots.

I started off at a fast pace and was feeling pretty good. After I settled my HR down a little I got down to business. I had a 600 calorie infinit bottle, a water bottle and some gels. I alternated between water and Heed at the aid stations. I think I'll skip the Heed next time. Yuck! I missed the first pack ahead of me and ended up biking all of the first loop alone. I just couldn't find anybody else to play pass/repass with. The first loop was done in about 1:16. I had planned on turning up the intensity a little after the first loop but I really wasn't feeling great at this point. I didn't feel bad...just didn't have that pop in my legs that I get after an hour or two on the bike. I was passed by a few guys on the 2nd loop and didn't have the legs to stay with them. Usually, I think I could have worked with some of these guys and taken a few minutes off my bike....but not today.

The second loop was really about just maintaining a decent pace and hoping I'd get a little hop in my step for the run. I never slowed much...but I had this feeling that I might crack at any moment. I realized towards the end of the bike that it wasn't going to be my best day. I also spent the 2nd loop alone most of the time. I was caught by a couple guys late in the second loop and ended up sticking close to them for the last few miles. What a huge change from Eagleman. I bike with others about 90% of the time at Eagleman...and less than 5% of the time at this race.

Not really sure. I think I may have overcooked the start of the bike. I may have saved my day by trying to dial it back on the second loop.

Quickly racked my bike and got my shoes on quickly. I was worried about my run at this point. I knew I didn't feel great on the bike and I was pretty sure I'd find out quickly if it was going to be a long run or not. The first part of the run is up a steep hill out of transition. I was immediately passed by a guy in the 40-44 age group. Great! I actually didn't feel that bad and was pleasantly surprised. I thought I would just try to settle into a nice pace and hope I started feeling good. I was passing a few people up the first hill. Me and a guy in the 35-39 age group ran together for the first 5 miles and chatted a bit. He started 8 minutes behind me so that didn't make me feel that good. Around the 5 mile mark I surged ahead of him on a downhill and stayed away for the rest of the run.

The run was relatively uneventful. I maintained about the same 7:10-7:15 pace for the entire run. I never slowed down much except up the steeper hills. However, I never started feeling good. I had the same feeling I had on the bike...like I was going to crack at any moment. I was really hoping to get my legs back and run around a 1:31-1:33. Unfortunately, that never happened. The good news was that I was able to keep my 7:10ish pace most of the run and put down a decent run split.

The run course was tough...probably tougher than the bike. The hill out of transition was a bitch to do 3 times. I'm fairly happy with my run time considering how I felt.

I think I overcooked the bike just a little. It wasn't my best day on the bike and I think I might have pushed things too much during the first 15 miles. That set me up for a tough second half of the bike and just an average run.

Walked over to Sue and talked for a while before I sat down in a chair and drank some gatorade.


I was sick a week before the race and couldn't train for a few days. I'm not sure if this impacted my race or not.

I overcooked the first 15 miles of the bike.

Wind was a factor in my overall time and made for a tough day. It was fairly hot but nothing too bad.


Lake Anna is a great race venue and Setup events really put on a great triathlon. Plenty of aid stations. Very helpful volunteers. The course is really nice...especially the bike course. There were some complaints about the traffic on the course but I didn't think it was a problem at all.

I was somewhat disappointed that the check-in lines were so long. I was checked in by 6:40am...done with setting up transition by 6:50am and my wave started at 7am. That made for a stressful 30 minutes. Only a couple bathrooms as well. They definately needed more porto-johns.