We all waded in the water until the start since it was a deep water start. The guy starting decides he is just going to say ok go! Not real formal..but whatever. It was a little rough at the start but thinned out after 200 meters. I was swimming well and felt comfortable to the first buoy. They only had 4 buoys total for the course. 2 to the turn buoy and then 2 back in for a 1500 meter course which is just not enough so sighting is essential to a good split. The way back was into the sun and could not see anything. I would look up and just see a crowd of people so just followed the crowd for the most part. I stopped and breast stroked a second to sight the last buoy and ended up about 30 yards right of it which was ok. After that buoy I thought I was being caught by the older men on the course and thought it would be a good thing to get on the feet of the faster swimmers in the next wave. Turns out, this did not work out well. That group brought me way left on the last bit into home and when I sighted and saw the big group 50 yards over..I knew I was in trouble.
I got out in 26:xx and was not happy. I knew I swam well enough to be low 25's and just got off course and blah!

Stop and sight with a breast stroke. The sun was right in the grill and it was very easy to get off course as I did. Do not get on the feet of the wrong person :).

AG: 1/28

Good transition other than the timing chips they were using were huge and took a couple seconds to get it over my wetsuit.

Timing chip under my wetsuit which I usually do but one of the volunteers said it might not time correctly under the wetsuit.

I started out passing quite a few people because of my bad swim. The first section of the course has a few corners and some smaller hills mixed in and then some more hills until you get to the out and back sections. The first out and back is always the most difficult because of the hills and into a pretty good headwind. I was into the smallring and trying to maintin a steady cadence but this is where I could have pushed a bit and did not. The way back is a tailwind and you can fly. The second out and back is actually pretty flat and again did not push this hard enough. I knew as I approached transition that I did not have the bike I wanted but I was hoping to put down a great run split and rectify a little bit at least.

PUSH HARDER! To race well you have to want the pain that goes with it and today was I just not ready to do that.

AG: 1/28
No problems here..left the sunglasses at T2 becuase it had clouded up.

Nada!

Took off out of transition feeling pretty good and felt like I was at a comfortably hard pace. I had a few people out in front and just concentrated on trying to catch some people. I had the same guy out in front of me that was right next to me in transition. He started out about 200 meters in front of me but I eventually reeled him in. I did not realize he was actually in my age group until we got to mile 4.5 or so and came up on his shoulder. I was running ok up until that point taking a water at each aid station and just trying to keep a good rythm since it was a flat course. We kind of paced off each other the rest of the way and he pulled away a bit in the last mile. I thought I would be able to turn it up a notch on the last couple miles but just did not have it in me.

They had a cold shower thingy set up that I got under...amazing!



Focused on my HIM and work, stress, and travel weighed on me the week leading up.


Good race...nice swim (see need more buoys)..challenging bike course..and nice support on the run. Very competitive field at this race which I liked.
No OA rankings in each discipline posted in the results section..just AG.

I shall be back and hopefully with a much better time!