I had a little water leak into my left goggle right at the start of the 1st loop but it didn't really bother me too much. I decided to keep going and wait until the end of the loop to fix if it didn't get worse. Turned out I was able to wait. I felt I was swimming OK but my time wasn't very good, my worst RochesterFest Oly swim out of the 4 I've done by 1:32.

My nose plugs came off when I took off my top. Had this been a USAT event I would have stopped to find and pick them up but I just kept going here. More swim speed work in my training for the Olys and sprints would be helpful.

I had a little trouble getting the top of my wetsuit off, stuck at my wrists. This is a first for me. I had put some Body Glide on but will have to pay more attention at future races. 1st in AG. -15 sec over my previous best at this race.

I got a little tired on the way back after the turnaround. I kept pushing but did watch my HR and tried to not overdo it. The wind was more of a factor on the return. Avg was 22.2 last year for Sprint, previous best in Oly was 21.7 on old course. I expected my bike to be a little better, at least 21.5. Garmin had me at 21.4 over 25.16.

BWCA trip which caused a week off of training then back to training for a week is not optimum for peaking for RochesterFest. It was better when the race was a week later as it was the 1st 3 years.

1st in AG but +23 sec from previous best at this race. I wore socks and had trouble with right sock. Not sure what happened but sock was inside out. Other than that I thought T2 went well so a little surprised by the time difference. I think I wore socks last year but not the 1st 3 years so sock time adds a few secs.

Double check socks and then put them on correctly.

Held a good pace until mile 6. Tried not to go too fast early, trying to stay just over 7:00 pace and finish fast. Was able to maintain pace better than at Buffalo but course does not have the hill as at Buffalo. I was hoping to get under 7:00 pace but knew it would be a push with the training issues caused by BWCA trip. 3rd best run time here after 2008 and 2009.

Satisfied with run under circumstances.

Lots of fluids, water, gatorade even a couple of beers (thanks Joe!) and the free lunch.


BWCA trip 6/4-6/10 with no training makes this a tough race to peak at. Satisfied with my performance overall under the circumstances. I did win my AG by a wide 29:08 margin and would have won the M50-54 by 9:59 as well and even been 3rd in M45-49. After 3 2nd place finishes in the M50-54 AG, I did get my first RochesterFest AG win. Only got chicked by 3, all elites.

The first time there have been 2 Ewens with podium finishes at the same race as Barb took 3rd in F55-59.


HyVee and Canadian Honker had better food. Nice to have TriRoch tent set up by awards area. Lots of volunteers out on the course.