Lined up in the middle since I was able to handle the contact in the last few races without a problem. Holy cow, the water was cold, there was a lot of contact in the first 200 yards and the sun coming straight at us made it very difficult to sight. Plus I noticed that my goggles were leaking. That led to a panic. It was really bad. I had swim panic on my first race and have avoided it since, but this drove me crazy. I swam on my back for a bit, then side strokedfor a bit, every time I would try crawling, I wouldn't be able to breath consistently and ended up swallowing and even inhaling a bit of water. I took it easy for a minute and breast stroked, regainged my composure, then hit my groove. I don't know if it was the cold or what, but with the way that panic set in, I can sort of see why there have been some fatalities in the swim portion of tris. If I wasn't in good shape and didn't realize how to cope, I could see that ending tragically.

Anyway, managed through the swim panic and got into a good comfortable pace for the rest of the swim and started feeling real good on the second half of the second lap and picked up my pace for the swim finish. Long jog from the beach to the TA up a hill on numb feet didn't work out so well for me, but I ran it up there.

I was travelling the week before and managed to get a pool swim in, but haven't been able to swim consistently for three weeks up to the race. I also would have done an OWS just to get my head back into this since it's been a while. I think I became too complacent in my swimming capability. What a humbling experience.

No problems here. Found my bike right away. Calves were cramping after the swim, but worked it out as soon as I got on the bike. No problems here.

This was a farily hilly course. It didn't look like it was going to be too bad when I looked at the map, but it felt like I was almost always climbing. Going down the hills was awesome, the ups were not. I can't believe there were no wrecks out there. There was one tight corner where if you miss it, you don't just go into a gravel shoulder, you drop about 8 inches into some grass and other muck.

The course wasn't marked well in two critical areas. Area 1: the sprint turn off. As I was starting on lap 2, I noticed two bikers from the sprint. I told them they missed the turn. There should have been someone in the intersection. Didn't impact my race, but could have impacted others. Area 2: The turn off back into the park on that small access road. There was someone standing there, but he watched me fly by. I slammed on the brakes when I heard someone else yell out to me after I was 15 feet past the turnoff. Without any signs or people waving flags, it's difficult to know where to turn. Maybe he was just taking a break when I rode by.

I don't even think I have had a training ride where I have gone that slow. I should come up to Akron to train, that could be an awesome training ground.


I live in Central Ohio. I train on pretty flat roads. I was not prepared for the hills. I also needed to tune up my bike before the race. I could hear things grinding on the crank and rubbing on the derailleur. I can't blame mechanical issues on this one. It was all me. I need to do some hill training.

No issues here, quick transition. My feet were still numb from the swim/bike.

Probably put socks on before the bike, but I don't like putting socks on soaking wet feet.

Started out uphill at first and it took me a while to get my legs under me but they came around. For each lap, the course goes up hill for about a mile at first then comes downhill for that mile, then a flat bit of a loop until you repeat it. For the first loop I followed someone running at a good pace and hung with him until about 3 miles in, then he started slowing down so I passed him, but he got me through the foot numbeness and helped me get a good pace. Thank goodness for that guy.

I had a bit of stomach cramping like I took in too much water. I took a Gu on the bke at the halfway mark and took a salt tab as well. But on the run, my stomach still felt a bit off, so I think I needed another salt tab, so I popped one in at mile 4 and that seemed to help a bit.

Regardless, a good run.

Probably take in less water on the bike.

Grabbed some food and stretched a bit.


Lack of bike training and open water swim in the two weeks prior to the race. My travel schedule impacted the race. In addition, I need to get some hill work in on the bike. That bike performance was not very good. On a flat course, I typically average 20.5 - 21.5 mph.

Swim panic had about a 2 minute impact at the end of the day.


Good venue if you like hills. HFP usually does a great job, probably needed to do a better job marking the bike course. Some sprinters missed the turn off and I missed the last turn due to lack of signage (and me not memorizing the course beforehand).