Pretty average and uneventful swim (which is a good thing). Concentrated on my exhaling in the first 5 minutes, breathing every other stroke. Tried to relax as much as I could. Felt good the entire swim. Didn't feel particularly fast, but felt good, which is a change from my Oly last month. Sighting was a little of on the back strectch but not too bad.

Push pace a little bit. Could go a 1-2min faster, but first I need my confidence up.

Wetsuit stuck on wrists (forgot to put body glide there). Very long run with the bike to mount line. Forgot to put no fog on my sunglasses.

Remember to put bodyglide on wrists.

Started out too fast! Felt great and was averaging 24+ for the first 12 miles. We then hit the turn around and went from smooth roads to a chip sealed slight incline for 7 miles. My legs were really feeling it around 18-19 miles in as I didn't have any experience trying to keep this pace. At mile 22, there is a 7% grade hill that was already in my head. By this point I felt like I was crawling. At least we had a downhill into T2. Finished a bit over 22mph average which my fastest to date.

Got a 2:00 drafting penality. I know right where it happened becuase the guy in front of me slowed way down and I didn't have the energy to pass on the uphill and the official was right behind me so I sat about about 2 lenghts behind him and a foot outside. Apparently I should have had my tape measure to get wider....but then the bozo would have hit me with blocking as there were guys coming behind me. Should I have slowed down to get 3 lenghts? Yeah, probably but slowing down on a course just doesn't register on race day. Next time I draft I am hopping in the peleton like a saw a few times.

Pull back a little on the start. Could have averaged a mph slower and been fresher for the tougher 2nd half.

Drafting penality dropped me from 7th in AG to 10th.

With legs already hurting from going out a bit too fast on the bike, the run started with 3.1 mile non-stop gradual climb. Was nearly impossible to get my legs going at the pace I had hoped for. Finally hit the turn around and tried to open it up but only had so much gas left in the tank. Negative 2:00 split in the way back.

HTFU?

Grabbed some food and drinks and waited for my wife to finish.


Burnt a few too many matches on the bike.


Beautiful race site. Challenging course (more so than the event description) but not too tough. Post race was average. This series needs to invest a few bucks and number thier bike racks like the other setup series has. They did run out of water on the run while my wife was running...she wasn't too happy about that. The beauty of the course makes up for the little things that need to be improved.