The water was not bad, easily tolerable with a wetsuit and probably fine without one. Very little visibility, barely could see my hands pass by with each stroke.

Amazingly swam pretty straight, and got a nice draft off a few swimmers late in the race but got kicked in the left eye near the start and hit in the back of the head pretty good at about the same time.

The new wetsuit was very comfortable. Out in a little over 19 minutes, probably around mid-pack somewhere - was this the correct distance? I was guessing it would take me longer - have done very few races this distance, but anticipated somewhere around 28-30 minutes or more.

Relax early, and swim defensively.

There was a pretty long run from the water to T1, running over the beach and then under trees with leaves, some sticks and roots to navigate. Then there was a fair distance between transition and the pavement to jump on the bike.

Taking off the wetsuit did not seem to be a problem. Decided to put the bike shoes on before jumping on the bike which was probably a good decision. Plus I like to wear socks on the bike so running over all the leaves, sand and sticks wouldn't have been good.

Practice putting on a shirt with wet skin, always seem to roll the shirt up. Or wear a shirt/suit in the swim so I don't have to worry about it.

One confusing section of the course, additional volunteers or signs would have been helpful but I guess this is why it's important to know the course. I'm sure any course confusion on Saturday was cleared up by Sunday's races.

Took a Gu right away. Ate a Powerbar on the start of the second loop. Finished a bottle of Gatorade. It seemed like the course was mabye a little less than the 40K distance advertised. My odometer read 22.9 miles at the bike finish, and speedometer read an average of 20.7 mph which I was happy with (if it's correct). Had never averaged over 18.5-19 mph in training, so I hopefully did race faster.

much smoother than T1.

nothing.

Got passed right away by a racer in my age group, running too fast for me to catch up. Took a Gu about 10 minutes into the run.

I was following another runner on the start of second loop that had passed me (had a Purdue University jersey on, and I grew up in Illinois so had to comment about getting passed by someone from Indiana - then added that they could be a "pacer" if they wanted so I decided to try to keep up). It seemed like we were on the correct trail right after I was passed - but then several other runners met up with us from another section. We may have taken a very small short cut but really still not sure. Without mile markers we could have added distance to the run. Or maybe the oxygen debt was kicking in and I was just confused.

Ended up backing off a little, but finished within 20-30 seconds of the "Purdue" racer that had passed me ~2 miles earlier and passed several racers on the second loop.

By my watch it took ~39 minutes (hit the split about 30 seconds into the run and forgot to stop the watch right away at the finish), or around 6:45 per mile which would be very fast for me. I felt like I might have been around 8:00 per mile or so - several other racers were commenting that the run seemed short. Will have to see the final results. Really liked the shaded trail run, and the ground was pretty firm for being sand - no soft spots at all.

Took some pictures with the kids. Met a guy from Peoria, IL who was down visiting some family and did the sprint. The run went through the camping area which seemed really nice - didn't have a chance to reserve a spot since you have to pay on-site and we're 2.5 hours away, but may try to do this for future races.


Small race near a big city. Possible misinformation on course distances and marking, but no excuse to not have fun. Post-race food was great, better than most.