Everything I had read/studied throughout the summer stated what a fast swim this was. I had high hopes for this race and was hoping to match my Olympic swim of 25:09. As soon as I jumped in I was surprised at how buoyant I was in the wetsuit. I had not had a chance to use it prior to the race. The reviews were correct the current was unbelievable. Almost immediately my goggles fogged up. I unsuccessfully defogged them prior to the start, so I gave up. My goggles would be the bane of the swim for me. I used the shore and buoys to spot from since they were the only thing I could distinctly make out. I would have loved to have seen an aerial view of my swim I know it looked a like I was drunk. I was also thrown by the size of the river moss. Some would take 3-4 strokes to get through. As I come to the finish I could hear a kayaker yelling, so I stop and she points me to the finish. Despite the fogged goggles, moss monsters and over swimming the exit, I felt I had done an OK as I left the water. My watch had 26:37

Spray my goggles with defogger or get better ones. I think I could have matched my Olympic time had a had a better line and not over shot the exit. It is still an insanely fast swim.

My wife said I came out of the water like Godzilla. Apparently she could tell I was visibly irritated. I have a hard time going from a lateral position to upright. My HR spikes pretty high, so I try gather myself prior to putting one foot in front of the other to quickly.

The wetsuit strippers were great

Youtube has great videos to prepare you for the course. Augusta is a couple hours away from me so I was unable to get there prior to the race. My AG started very close to the pros, so I knew going into the bike I was going to be passed a lot and that I needed to ride my own race. This was the second time I had ever ridden in the rain and boy did it rain toward the middle of the course. My main goal was to keep my nutrition in check and listen to my body. Heed and Hammer gels got through the bike perfectly.

Not too much. I would have liked 20 MPH average for the bike. This being my first HIM I wanted to set myself up as good as possible for the run.

Felt really good coming off the bike.

I came out of T2 way too fast, by my watch the first mile was run in 7:45. There was no way I could ever hold that pace, so I forced myself to ease up. The best part of the run came when I saw my wife and daughter as I came into town. As soon as I saw them I ran over and gave my little girl a kiss. The smile on her face was just awesome. The hardest part came on the second lap as you leave town and the crowd thins out, it felt really lonely and my body really started to scream at me. Despite my aching I pushed through without ever walking (minus water stations). As I rounded the corner I could not believe the overall time and could not believe it was mine. I do not tend to be very emotional but crossing the finish line really got to me.

More body glide at friction points.

Not knowing how my body was going to react. It took a majority of the summer to nail down my nutrition plan and I was worried about not getting it right on race day.


I found this race to be a lot of fun. I did not care for the space between the finish and transition area. Getting your stuff out of transition was a little chaotic for my taste. My first HIM is behind me and I can honestly say I learned a lot.