Real struggle the first 600m as it's hard for me to go from 90 degrees and 80% humidity to a cold 70degree water. I have historically started poorly at this race, even with my precautions against my asthma.

Get in water earlier and warm-up alot more.

It's a long run from the swim finish (150 yards) into T1 and then to the bike mount line (100 yards). I got into T1 ok and changed out of my suit with no problems. The ground was soaked from the downpour the previous night but my area was ok. Running out of T1 was muddy and I was glad that I ran barefoot with my shoes on the pedals. I saw a few people struggling to get into the ckips through all the mud. All I had was mud in my shoes:)

Carry bike through the mud.

I had some trouble getting into my shoes with a large group in front dealing with the mud and then you start uphill and around a corner. I struggled the first lap to find my breath and bike legs and then I started to really fly. I averaged 20mph on the course and I noticed that I reached 34 mph max on my cyclo computer so I was moving on the downhills and must have really slowed on the uphills. I was pleased with the time (another 4 minutes and I would have been in the top 10).

More hill training and techincal practice (ie, fast cornering, acceleration out of turns, etc).

I felt good going into T2 (unlike last year) but I took longer than I thought getting on the water bottle belt(just trying it).

Don't worry about the belt. I tried it this year because last year the water stops had trouble keeping up with demand and I needed water more due to the 110 heat index.

What can I say? I stink at running but I still had a decent time (for me). My best 10k time is 59:57 (Statesman 10k- 2005) and I ran a 1:05 after the swim and bike. I walked too much mostly due to poor hydration on the bike and not working hard enough on run training.

Hydrate better on the bike, more track work in training, don't carry additional water bottle.

Walk around finish line talking to all my tri buddies.


Hydration, run training, asthma


This was my best Olympic time to date but still off my goal by 15 minutes. I took 34 minutes off last year with better training and experince and I expect to take the last big improvement off next year. I'd like to get down to a 2:30 Olympic. This is definatly a race to do every year. It's crowded and hot but turning into a first rate race through scenic downtown Austin. I'd like to see a Half or Whole Ironman Race come to Austin and this might be the race to do it.