I was in the second wave (M 40&under) with probably 50 people or so. I started off in the second row on the right. I had a patch of weeds for the first 25 yards or so and then it cleared up. There was a little bit of contact to the first buoy and then it cleared out. I tried to grab some feet and hang on for the ride but the person was all over the place. I am starting to think that unless you are in the lead pack the swimmers are just not good enough to draft off of..meaning they are either directionally challenged or change their pace alot. At about the middle of the first lap I was on my own pretty much and pushing pretty good. My goal this year for the swim is to get under 25 minutes which is 1:30/100yd. It was definitely a comfortably hard pace and pretty much kept my pace steady the whole time. My sighting was good today and was never off course. When I rounded the buoy for the second lap I was feeling good and in a rythem. I started passing the first wave a bit now but they never really got in my way which was good. The sun was rising right over the swim in location so I just followed the crowd and did not have any issues. I swam until my hands hit the ground..stood up and unzipped the top of my wetsuit and ran up the hill to transition area. I looked at my watch as I stood up in the water and it said 25:xx so I was happy with that. Swimming gains are so small it seems..I shaved over a minute from my fastest 1500m swim last year which is great but seems so small in the scheme of a 2 hour plus race.

Nothing spectacular..just a solid swim. I have been trying to keep as much of my face in the water as possible when I breathe but end up drinking alot of water as a result...a little bloated as I got out.

4/120 Pretty Good - a big TA which is why the longer time.

I was able to get the wetsuit off easily..a little trouble with my helmet but overall was pretty good. I put my bike shoes on in transition and am always in the top 5% of transition times so having them on the bike is not worth the hassle for me plus I have no trouble running in my shoes to the mount line.

Buckle my helmet faster..thanks for asking.

They advertise this as a 40K bike but the results say 23 miles so slightly short of the real deal...here I was so happy that I went under 1 hour for a 40K on a rolling course and they crush my dreams :). I jumped on the bike out of transition area and then had to slow down at the bottom of the hill to cross a speed bump..then climb up a hill to the main road. My HR was defintely high from the swim and long run to transition so tried to calm down a bit...I mean way over threshold so needed to get that right. The nice thing was about 3 miles in there is a long gradual descent where I ran out of gears so my HR came down at that point and I was able to settle in after that. The back half of the course is slightly uphill and made it hurt a bit. There are not real climbs on the course just same gradual uphills where it dishes pain. I passed a few people on the first loop and then we mixed in with the sprint distance and it was hard to keep track but I can say I was never passed..which is sweet. The second half of the second loop was defintely much tougher and I made it hurt. It was actually nice to have some people on the course for the second loop to break the monotony. There was a guy in the sprint distance so blatantly drafting it was ridiculous...I passed him..looked at him and shaked my head. If he was an Oly distance athelete I would have said something but whatever. The thing about 3D races is there are no race officials on the course which I do not understand..anyway water under the bridge.

Very happy with my bike fitness...I love my bike! A PR by about 1 mph which is just sick.

2/120 Good

My sunglasses popped off as I was taking off my helmet so had to put those back on. No socks on the run so this was pretty quick.

Nothing - I beat a guy by 1 second in the final results and transitions area where I got it.

Wow - this course was much tougher than anticipated and 6.5 miles in length..so slightly longer than standard. This was similar to Pokagon except not quite as extreme. It was a mix of trail and grass sections and did not allow you to get in a rythem. There is a good climb just out of transition which was tough and got my HR way up. It is then rolling to the trail section which has some tough climbs and even a section of stairs. The trail sections were tight and was shouting on your left the whole time with the sprint distance mixed in. I was in the pain box the whole run. I knew I was not moving as fast as I wanted but I just could not go any faster today. As soon as i would find a nice rythem it was interrupted by a climb and the descents were so steep that you could not relax there either. The second lap was not as crowded but just as painful. I definitely battled on this run and am happy that I toughed it out. I was passed by a couple guys that were just at another level and I had no other gears today. It was hard to no where I was in the field with the older guys starting 3 minutes earlier and the sprint distance mixed in. I just ran the best I could and left it all out there. I rounded the last turn for the finish which is about .3 miles or so and wondered where I was on time (I usually never check my watch on the run) so as I got to the finish I saw 2:16:xx on the clock..subtract 3 minutes and wow I just blew out my goal time. Regardless of where I stood OA I was very happy that I killed my goal time of 2:18:00 and stetch goal of 2:16:00.

Definitely not my fastest run but the course was tough and I gave it everything.

I was gassed! I drank a bunch of Heed and water and jumped in the lake.


The hills on the run!


There were a lot of good athletes at this race..I thought a 2:13:xx would get me a little higher up the OA chain.