Started in the middle of everyone (stupid decision), got knocked around quite a bit, had my goggles knocked a little and took on water. Swallowed some water and had to recover for a bit, backstroke style. In addition, my tinted goggles were destroyed in the car by the heat, but luckily I had a backup pair, but they were clear lenses. Swimming into the sun on the way out it was extremely hard to see.

Once I recovered from the water intake I swam on my own and started making up the time, but I know I lost a solid 2 minutes in the first 300m.

Start on the side and either go out in the front and do my thing off on the side (I was quickly catching back up to people after my horrible start). I definitely need more practice drafting people, I really prefer to swim alone.

Transition went well. Probably one of my faster T1 transitions. Even put on socks. The new TriGlide I used that I picked up at the San Diego Marathon Expo was AWESOME! It's soooo much better than body glide. Sprayed it on my legs, arms, lower 5inches of the wetsuit (outside) and on my feet. It stayed on for the entire swim and the suit basically fell off me! Definitely using that for wet suits from now on and bodyglide is simply going to be an anti-chaffing thing

Probably should spend the extra second it would take to put the sunglasses on instead of waiting until I'm on the bike moving. Might sound counter productive, but putting sunglasses on while riding isn't the easiest and I think I lose a few seconds because of my lose of speed and control on the bike while doing it.

I rode the course the day before, so knew if I went a little harder in the beginning I'd get a good chance to recover during the fast mid-portion when it's harder to make up time. So I pushed pretty good in the beginning and it paid off. I took the corners still in aero and pedaling when I could. Even had a volunteer cheer and yell: "That's the way to do it, pedal through those corners!".

Unfortunately I got stuck behind a truck with a trailer who was getting stuck behind the slower people who were in the first wave and those faster than me in the swim in the second wave. The worst part is this was supposed to be the fastest portion of the course. Yesterday I maintained a 30mph speed all through this section and was reduced to 15mph a lot because I had to just sit there behind the truck (technically I was drafting, but I was drafting going MUCH slower than I wanted to go). I got the opportunity to pass on a dashed yellow line and took it. Got up ahead, back up to speed, and then the truck passes me again just to slow back down again. This went on for nearly 7 miles, definitely wasn't happen and was sitting up riding the brakes a lot! I'm sure I lost a few minutes because of this.

Not get stuck behind a truck would be awesome!

Good transition for the most part. Got caught up behind some slow moving people from a later wave who were just getting on their bikes. Couldn't run through transition because they were walking and blocking the lanes, ran when I could though. Went to leave transition, but had to run to the opposite side of the transition area to exit, got caught behind people walking to their bikes still in their wetsuits while doing this. I think my T2 time would have been more normal and down closer to 30-40s instead of 70s if I didn't get brought to a walk half the time.

Stiff arm the other people... j/k :) I know it's just part of a large transition area and a larger wave. I just wish people had more of a fire under their butts and would at least jog instead of walking around like they're at a mall.

I'm the first to admit 5ks are not my strength, but I think I did alright. I know I could have pushed harder and went faster when I got done, but I was worried I'd blow myself up like at San Diego. I get faster with each mile when I run and a 5k just isn't far enough for me to really start picking up the pace. I'm happy with the 7:30 pace overall, but was also ready to continue running and continue to speed up. I felt like I was just getting warmed up with my last mile pace being a 7:17... I think I could have started to drop below 7s if it was a longer run. I'll be looking forward to the Olympic Tri next month where the run is longer.

Push a harder, I'm faster than what I did, and my HR shows that.

Grabbed some food, drank some beers, went back and got my co-bell and stood near the finish line cheering the last racers in. There was a very large crowd when I finished, but at the end I was the only one with a cowbell trying to cheer on the last to come in, others would turn and pay attention only because I was there cheering them in. I love watching the last ones to come in, they have huge smiles on their faces. I'm sure I look like I'm in pain and super focused on that finish line to get those last few seconds. I admire them for taking the time to really enjoy and reflect on what they have just done. Especially when you see the ages like 71 and 74 on the back of people's legs, I hope to still be in that kind of shape.


My horrible swim, lack of swim training, getting caught behind a truck on the bike, and my failure to push harder during the run (I've trained too much for long distance and don't know how to make myself hurt for 20 minutes running anymore apparently. I'm always keeping some back it feels)