Great swim. Tactics... meh (see below).
Pushed hard and overcame some possible horrendous situations including my goggles getting ripped in the first 15 seconds.

Learned a lot about the upper echelon of racing.
1) listen to when the swim will start. Missed the memo that said it would start in 3 minutes, thought a full warmup was a good idea. Was greeted with screams of get back to the line along with 15 other folks that were trying to warmup.
2) Go out hard and NEVER think that sitting back is a good strategy. I got ripped apart after having a bad start position and tried to wait for things to settle out. Literally the neoprene on the left eye of my goggles was ripped apart.
3) Get big and embrace the contact. We'll see how that works...

sucked clipping into the bike. Major fail.

Extremely crowded. Horrified I would lose 2 minutes for a drafting penalty, I slammed on my brakes the second I saw a ref approaching. I never drafted but got stuck in packs as one guy would pass and then not push forward. The dynamics of the race created 4 or 5 different speeds of athletes on the course trying to share 1 lane of traffic (slow 20-24's with fast swims, fast 20-24's with slow swims, really fast 20-24 girl swimmers, the slow Masters/grandmasters, the fast 25-29 swimmers and cyclists) and then you add in a second loop and it's a disaster trying to pass people and remain out of the draft zone "legally."

Swim faster and get away from slow joe's

Almost fell coming off the bike. Everything else was swell.

This hurt more than any run I've ever done. Guess that means I did it right?

drink more water and be mentally prepared for hills. Even though I knew it was hilly I was expecting flatter than tugaloo. Combo of no shade and killer hills equals lots of pain.

try not pass out and be conversational with family enough to let them know i was very very happy with the race and I appreciated everything they did.


Run mileage throughout the season. The winter will get me in run shape and the swim will progress as well.


Horrible bike course. They needed to shut down both sides of the road and provide more space for the moto referrees and the large field. Very dangerous.