Unfortunately, caught up with the girl in front of me after 4 laps and after tapping her toes on two laps and her not stopping, just decided to pass her mid lane since it seemed clear enough. However, that spiked me a bit. Anyway, swim was okay overall. Swam it a little harder than I planned. It was a bit faster than last year.

As always, could have been better. But it was the same time as last year and I did a few more things. Decided to put on bike gloves. Should have been under 2:00 though.

Tri-suit? Gloves... hard to say.

Bike leg felt pretty good at the time. Wasn't passed by anyone and went by a bunch of folks. Did much better than last year at staying in aero - probably why this year was faster. Glad it was sprint length though. I could tell that I would have been in some "trouble" if it was a longer distance. Gearing was probably as good as it has ever been in a race.

On a dryer day, I would have really pushed coming down the hill out of town. Forgot to start my Garmin.

The questions on the transitions are a good indicator of how far I have to go. That being said, I thought T2 went reasonably well.

Remember to hit the right button on the Garmin.

Felt like a pretty strong run. Wasn't beautiful or anything, but for me, a pretty good pace and steady. Was passed by 3 or 4 20ish year olds, but seemed to hold my own reasonably well with everyone else. Back wasn't happy, but didn't affect my run. I did remember to take ibuprofen before the race which probably took the edge off some. Remembered to shorten the pace on the steep downhill - thanks to Randy/Michael.

Nothing. Pretty happy with the run. Similar to last year.

Walked around a bit and then hit the showers at the Y. A little gatorade and a couple of cookies. Grabbed a piece of pizza later (wow, was it warm in the pizza truck - sweet!)

Couldn't stay for the awards ceremony as I was playing at a church fundraiser in the afternoon. Plus, I didn't expect to podium!


In all three disciplines, I felt a little lack of training. Not horrid, just could tell I wasn't in peak form (whatever that means for me). Probably the one "bummer" moment of the day was knowing that I could have raced in the Clydesdales based on my morning weigh in. I've still got 10lbs I could stand to lose. The positive spin on that is that losing those 10lbs is probably the best way to improve my performance. Still room to improve there :-)

But I'd say this was probably my best race overall. Had a good balance in performance across the disciplines, no major errors, and yes, a podium finish doesn't hurt. Kind of surprised by that... I've been knocking at the door the last few years, but 2nd out of 17 is really a GREAT result for me - and my overall position (top 1/4) also my best. And took 45 seconds off last year's time in worse conditions. Can't be anything but pleased with these results!


I was expecting the worst from the weather, but it was just a light drizzle and cool. By afternoon (in Afton), it was awful, but we dodged one this morning.

As always, this is a great race and well organized. I've met a bunch of nice folks down there. Saw Stacy (from Salem race), Mari (from last year's race), met Jen and Dallas (way to go, guys!!). Mari introduced me to Steve Bozeman, world record holder for double ironmans. That was a real treat. Super nice guy - is holding a biathlon on April 30th. Would love to go, but probably won't be back home yet.