Nice easy swim. Practiced drafting as much as possible. Slight tightness in the middle of my back which I think was from lifting my head to sight, which I do not practice enough. May be a problem on longer swims in the future.

Also I noticed that my form was kind of poor. My timing was way off compared with when I swim in the pool. Not sure if that was due to wetsuit, or due to waves in the OW.

Train more OWS.

Wet suit rippers are the best!!!! But I still had problems with that calf cramp.

Don't point my toes to put on socks, which is when I'm consistently getting a BAD calf cramp.

Nice flat and fast course, although it was wet and rainy the whole ride. Big head wind and major gusts on the return. Nutrition and hydration were smooth, and I felt pretty good the whole ride. Calf continued to hurt even as I tried to roll it out. Back got stiff and I shoulda got out of aero to strech it.

Ride harder? I think I left too much in the tank.

Back got stiff and I shoulda got out of aero to strech it.

Stopped to pea. Didnt really rush through this one.

Hilly! I ran the hill at mile 3, but walked the ones at 6 and 9. I basically held an 8:40 pace the whole time except for walking the hills, and walking the aid stations. I walked one other time when the HR got too high and I wanted to back it off a bit.

Not really sure. Need to train more long bricks to be ready for the IM.

None. Grab a bottle of water and drive back to Chicago. Stopped and ate a sandwich about an hour later.


I was trying to go easy and treat this as a training run, and I never pushed the pace at all. I need to shave some time off my swim, but probably won't be able to do that before IMWI.


Great race on an awesome course. One of the best Half's out there! Race started late due to the weather, but it was really well organized and the RD kept everyone well informed. Really awesome Half, out did all the 70.3 branded races in the midwest!