Although I wasn't fast, this was a good swim for me. It was only my second time to swim 1500 meters, the first being my first triathlon a few months earlier. I was ecstatic to be able to swim freestyle the entire time!

I took a few extra seconds straightening out the insoles of my running shoes. They have a tendency to bunch up under my feet when I don't wear socks. Other than that, the wetsuit came off pretty easily. It's a 2-piece suit with a partial length zipper on the top. It turns out I didn't even unzip it the whole way, but it still came off without a problem. All De Soto suits used to come zipperless, so that's not a surprise, really.

I tried to keep the pace reasonable at the start, and then just keep chugging away steadily. It felt slower than I was, but I did put in a good effort over the last half mile.

Work harder over the entire last half of the course.

Drank some sodas and ate some homemade banana bread provided by the race organizers.


The swim! Clearly this is my weakness.


This is a great after-work series in Boulder. The competition is amazing. Imagine turning in a 36 minute finishing time for a 1500m swim and 5k run (see results from June 16: http://www.racingunderground.com/msresss2005_3.html).That's the kind of talent that's here to humble mere mortals like me.

My wife Molly and our friend Lisa were also racing. Molly's a great swimmer and ended up cruising the course to easily beat me by 7 minutes! Lisa is a good swimmer and runner and beat me by about 5 minutes.