I was in the second sprint heat, the first was real small, maybe 20 guys, and they started all bunched up and had lots of contact, my heat was huge, at least 50 in a small and tight course so I was expecting contact. Started well, went out fast and got onto someones feet for a nice draft to the first bouy. Got kicked in the face rounding the first bouy, lots of people doing the breaststroke through the turn. Lost my fish but spotted a pack of guys to my left, moved into their wake, sighted, wondered where the heck they were going, straightened out and got run over by them a minute or so later as they zagged back across the course. They were moving fast but terrible navigation. Settled into a solo swim along the back straight and was swimming as straight as I've ever swam, then about half way through the leg a guy started bumping into me from the left side. Not a big deal as I was breathing to the right, I caught a few glipses of him in my peripheral vision when I was sighting and he was also breathing to the right so I was in full view for his every breath and I'm sure I was splashing the crap out of him too but he stayed right there around the last bouy almost to the finish. We must've hit a dozen times. I finally pulled a bit ahead the last 50 yards into the beach.

Not much, swam straight, started hard to keep from getting sucked into too much madness in the pack, drafted when I was able, settled into a long smooth stroke. I'm slow.

Transition swim in and bike out were at the same end, I got a good spot in the second rack. It would've been quicker except for the 50 yard run between the bike racks and the mount line. They moved the transition to improve course safety but couldn't move the mount/dismount line much due to timing crew, oops. Jumped on bike, got feet into shoes, climbed hill, got feet strapped in and was off. My Pit-Stop inflator fell off and spun into the trees just as I got my feet in, it is velcroed on but hasn't been a problem all year. Picked it up on the way out.

nada

A solid bike leg, I counted 5 bikes ahead of me at the turnaround, the leader had about 6 minutes but he looked young so I assumed he was in the first heat, caught one or two of them on the return leg. Briefly locked up my rear wheel and got sideways braking for the hard right before the lake, kind of fun actually, made the corner with no issues.

nada, my water intake was a fine balance between keeping cool/hydrated and getting too bloated to run.

This was also a quick transition, just a long run from the dismount to the bikes, then through transition, & past the johnies. Put on socks.

The long run from bikes to mount line wasn't a big deal coming out of T1 but into T2 the dismount was far enough away from the steep hill and then up a small rise. Race officials were calling to slow down before the steep hill, as I coasted into the dismount line I started to wonder whether I'd make it with the small rise sucking speed away, no worries for me though. After the race I noticed the finish line official was yelling at people to keep pedalling up to the dismount line because some people were unclipping and not making it to the line.

nada

Got passed by a guy in transition (here after known as "Red"), he was cruising but immediatly settled into something pretty close to my pace, I think Red was one of the bikes ahead of me into T2 and I transitioned quicker but he then sprinted on the way out of T2. We caught another guy on the wall, Red ran hard up the hill, I took it easy, the guy we caught walked so I passed him and lost some ground to Red. At the turnaround the leader was now 7 minutes up. Red kept about 100' gap on me to the turn around where he walked the aid station, I actually thought to myself, "sweet, I can walk and get a drink" but couldn't do it, slowed down enough to get a couple swigs of water, dumped the rest on my head, and passed Red. I expected him to fall in step and was looking forward to a showdown at the finish, but glanced back at the bike/run merge and Red was way back. Focused on maintaining effort and turnover all the way back in.

nada, decisions early on to run my race and not burnup with high efforts were rewarded. A good run, but a bit slow, somewhat due to heat & somewhat to slacking on the training.

Felt briefly sick but sat in lake to "cool" down, water temp was in high 80's but still refreshing. Got my time and splits from the printer. Food, hydration, and chatted then drove home.


heat and a low training volume the past month or more.


This was a well run KLM race, lots of helpfull volunteers, well marked courses, good decision making on the part of RD, only snafu was the bike mount/dismount location relative to transition. I really like the venue, it is a bit cramped but well worth the hassle.