A lot of contact early and I was really surprised at how many green caps I noticed through the first turn. Was worried that everyone got faster and I got slower! Things started to spread out after the first turn and heading back toward the finish was much less eventful and only had to worry about navigating the wave ahead. After the first/second turns, I was able to pull away from the pack a bit.

Not sure...I feel like the effort feels so much higher in the race than it does at the pool. I feel like I'm working so much harder than I should be, but still dropped 50 seconds from last year so I can't complain too much I suppose.

Dropped 34 seconds from last year and wanted to go below 2:30. Had an optimal rack position this year so that helped. I am always so WINDED exiting the water for whatever reason so it takes me a bit to settle down. The wetsuit came off the top running to transition and fairly quickly off the legs. Did get stuck on the timing chip a bit and I thought about sitting, but finally managed to get it off. Threw the helmet and glasses on and ran out of transition. Had my shoes on the bike this year and this was definitely a good move.

Just try to strip the wetsuit off faster. Other than that, not too much.

Again, not sure why, but I am always just really winded post swim so it took me a bit to settle down. Had some digestion issues throughout. My stomach didn't bother me a bit, but felt like I probably drank too much just prior to the race and despite knowing I needed fluids, had trouble putting them down without feeling like I wanted to just spit them back out. It's weird because my stomach wasn't in any pain, just felt like it was already full of liquid.
Onto the actual bike portion...once I settled down, I tried to really hammer it down the hills. Downhills felt great, uphills, meh... Once again, improving the uphills needs to be a focus. No major issues and for once it was nice to not get passed by tons of people. Mind you, I still got passed quite a bit, but not as much as previous years. 4 minutes better than last year. Was hoping to hit 20mph average and came close, but not quite there.

Only one issue I hit during the bike is my foot popped off my pedal during a downhill and I wobbled for a second before getting clipped back in. Definitely need to check on the cleats!

With about 6 or 7 miles to go, I saw my cousin on the side of the road with a couple volunteers. He was standing and didn't look hurt so I assumed mechanical issue. Turns out he had two flats within the first few miles of the race. Not a good welcome to his first olympic distance tri. Felt really bad for him...

I'm getting better every year so I just have to keep working...especially uphills as that is where I get passed a lot. Downhills I can hold my own :)

I wanted to break a minute this year and did. My wife said she and my daughters tried to catch me in transition after seeing me enter the park, but I was already gone. Again, optimal rack position helped a bunch.

Not much...one shoe got stuck a bit getting on, but no major issue.

Dropped 3+ minutes from last year and the goal was 44 minutes so I'm happy with this. If I had realized I was so close to breaking 2:28, I could probably have found seven seconds somewhere :) Overall I'm pretty pleased with the effort. Miles 4 and 5 weren't quite what I was hoping for, but 6 was much better and I finished strong.

Not too much. My run is definitely improving quite a bit so I am pretty happy with this.

Found my family and waiting for friends to finish


More swim/bike training.


Another year and another Columbia Tri in the books. Being pretty close to home it's hard to pass up. I dropped 9 minutes from last year so I am very happy with that. Not sure if I can pull that off again next year, but that would have me breaking 2:20 :) We will see!