Start was deep water but the actual buoys were only about 15 meters from the water entrance. I hung out where I could stand at the back of the wave until about 5 sec to go and then stepped off into nothing-ness and headed out. I should have started further up because the first 100 or so I was swimming into everyone who was breast stroking and everything. Once I got through all of them the first turn buoy came up quick and we headed down the long side to the far turn. Along this side I was breathing to my left and on the shore beside me was a huge American flag that was all lit up. That was pretty cool. Hit the orange turn buoy and made my turn and headed for the next. All in all I was having a pretty good swim so far. Sighting was good and I was actually swimming straight. Made the last turn to head home and this is where it got a little screwey. First, I was swimming what I thought was fairly efficiently, breathing easy, and just plugging along but when I would look up I had barely gone anywhere. I have a hard time believing there was a current in a man made lake but I guess it's possible. Next, there was one last buoy that I understood was supposed to be passed on the right and then turned to the finish. Everyone was keeping it to their right and heading straight for the swim exit so I just followed everyone else. Got to the finish and a great volunteer grabbed my arm and jerked me out of the almost knee deep mud and off I went.

Not much other than swim faster. I am surprised at how slow this was since I actually felt like I swam pretty well given my terrible abilities. I stayed calm and didn't use too much energy so even though it was terribly slow, I feel good about it.

So, here is where I learned we were actually doing a quadrathlon. Upon exiting the swim, we had a nice run up hill through sand, through some kiddy pools and then down a looooong red carpet into transition. This run was posted in our race packet as 1/4 mile! Other than that, pretty uneventful. Threw my shoes on, no socks, and headed out. Not too bad of a run with the bike but would have been much worse if I had my tri shoes on rather than my mtn shoes with recessed cleats.

Not have to run forever to get to transition? No biggie.

After the swim I was really just waiting for Derek to pass me on the bike. I knew he would have a ruff swim as he had some trouble with open water during our practice swim last week and this was his first tri. I headed out and got up to speed fairly quickly and just settled in and started drinking. The road got really wet at some spots because of the sprinklers being on early in the morning. I had not ridden my tri spoke front wheel in a long time and had forgotten how it can get a little squirley at times. Passed some and got passed as well. Ticked off the miles and was just waiting for Derek to pass me. I was really starting to get worried about him and think that he might have dropped out when at about mile 9ish I saw him starting the out and back as I was ending it. I knew he wouldn't catch me on the bike but would see him on the run. Koby started 12 mins after us so I knew I prob wouldn't see him until the finish. Came around the last turn (I thought) and got out of my shoes. I think there is probably going to be a good picture of me reaching down fiddling with them. Then rounded the actual last turn and headed up to the dismount. Hopped off without problem and headed into transition.

Ride more. Just need to put on a lot more miles to up the avg. No worries. Overall a good ride. I stayed in the aero's the vast majority of the time and the beautiful new Felt performed flawlessly.

Got my bike racked and sat down to put my socks and shoes on. Decided that would be easier and maybe faster than standing. Time was long but I don't feel like I spent that much time here.

Nada. Maybe move a little faster?

Having not looked at a map at all I just headed out and followed the crowd. Starting off my shins were really tight so I went out a little slow. Did my usual 5/1 run/walk with a little adjustment based on aid stations. Hit the mile 1 aid station at 10:16 and felt good. Kept trucking just waiting for Derek to pass me. After the short out and back into the neighborhood at the turn around I saw him heading in as I was heading out. The second aid station was about mile 1.7 or so. Drank water at both aid stations and dumped some on my head. Derek finally passed me with about 3/4 of a mile to go. Had really planned on pushing the last mile much harder than I did and I'm not sure why I slacked off. Headed up around the last corner to the finish I gutted it out for a nice run in.

Run lots more!

Grabbed a bottle of water at the finish and talked to Derek and his girlfriend while we waited for Koby to finish. Koby and I ended up with overall times less than 30 sec from each other. Ate a bunch of pizza, fruit, granola bar, and drank a coke. Stood around for a while because the oly started 40 mins after we did and we couldn't get into transition until the last rider was out. Packed up and headed home when we could. Got a good nap at home and then got called in to work for a while that night.


Training. After making my return after a 2 year break I feel like I had a good race, albeit slow. With IMTX coming up quickly my training is about to take a very sharp curve upwards and I am looking forward to the effects that it will have on my performance at these shorter courses as well.


Overall the race was good. We got started about 20 mins late because of the long walk to the swim and it was really frustrating not being able to hear the directions being given at the swim start at all. The volunteers were great and the course was well supported. For being a $100 sprint the race packet and swag was a bit lacking in my opinion but that's no big deal. I would do this race again.