My swim was the worst portion of my race. For some reason I just seemed to struggle. I felt okay and I sighted the bouys good and I felt I rounded the bouys good, I had plenty of strength to freestyle the entire way but something just slowed me down. I did swallow lake water twice which caused me to stop and breast stroke. I don't know...I'm still going over it in my mind to see where I might have gone wrong.

More open water swimming!!!

I had a pretty fair transition. I had everything layed out except my socks. I forgot to unfold them so that took a few extra seconds. I got out of my wet suit pretty quickly, got my gear on and felt pretty good running with the bike to the road before I could start biking.

I was told to try removing my wetsuit in the water before I get out. It's supposed to help it come off easier. I didn't have that much problem with it honestly. If I had long johns then I'd consider it.

I didn't get clipped into my pedals very quickly so I am thinking of getting new pedals. I don't know if I passed any sprint racers but I did pass several people. I felt I did really well in keeping my cadance high and shifting gears went well.

I need to continue biking. More saddle time and work on my leg strength. I think there were sections of the course where I could have been at a higher gear and gone a bit faster.

Transition was pretty good. Racking my bike went well and changing into running shoes went smoothly. I forgot to remove my helmet so I had to return and take it off.

take off helmet! :)

If the course was truely a 5K then I had a killer time and pace, actually a personal best for a 5K time for me. I had a pretty good stride and felt good on the entire run. No cramping occurred but I did become fatigued midway throught the second mile and had to

I thought I followed the course as marked but it could have been marked a bit better because there appeared to be runners that were coming from another road. The finish was pretty exciting. My new buddy Jeff passed me around the 2 mile mark and I couldn't just let him run away without a challenge. I sped up to stay with him and was able to back off to bring my HR down some. Finally, as we zipped through the woods for the finish line I started to sprint to make up the distance and was right on Jeff's heels. We both passed a guy right at the end and I had to go around him or I think I could have tied or passed Jeff. We'll never know. It was an awesome race b/c Jeff never looked back to see who it was coming up on him. He just knew someone was there and was going for it.

Not much. Aside from the course being better marked, my preparation and execution of the run was great. My HR was pretty high (170s) in zone 3 so more endurance training could help lower that but overall, I had a pretty good run.

very light stretching, and consuming water, Gatorade, bagle with peanut butter and 2 huge oranges. No other warm-down. I know, I should


My inability to swim fast in Lake Mary Jane. Something about the dark, murky water that created a mental road block which slowed me down.


Overall I really like this race course and the buttar organization. They put on a pretty nice race. The swim is always a daunting challenge for me because of the murky water but the course is layed out really nicely. The distance to run from the water to the transition is a bit much but I know things can't be perfect. The bike course this year was really nice. Smooth roads and pretty fast. There were lots of course workers until the run. The run course needed to be more clearly marked. I don't know if it's a lack of course workers at the turns, lack of course markings or what but the run course had some areas that were not clearly marked. Along the 2nd mile of the 5K course. I saw runners coming from another road where they shouldn't have been so either I went the wrong way or they did. I didn't pay that any attention because I was in my zone and wanted to finish strong, which I did.