Noyack Bay was absolutely beautiful, flat as glass with NE wind. Started out in the middle about one row back in the fourth wave. Took a good 3-400 meters to get comfortable but very little contact, probably cause I was swimming away from the course out to Shelter Island. Overcorrected a bit and swam past the buoys into the oncoming swimmers on the way back. Oops. Finally got my sighting in order and things were pretty uneventful for the remainder of the swim. There was an awesome sunrise after the turnaround heading east that made sighting somewhat difficult so I just stayed w/the pack.

Seeing how this was basically my first open water swim this year and my utter lack of swim training, I have no right to expect anything better than this. Honestly I expected this to be closer to 37 minutes so I'm pretty happy with it.

Yep, you read that right, nearly 5 minutes. As i mentioned earlier all my crap was jammed in a small bag behind my bike so I was rummaging through the bag to get my shoes, socks gels, bike computer(which turns out didn't work)and just basic disorganization. It was so bad that I just started laughing and BS'ing w/a guy next to me who told me "he wasn't known for his transtions", well, I think I will be now but not in a good way :)

Get to the race earlier and actually setup a reasonable transition.

Really nice rolling hills course through Sag Harbor NY. Seeing that I was so rested after my vacation in transition, I had a strong start on the uphills in the begining of the course. There was some really nice long descents where you could get good speed built up that ended in technical turns but the course was well marked letting you know when the turns were coming. Getting off the bike, I really expected my time to be better, based on the effort, but my computer was all wonky on the course so I wasn't really sure.

Nothing really except, as always, train more.

More of the same. I'm embarrassed to admit I don't a race belt so I was actually digging my race # outa the bag and trying to find safety pins to attach it. Yep, I'm serious.

Not be retarded.

Flat fast run(well at least for others)
First 2 miles I was struggling with severe cramps most likely as a result of breathing in way too much air on the swim. This is a common issue I have after swimming and one that I need to work on as part of my swim training. About halfway through the run I took a peak at my time and realized I was on target for a sub 3hr finish if I maintained my pace but my legs were beginning to rebel. At mile 4, I started talking to some dude about the Jets game scheduled for that night. Ran with him for the next 1.5 miles or so getting me to within the sound of the finish line announcer and complete the race JUST under 3hrs

I was pretty disappointed with my run as I expected a much better time on a flat course like that. The truth is though, that I didn't put in the time this year to get off the bike strong enough to lay down a better time. So, back to the common theme of getting in more training.

I don't think anything limited my ability to perform. I performed as well as I should have and aside from poorly managing my transitions, I don't think I gave anything back to the clock during the race.


I went into the season looking at this race hoping for a sub 2:50 for my first Oly but as the race approached and I realistically looked at where my fitness was, I was resigned to something along the lines of 3:10. So, really I'm very happy with this result.