I feel like I had a decent swim, considering this is my second time in an OWS and the first in race conditions. I need to work on swimming in a relatively straight line; I'm sure I added 20% to the distance with all of my zig-zagging.

The start of my wave was kind of hectic. I kept trying to wait for people to clear out of my way to get in a groove. Next time I think the way to go is to just get to swimming. Not a lot of jostling around happened, but there was some bumping and contact. Nothing serious though.

Once I got going I just kept chugging along. I caught a few from the waves in front of me, which was a nice bonus.

On the final leg of the swim my shins began cramping up. Not sure why, but this happens to me when I swim in cold pools, too.

When you hit the beach, there's quite a long run up to transition from the lake (not sure how far, but it's a good couple of tenths). Part way up they had wet suit strippers and the kids they had doing this were AWESOME! They were having a blast, high-fiving people, competing with each other to get the suits off faster, etc. Really made it fun.

The final walk/shuffle up to transition wasn't much fun (or fast) because of my cramping shins.

Sight better
Swim straighter
Start more confidently

Pretty slow transition, although I kept moving along. I know most of the time is spent coming from the beach, though.

Coming out of transition is a long, steep climb that goes forever. I stayed in my small ring up front and one of the bigger in the back and just spun up everything getting to the course. Lots of shifting going on for the first half or so to get through all of the rolling hills.

When you get to the climb at about mile 13 or so, it's spin spin spin! I even had to tack back and forth a little to get up the final push. Then there's a false flat and another longer, not quite as steep, climb to reach the summit of the mesa.

Once past that and across the freeway you can start to gain speed. I was riding around 18-21 mph from here on back to transition.

Remember that steep hill out of transition? You know have to brake down it all the way to the dismount line. I didn't see any wrecks but I hear there were a few exciting moments.

They had 2 bottle hand ups on the course, at miles 10 and 20, which was awesome. I picked up a gatorade at the first one, then realized I really didn't have anywhere to store it and wasn't ditching my $25 podium ice ones. So I held it most of the time and stick in my shorts behind me when I need two hands. I'm sure those passing me enjoyed that :)

At the second one I grabbed a water and tossed the rest of the gatorade. With that fresh, cold water I filled up my used bottle while riding and planned on carrying that one on the run in a short bit. Worked out great.

I think I wasted a few seconds here, but not much.

This run course is no joke. The first mile is pretty much all uphill in the sand, which makes from some challenges to say the least. My plan going in was to walk the water stations and run the rest. This went out the window at about mile .65, as I just couldn't run up those hills in the sand.

I ended up walking a lot of the long uphill sections.

I don't know. That run course isn't for me, though!

Sat in the shade tent with my friends, drank some gatorade and water. Ate a couple of cookies and some banana.