The swim went fine. This was my longest OWS without a stop. I train with a bouy-on-a-belt on my rare OWS and take breaks when I feel it. There were waves of 100 but with so many no-shows, there were way fewer in each wave. I took it slow and paid atttention to sighting more.

Swim a lot more. Next race is 1500 and I didn't feel like I could have done this course twice.

Bring a tupperware for rainy day transitions. Saw some other with them.

My goal to bike fast went right out the window on this one. I tried to move into easier gears earlier on hills by looking at the gear settings of everyone who passed me and I found this helped. But given the rain and my overall lack of bike fitness, I wasn't beating any land speed records. I did pass quite a few folks on downhills. I attribute this to
1) I was not being nearly as cautious in the rain as I promised my wife I would be, and
2) it seemed at lot of folks were coasting downhill when I was pedaling, not spinning but low power pedaling. It seemed like they all caught up to me on the uphills that followed and I don't know who was "right" but I plan to keep pedaling, at least on sprint tris. I can't imagine that I would regain too much energy by coasting for brief periods.
I revised my goal for this race (bike fast) when a big strong looking guy in a Zoot shirt and I passed each other twice, then he passed me for a final time, and with authority, about 5 miles from home. I told myself I'd show him the back of my shoes on the run. Then I made a game of "marking" the next 3-4 guys and girls who passed me to see them on the run. Not sure if I caught them all, but most, and definitely caught Zoot about a mile into the run.

I don't know. I just really like biking. Maybe I could stop bringing the rain with me to each race...

I still ride in my running shoes. Not much to T2 so I ought to do it faster.

I felt fantastic on the run. Except for the first mile, when something in my head says "boo hoo" "something hurts" "you should stop". This generally goes away in around a a mile. I passed a few people then when I hit the turnaround and realized only 1.5 miles left I turned it up a lot and passed some more. I don't think anyone passed me on the run, but I am sure that if I swam and biked faster, lots of people would have passed me. For most of the run I had the tune from the Grateful Dead's "mission in the rain(?)" Stuck in my head. I slowed down near what I thought was the end to not pass a lady in front of me. I feel a little cheesy putting on the speed in the last few yards to pass someone. But then I realized there was about 1k left and got boogying. Cheesy or not, it's still a race I guess.
Given than the bike was shorter than the posted distance and I haven't run 7:20 miles in many years, I suspect the run might have been a little less than the 3.0 miles, but I don't care too much. I felt good and fast and at any rate, went faster than I do on the hilly trail I run on most of the time.

Listen to some fast tempo tunes before the race and make an effort to get them "stuck". Maybe some Old 97s or Drive By Truckers, anything but sad ballads from the Dead...

Got some dry clothes on and chatted with a family friend. She's an inspiring hard charger who took #3 overall female.


Well organized race and tons of fun. It would be a 5 in my book, but the roads suck a little for the bike.