This is the best swim I've ever had. There were only about 30 people in the Clyde/Athena/Relays wave, so there was no trouble with crowds at all until I started passing earlier waves. Even then, I never bumped into anyone. I drafted Steph for the first couple of buoys, then broke off when she started heading closer to the buoy line. Kept my line about 10 yards outside of the buoys and had clear water the entire way. Maintained a cruising pace the entire way, kept my heart rate low, and finished more than 2 minutes faster than my goal of 40:00.

Outside of just becoming a faster swimmer, I wouldn't change a thing.

Overall 56/195
AG 3/13
Took my time and went deliberately about my business. Wetsuit came off great. I even took some time to dry off a little bit since I was worried about being cold during the beginning of the bike.

When I threw my wetsuit under the bike, one of the legs was draped across my running shoes. They were quite wet by the time I got back from the bike.

Most of the roads were smooth. There were a couple of rough sections, and then about 10 miles of construction zone which were pretty mentally taxing. It should be great once they're finished.

I'm very happy with how well the bike went. It was a full 11 minutes faster than my goal, and it includes a bathroom stop (approx. 1:30) at the mile 40 aid station. I may have pushed the pace a little bit too hard, but I never felt like I was really getting on it. Lost a good amount of momentum by slowing way down for the much exaggerated bump at the bottom of the bridge (a mistake I did not repeat on the return). The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful, aside from going by TriRSquared unconscious after his crash into a truck (didn't know it was him at the time).

Better nutrition while riding. I'm going to experiment with putting gel/maltodextrin into my Gatorade.

Overall 39/195
AG 1/13

Woot! Fastest total transitions in my age group - at least I won something! My legs felt great coming off the bike, and I flew by 2 wobbly-legged people coming into the racks. Bike and shoe switch went fast (even with regular laces) despite my discovery that my shoes were all wet from my wetsuit. I was about to put on my race belt right at the beginning, but tossed it aside thinking 'I'll just put it on while I'm running out.' That would have been fine, if I had remembered to pick it up before leaving.

Remember to grab race belt when leaving.

This run started great. The first 4 miles are in the sun, but there was a nice breeze coming off the water and my legs felt good. Tired, but not muscle fatigued. Around mile 5 I started to realize that I was running out of energy. I took Gatorade and water at every aid station (each mile), and gel or half of a banana at every other aid station. Unfortunately, it was too late to replace the calorie deficit. I walked about 200 yards after each aid station to drink and eat without spilling all over myself, as well as to get a little rest. I also walked from the 12-mile marker to the 1 mile to go marker in order to be sure I could keep my pace for that final mile. My realistic goal time for the run was 2:30, so I was only behind that by 5 minutes and only 10 minutes off my open PR for a half marathon.

Run more. My average weekly mileage for the 12 weeks preceding the race was 10.98 (15.45 for the 24 weeks period). If I can push that up to 25 or 30 mpw, I'm suspect I could drop as much as 20 minutes from my run time.

Walked around a bit, had some sandwiches and pizza from the food tent and checked in at the results board.


Not enough training. Taking two weeks off for hiking in Colorado at the peak of my training, while lots of fun, it not so beneficial to fast racing.


This was a great race. The volunteers at the aid stations were the best I've ever encountered. Particularly the boy scouts at mile 6-7 of the run. I'll be back next year for sure. I've got a date with 6:00:00.