Did exactly what I wanted to do, which is swim slow and smooth and just get through the swim without expending much energy. Swam pretty much at a warm-up pace the entire time, never got out of my rhythmn, and felt really strong coming out.

Eventually I need to start picking up my speed. Same stroke with higher turnover will get me there. It's more mental than anything at this point - I'm just not convinced that an all-out effort on the swim is the best use of my energy. Even if I come out of the water last, but I haven't expended much energy to get there, that's a win for me at this point, because I used to come out last AND completly spent :)

A decent effort that could have been much better if I had my tri-shirt. Trying to pull on a snug cycling shirt while wet cost me :30 or so. Did take on some water before getting on the bike.

Using tri-shirt from now on will help.

I felt really good about the bike effort. I wanted to push an 18mph average and I hit that goal right on the nose. My gear changes were better and my cornering was more aggressive, so I didn't spend as much time "re-accelerating" as I have in previous races. This was about the best I could race at my current fitness level.

Spend more time training on the bike. Work in more interval sprints and short rides at high exertion to push me to the next level. 18mph is about my max at current fitness level.

The time was decent for me, but this is where I killed my race. I had decided not to bring water bottles on the bike with me, which turned out to be fine. But then I decided that since I didn't drink on the bike, I should try to slug down a bunch of water in transition ... HUGE mistake ...

Timing was good, but I need to trust my plan and not make hasty decision on the fly ... like drinking a bunch of water all at once in transition

Extremely disappointing run. I ran the same course one month earlier, in terrible conditions, in 23:09. A similar run this time around would have had my right at my goal time of 1:20:00. Drank a ton of water in transition, and almost immediately got side-stitch cramps. Managed to jog lightly down and up the first hill, but then had to walk through the mile 1 turnaround. Though I was going to vomit in the garbage can at the turn. Lots of great encouragement from the volunteers helped me through. They were telling me "Deep breaths" and "Just keep kicking". Started jogging lightly again after the mile 1 turnaround, but never really got comfortable. Finishing in under 30min was all down to mental fortitude at that point.

Don't drink a bunch of water all at once at any point during the race. My hydration was probably fine anyway. Take little bits of fluid at a time, or even just rinse my mouth.

Cramps during the run