I knew this was going to be a long swim. My swim training in May would be on par for a sprint. Mentally, I was ready for and hour in the water so anything under that was a bonus. I ended up breathing every stroke and timing it for when a swell picked me up. It worked well for me. I tried a couple of times to get into pool swim mode and it was far from good. So, back to comfortable it was. All in all I was fairly happy. Sighting on the way back in was a PITA and I think I missed a buoy, but I really wasn't going to sweat it as the 200 people I was following would have done it too. Water temp was awesome for no suit, but with about 3-400 yds out, I was ready to be out of the water.

Training, speed. Other than that, this was probably my best OWS to date.

Nothing special. Put all my stuff in the little baggy, which I didn't ever pick up, and headed out the gate. Everyone was doing a good job of getting clear before they stopped and mounted so that was nice.

Not much.

Wow, just wow. Everyone has said the same thing I'm thinking here. The hills into the wind at 35ish were soul crushing. The ride back was fun though. I need more time in the saddle or different shorts though. My ass was unhappy with me at about 50 and I was really ready to be off the bike. I was budgeting a 4 hour ride so I was pretty happy about this really. I need miles on the bike, not much else.

Bike training was sub-par for this race and I knew it. Work, travel, and weather hampered me early in the season.

Grab and go. I wish I had put some chub rub cream here though. My armpits were on fire at this point.

Not muchas slow as I race, transitions aren't a big deal to me yet.

Hot, hot, hot. Sing that it will be less painful.
I love this course through the camps. The sprinklers were far and away the most bitchin thing I have ever encountered. The first 3 miles of the run were about what I expected, slow. I was trying to keep the HR around 150, which was putting me at 11:30+ miles. "Can I really be running this slow?" I asked myself. Yep, and much slower I found out. Not that I'm fast, but a little faster than that. Disappointed at that point wouldn't even begin describe it. I stopped to pee at the asphalt beach and at that point realized that
A- I went harder on the bike than I should have
B- I'm going to enjoy this if it kills me
C- It's 90 degrees or so, don't be a DB and think you can run sub 10 mm
D-This is going to be a long run.

At that point, my day got good again. Slow and tedious, but I still had an amazing time. Not going to lie though, people on a run/walk schedule irritate me. I know some are going to be offended by that, but i'm sorry passing the same person walking 15 times only to have them pass you again at a full run for 25 feet then walk again so I have to pass them again just bugs me. I walked about 1/4 mile just to get out of that cycle.
Aside from that, the spectators and volunteers in this area. the whole race really, are amazing. My run looked like something an extra in the Walking Dead would do, and at one point I would have stabbed somebody for a Chipotle burrito I had a blast.
Slowest HM I've ran by 20 minutes. And I stopped in the middle of that one to renew my vows.

Who knows? Wear a cool suit maybe?

Staying vertical was really taking up a lot of my attention at this point.


Train better. Not more, though that would have helped some, but definitely better.


The only thing wrong with this race was the weather. The race itself is top notch. Loved it. Honestly, I didn't really think much about the weather. I didn't realize it was that rough until I read everyone else's race reports. Just naive on my part I guess.