I didn't get a warm-up swim in so as soon as I got deep enough into the water I plunged my face down to get acclimated as quickly as possible. The water wasn't too bad. Maybe the late afternoon practice swim the day before helped. My time was MOP at best, but this was a really good swim for me. It was only around 2 minutes more than my oly swims.

Not much really. Practice sighting more since I got off course coming out of the marina. It WAS hard to sight with the fog hanging on the water though.

With 3 hours of riding in the cold ahead of me, I sacrificed an extra few minutes in T1 to towel off, put on my dry jersey and some arm warmers in the effort to stay warm.

I hate to think how cold it would have been if I hadn't taken time in T1 to dry off and prepare for the lower temperature. It took nearly 30 miles of riding before I thawed out. I don't think it hindered my performance because I was able to stick with my race plan.

More hill training of course. That and more run training so I can go harder on the bike.

I kept my bike shoes on to keep the grass from sticking to my feet and that slowed me down getting off of the bike. I also gave a few seconds by putting my race belt on in transition instead of just grabbing it and donning it on the run.

Remember to put race belt on while running.

I felt really good at the start. Needing to pee helped me keep my pace down in the first mile when I found a porta-potty. The first 8 miles went right with the plan. Then my stomach started to cramp and my left foot was hurting really bad. I took a salt tab, a full cup of Gatorade and a gel at the next aid station and it started to feel better. In the meantime I had 2 miles of walk/run with too much walk. I finally felt good with 1 mile to go and got back near my planned pace, but the damage was already done.

Quit missing key run workouts in my training plan. And figure out my nutrition to prevent stomach issues.