I felt really good in the warm up and decent on the swim. I was disappointed that my swim time was basically the same as last year.

Our time did not start until we crossed the mat so I stayed near the back and immediately went to the outside. It might be slightly longer to swim outside but I was not kicked nearly as much which probably helped me swim faster or so I thought. I did feel better breathing this time and I freestyled the entire way unlike last year where I mixed in some breast stroke.

Swim time also included the run across the beach and up a small sand dune and through grass to the transition area. It was probably about a 250m run.

Everyone had the same color of swim cap so I have no idea if waves caught me or if I passed any other waves.

Just keep practicing to become faster and to build endurance. I felt more comfortable overall this year but it didn't show in the time. I was happy with my choice to start on the outside and stay back as I knew I was not near the top 1/3 of swimmers.

This was about 30 sec faster than last year. It would have been a bit faster if I wasn't winded from the swim still. I also quickly wiped the sand/dirt/water off of my feet since I missed the water buckets on the way into transition because the girl in front of me decided to relive her childhood. She must have missed out on jumping in puddles as a child because she bounced around in there for about 30 sec.

Better endurance on the swim would mean that I could run faster through transition.

I bought a tri top this year and it saved me a lot of time since I didn't have to put on a shirt in transition.

Learn to leaves shoes on bike and put them on while riding.

I still don't drink on the bike. GRRRRRR. I didn't drink at all on the first half and had a few sips on the 2nd half. This will come to haunt me later on the run.
Even with the bike course mileage adjustment I averaged over 20mph which is my first time ever for this distance of course! I am really pleased. I knocked about 8 minutes off of my bike from last year!!

It frustated me when I saw men flying by on their return trip when I was only around mile 4. This made me push it harder and my 2nd half split was much faster than my first half.

Drink more!
Spend more time biking and do hill drills.
Pull up my jaw when watching someone fly by at 27+ mph.

I put my bike on the wrong rack (one after mine). The guy next to me had a bright yellow bike so I saw it and put my bike on the rack. And then thought "WTF! Who took my shoes? And my towel? And my wetsuit? And my goggles? Really come on now!!" Oh I am at the wrong rack and so is "Mr. Yellow Bike." After that realization things went pretty smoothly.
I took a few seconds putting on socks though.

I remembered there was a tree in my row. Yet I still racked at the wrong place. That's never happened to me before, not even in Chicago with 7000+ bikes.

I didn't drink enough on the bike which hurt me in the beginning. But HFP (race company) and Vermilion volunteers are great in that there are 3 water stations in each direction on the course!
I got really, really hot after mile 1. It felt like I was starting to melt. And just then my savior arrived in the form on an elderly Vermilion resident sitting on his front lawn with a beer and a water hose and he was spraying down the runners. YEAH! Well actually I thought he was passing out beers but I suppose I'll take the splash of water instead.
There was a few people with water hoses. At the last water station (with about .5 mile to do) I was still hot so dumped the water on my head instead of drinking it. With about .25 miles to go, a kid with a water hose was attacking race participants by blasting male runners in the crotch and females in the chest. Who doesn't love 7th graders??



Drink more on the bike and HTFU! I also was cramping in my IT band and along the outside of my thigh. I am not sure if it was because of the bike, poor stretching, or lack of water or a combo of all of them. I meant to take a shot block while on the run but forgot them in transition. My wife actually thought of it but couldn't catch up to me when I started my run. Oh well. I appreciate her thoughtfulness all the same.

I felt a complete mental letdown approaching with about a mile to go. I was wearing my TeamFox rubber wristband so I looked down at that and thought of my dad and turned it on in the last mile. It actually prevented me from taking a walking break! :)

I walked around and then met up with my family and inlaws.
HFP does a nice spread of food afterwards (sandwiches, pretzels, cookies, pop, water, freshly cut watermelon, bananas, apples, etc) but I had a family picnic awaiting so I mostly passed.
My inlaws brought a picnic so we ate and relaxed and watched some of the Olympic racers. My dad and I went over to check out the unofficial race results and I was pleased with my time and everyone was excited about how well I did. Sometimes I am too hard on myself. It took awhile for me to be happy that I knocked so much time off from 2009 (9.5 minutes faster this year than I was in 2009 at same race)!


I think I could have put more into this race physically and mentally. Although right now I would still have to cut 9 more minutes off to get an age group reward. As of right now I am not sure how do to do that but it will come with time I suppose. It just would have been a lot of fun to do it with so much of my family there.
It was really, really hot and humid. Sleeping in that heat the night before took a toll on my body I think. I have been used to training for awhile in Chicago's heat but not sleeping in it.


I love this race. Of my races so far this is probably the most organized and well-run. There are so many volunteers helping out everywhere...it's amazing! It's a great course overall and it's nice to lay around in the park and on the beach afterwards.

My family did a much better job of finding me along the race course so it was nice and they helped motivate me to keep going along the way. I saw them after the swim on my way to transition, in transition, as I started biking, coming back from biking, transition again, and at the finish. I did ask my wife why she didn't make it to the bike turn around 6 miles out. She mentioned she was pregnant ;)
So once I get more pictures downloaded I will share them all with you.