Felt fine. Knew a lot of people would start out too fast, so I just kept my pace and tried to keep the "real" leaders in sight. Passed a lot of people around the 1/2 mile mark and then mostly held my position to the finish. Caught up to one more runner on the backstretch and made the pass. We both finished the run with the same time of 5:14. There were three runners in a group a few seconds ahead of us as we closed in on T1.

Not much. This is my fastest mile time trial to date. Maybe push just a bit more in the beginning? All-in-all, this part went really well.

Good transition. Shoes off, helmet on, grab bike and run out. 4th into T1, 2nd out. This year, they moved the bike mount a bit farther from transition, so the run out with the bike is longer, but not really a big deal (same for everyone, right?). The leader (and person I thought would be the favorite to win the race based on past performances) was having some trouble mounting his bike. He rolled out just as I hopped on my bike.

This was a good transition. Not much to do differently, other than maybe jump on to my bike while running. I'm just worried about losing a shoe.

I got passed by three riders immediately as I worked into my shoes. I got up to speed and caught all but one of them as soon as I strapped in. As usual, it took a while to get comfortable on the bike. The first mile run in a sprint duathlon really spikes my HR. When my Garmin finally connected, I was at 169. I got it down to as low as 162, but I was about 164 for most of the bike. The second loop felt much better. There's a moderate hill coming back towards the end of the course. The first time through, I stayed seated and slowed way down climbing up the hill. The second time I stood, and while I was working harder, I didn't lose much speed. The dismount was good (didn't miss the turn for the first time in three years), but I lost a shoe off of one of the pedals.

Stand on the first hill - I lost some time there.

I did the 40-mile TCSD club ride the day before the race. Spent 30 minutes at the front, working pretty hard. I think I was faster through this section in training. Don't know why, but the bike just felt slow today. This wasn't an A race and the plan was to just train through it, so I can't complain. If I was going for a peak performance, I don't think I'd ride 40 the day before.

Good dismount / transition - just lost a shoe right after the dismount. I knew a lot of the people right there so I just left it (turns out my relay team member was there watching and just grabbed it and put it next to my bike). I was a bit distracted by it, though, and almost ran past the entrance to transition, heading towards the "out". A volunteer redirected me so I stopped, made a hard right and headed in. Some TCSD members were still in transition, waiting for their later wave starts, and they cheered me on and let me know that the leader was about 40 seconds ahead of me.

Not lose a shoe. I use Speedplay Light Action. If I were to use Zero I probably wouldn't have this problem.

Started the run and knew I was in second place. I could see the leader (with the mtb escort) about 150-200 yards ahead. He was the runner I had passed towards the end of the first run, so I thought we would be evenly matched. I was hoping that his faster bike split may have taken more out of him, but I wasn't feeling all that great. I pushed, but felt slow. I checked my watch and something didn't seem right. I realized that I must have hit "Stop" instead of "Lap" when I started the run. When I made the first turn, I knew I wasn't going to be catching the leader. He was putting time on me - and it looked like the runners behind me might be catching up a bit. They seemed close. The one guy I had been most worried about was a ways back (currently 5th) and didn't seem to be making up any ground. I figured the worst I would finish would be 4th. At the last turn (a one-block out-and-back on a side street), the two chasers were about 15 seconds behind me and I saw the 4th place runner make his move. When I passed them, he was just about to make the pass and overtake 3rd. We had less than a half-mile to go and when I made the turn onto the 101 for the homestretch, I They were about but I only had a half mile to go and had at least a 30 second lead. I crossed the line in second - my first overall podium spot.

Try to suck it up and catch the leader right out of transition. He was in sight for a while, but I wasn't feeling very good and I was worried about falling apart. This was a PR for me off the bike, so I don't know if I can expect to have run any faster.

Chat with some friends that had come out to watch the race and then head back to transition to get my swim stuff for the relay. Head down to the beach, paddle around in the waves. Swam the 1/4 mile and ran up to transition. Hobbled over to the med tent to have them dig the sand out of a nasty blister that had ripped open during the run. Hurt like hell.


The only thing I can think of is the 40-mile training ride the day before the race. I shut it down after a half an hour, but I still did some work on the front of the bunch for a while. I was happy with my run splits, but I feel like I've biked that course faster in training on my road bike. Still, it was about a 3-minute PR for a sprint course, so I can't really complain. I'm very happy to finish 2nd overall, but now that just leaves me thinking "what if?" Would have been tough to find another minute and a half out there, though. The winner was just better. We came into T1 together and he passed me early on the bike and then put more time on me during the second run. Sometimes you just have to tip your hat to a faster athlete. Maybe next year.


This is a good local race. They know how to do it. One thing I would like to see is 5 splits. You have to rely on your own timing to extract the transitions out of the bike time. The swim in does not have a timing mat, so the long run up to transition is all in the swim time. Then, T1 and T2 are both in the bike split. I would think they could set up a couple more mats and get the transition times.

I like to race the duathlon as it goes off first and you have an open road (at least for the first loop of the bike and run). You can see the race develop and it's a rare opportunity to be out in the front.