The swim was very weedy but this was expected from all the other reports from the past years racers I had heard from.
I chose a wider angle based on a comment from another competitor on Friday. He was fairly accurate. There were a lot of people that seemed to be slower swimmer that came from the earlier waves that I got tangled up with a couple of times.
My goggles got water in the one lens right away and I cleared it about 200 yards because it seemed to be filling more as I went. The same one filled again and I cleared it at the turn around and it seemed okay (kinda) after that.
I have to say that this swim felt pretty horrible!! I never fell into a rhythm and seemed to struggle the entire way. Now, after having time to reflect on the way I performed, I think it was the pace I was trying to swim. I looked at the time from the top swim finisher and realized that the time I got wasn't a bad time. The run into the transition area was included in the swim time and it was about 80-100 yard run so that would have added enough additional time to have messed with my mind for what kind of time I think I should have gotten. (I would like to have the timing mats at the water's edge to give a true time in the water.)

Try to catch a little bit of rhythm and a much better breathing pattern. I was probably too fast at the start but this was a "Pain Management" race.

This would have been a little bit better transition if I hadn't dropped my goggles and cap as I entered the transition area. I should have left them on the ground and kept going. It may have cost 3-4 seconds and no placements.

Left my goggles and cap lying on the ground where they fell.

This was a good bike for me! I tried to hammer the pace throughout but I did have a couple of places where I did let up a little. I could feel the legs starting to scream at me and my HR was starting to get higher than it should, so I backed down a little. there was also just a little bit of a head wind on the way back that caused me to have to slow down some.
Within the first .25 mile there was a fairly large hill that was kind of long. This seemed to get my HR up soon and got me breathing hard before I was able to settle into any kind of pace. Once at the top of the hill the rest of the course had a few rollers in it but was either flat with the last little bit dropping back down to lake level.
The hairpin turns almost got me. I was screaming down the hills and, although I knew it was coming, I was going too fast. I had to use both front and rear brakes to get slowed enough to keep both wheels on the ground. But, it was pretty fun to cruise through that fast.
I came into the the dismount area very fast! The course official that was there yelled "dismount" in a loud, loud voice to make sure I knew it was there. I saw it but I was planning this type of dismount and there was no one to endanger from that fast a ride into the area.

Nothing really. This was as good a bike as I think I could have expected.

I had a little trouble getting my race belt buckled.

Nothing

As I headed out of transition I tried to remember how much this can hurt. I didn't remember it being this bad. Man it hurts to run that hard after hammering the bike!!
I tried to keep the pace as hard as I could sustain for a short run. The pace was very challenging for me to hold on too. I was struggling to keep my breath for the first mile as my legs adapted to the change over. They felt very heavy and stiff for that mile but after that they felt great.
My pace might have been similar all the way though if not for that big climb with ".75" miles to go. The downhill that followed this climb was much steeper and too long to allow my legs to carry me down without a lot of control.
I had passed several people on the run and was eying someone else to pass with about .5 to go. I pushed the pace as hard as I could but I didn't have enough left to even begin to make up the ground between us once he started his push into the finish area. He was able to get a little further ahead of me rather than me close the gap and pass. With about 100 yards to go I could feel the stitches coming on. They hit me right after I finished as i was walking to get some food and drink. They subsided quickly once the effort was over.

I don't think there was anything I could do. I think I paced as well as I could have and pushed as hard as I could.

As usual, I didn't do one. I just walked around and got some nutrition in my system.


Training! What else is there? I was ready to go from every perspective and even the training was fine. I am just not as fast as some of these guys. Maybe after another year I can reach the podium.


I think the run course might be longer than posted. My Garmin puts it at 3.66 but I know this isn't exact. I would think it would be closer than .16 on a narrow course. My watch put my run pace at 6:48 and the official time makes it 7:02. I think the watch is closer and my speed a little better. After running a HM at a 7:08 pace, I think my watch is closer than the race distance and pacing results.