Swim was surprisingly nice. Although I practiced freestyle for a couple months, I found myself breaststroking about half the time. It helped with sighting and was fun and educational to watch people slowly swim into each other. I was also about as fast as others struggling to swim freestyle when I did BS. I can't pace yet so when I swam freestyle I would quickly catch up to person 10m ahead and then I would BS and slow down. I also felt strangely tired in my legs when crawling but not BS. Must have been the anxious thoughts of what else was to come. So the breast stroke calmed me and made it much more enjoyable.
Good to know if I get to point of swimming freestyle most of the time, my time will be good.

Practice open water swims and start doing some drills and stuff in the water for pacing, breathing and form. I swallowed more water than I cared for.

I haven't rushed in transition yet. Subconsciously I don't want to leave so I'll take my time so I think I don't have to move on. Also I want to make sure I don't forget anything which I know should be done and set up beforehand so I don't forget, but I seem to like to leave a little element of the unknown after setting up T1.

Get everything set up perfect before race starts. Practice leaving shoes clipped into pedals. Practice using no socks. Practice swim to bike transitions. Tape my goops to the bike. Run from the water to the bike. Practice running jump onto bike. Generally, just want a fast T1 to begin with.

I got a road bike this year for tri's. Can't afford a carbon aero position, with the woosh woosh wheels and the honk honk, get out of my way bike. I thought I did great and passed a whole bunch of people. I didn't think it would take that long though. I really hand it to people averaging over 20,21,22 mph. You can buy time on a bike for sure but you also gotta truck up the hills even if their small.
I got stiff lower back during race that was bothersome and never really got into a training cycle on the bike for preparation. I actually get better about halfway through race so maybe I should loosen up more beforehand.

Practice and push it more. I really dogged it up the little incline the second time around. I guess the 13-14 mph for a few minutes really ruins a good ride. But at least I had legs for 3 or so miles (see run sections).

Hmmm, riding to the finish with feet on top (or out) of shoes,, genius. I'll have to try that. I unclipped, stopped bike, jogged oddly for what seemed like 2 minutes. Looked for cameras. Joked with crowd. It was a good time had by all.

Take my feet out of shoes and then just hop off bike.
Yes, and practice more Bricks.

I actually didn't feel the brick pain too much. I'm not a runner (or biker or swimmer) but I guess all those miles I tried to put in paid off. I was able to run 3 miles (to just past the crowd at the middle) which was good for me. I wanted to run whole thing but never actually worked up to running 6 miles in itself, so I knew deep down I was doomed. Then when I realized the water/cooling stations were a good idea to stop at it was all over. I spent too much time trying to cool down with cold towels and water. I tried HEED toward the end which I figured couldn't hurt cause I was just out of energy but not winded. When I heard people yelling for ambulance and seen guy on ground, I knew I shouldn't push what I didn't have. So I ran/walked, ruined my somewhat decent time but finished, so now I have something to try to beat.

Swim, bike, run more. Be fully rested and totally vested in finishing strong. I can push myself well but I just didn't have that mental/physical ability yet.

Just drank, gathered stuffs and loaded car. Hung out with wife for a bit, cheered.


Weight, preparatory miles, and Experience.


Thanks to all volunteers, life guards and other cheerers,, we appreciate it.
Hope you enjoyed reading and learned something. I'm not an expert and used this site to learn so figured I'd give back to the newbies and others in need of information.