I was surprised with my swim. I've been doing pretty much only TI drills since February and only had one swim over 1000 yards in the last few months. That being said, this was by far my best swim to date. I was 2 minutes faster than my previous best and was not overly tired when I got out of the water. I did have one problem in that when I stood up and started wading back to the shore I bashed my big toe on a large rock under water. Fortunately it didn't take off the nail, but it was black and blue.

I think doing more drills will help even more. I had trouble keeping in form, but I'm certainly not disappointed with my time, especially since my time included taking off my wetsuit while going up the stairs from the beach to the transition area.

Last year I was around 2.5 minutes in T1 and I was less than a minute this year. I certainly can't complain about that!

I've been on travel for work two of the last three weeks and haven't been on the bike nearly enough. I've also been fighting some tendinitis and have very limited miles for the last two weeks. I tried to not overwork the ride and ended up with about the same time as last year. My seat needs some adjustments. My upper hamstrings were really sore and are still very sore hours after the race. I need to tilt the seat forward a little more and see if that helps.
I tried for an even cadence and coasted down the larger hills and geared down on the uphills. The last mile or two I took it easy and did some stretching while on the bike and I think this helped the run portion.

Get a tri bike. . .maybe next year. I think I planned this ride very well considering my lack of bike conditioning.
I need to get my seat more comfortable and need to get more miles on the bike.

Another fast transition less than a minute.

I did a little better than last year and past 4 people in my age group during the run. I was just about at the same pace as last year. I had plenty of wind, but my legs were pretty wiped out. I've been doing Chi running that helped, but all the ups and downs made it difficult to keep any kind of steady pace. I was surprised to see my best event this year was the run. All my previous races the swim has been my best. This makes me feel pretty good as have a running background and my run performance has been a disappointment until this year.

Get more training and and maybe work some hills. I need to get my bike seat issues resolved to get rid of the hamstring discomfort I get on the run (and after the race).

Not much. My hamstrings were screaming and I couldn't reach down to pack up my stuff. Walking was painful and I couldn't really strech.


Insufficient training over that last 4 weeks due to injury and company travel. My bike seat (#5) is still giving me fits.


This was my second year at Pokagon. It was better this year because I knew what to expect on the run and planned the bike portion accordingly.