I swam with my head out of the water for all but the last 300 meters or so and I felt really comfortable. That allowed me to stay on course, avoid clusters of people and very smoothly navigate the buoys. I also was able to draft off of a couple different swimmers for at least 60% of the course.

Just get better at swimming (and I have soooo much room for improvement here). My strategy, given my current level, worked really well, but it is not an efficient stroke.

T1 time is estimated. This was probably the best T1 I've done especially considering this includes about 150 meters of jog from the beach. My wet suit came off really quickly and socks/shoes/helmet/glasses went on quickly. It helped that the mount point was like 25 meters away from my transition spot.

run faster from the water - I had the energy, but just took my time.

I was very happy with my ride. I pushed it pretty hard the whole way and kept my heart rate at about 140 (guessing this is high zone 3 or low zone 4 for me based on RPE). 56/183 for the bike leg is by far my best race performance. Of course, the level of the other participants may be a factor, but I'm can't really tell.

Ride more, ride more and ride more.

I'm still not sure how I did it, but I left my transition spot with my running cap in my hand. When I crossed over into the run course and flipped my hat onto my head, I realized.....you bonehead, your forgot to take off your helmet. I turned around and went back to my spot to leave my helmet. I'm sure that cost me at least a minute. I don't think I'll ever make that mistake again.

rack the bike, take the helmet off and then reach for my run stuff.

I started out a little fast (5:00 per km pace or so) and after about 500 meters made a conscious effort to slow down and match my pace to a guy in front of me. I purposely kept it pretty easy to avoid overheating. I walked each aid station long enough to take a drink a mouthful or two of water and then dump the ice water into my hat. I was able to trap a little ice under the hat each time and that helped. At about the 7km point I decided I had enough gas to pick up the pace. I ended up doing 5:25 per km for the last 3kms. In retrospect, I think I could have held that pace for the whole course (and I would love to have held the 5 minute/km pace).

Try picking up the pace at the halfway point and see if I can hold it.

I drank 3-4 glasses of ice water and ate several pieces of watermelon and orange. I walked around a little while waiting for my racing buddy to finish.


temperature and humidity were factors. I know I can improve my times in all 3 events on this course if I keep my training consistent. I would love to come back next year and knock 15 minutes off my time, i.e., go sub 2:30.


The race was well organized and run. They have been doing the race for 26 years now and it is probably one of the oldest in Japan. They really should break down and get some timing chips. All times were logged by hand and the race results were not posted until a week after the race.