Mass start of all short course males. Started on extreme inside, about the time I settled into a good swim effort, maybe 50-100m after the start, I feel some feet ahead of me and see Ken's white swim cap when I sight, immediately after that a dude runs into me from the right, no big deal, I swim another 5 breaths or so watching him and adjusting my course, next time I sight forward we're way off line to the left, I correct back to the right and run into him, go through the cycle a couple times with the thought that it is easier and faster to wait for this dude to see the turn bouy and fix his course than swim through him, didn't happen, I picked up the pace a little and got about a half body length on him then angled toward the turn bouy, some contact occurred and a couple strokes later he was off my feet heading left again. By this point I had completely lost Ken, made the first turn and had clear water the rest of the race, swam very straight to the 2 bouys along the back stretch, made the turn for the beach around the pin bouy and headed straight for the beach (the line for the beach is inside the rest of the pin bouys which denote a swimming area for boat traffic). I then see and hear a lifeguard yelling and splashing me towards the rest of the pin bouys, my initial reaction is "I know the course", but then I can see the rest of the guys around me swimming outside the bouys and nobody between me and the beach, I didn't actually hear the last pre-race briefing in the water, and it really isn't that much further so I shifted course and hit the last pin bouy without loosing a spot.

Afterward found I was 9th out of the water in the heat, talking to several of the guys ahead of me that had gotten away from the pack they all skipped the pin bouys and went straight in, so either everybody ignored the lifeguard or he had just swam over there after watching what he thought was the lead pack cut the course.

Ignore the lifeguard and guys around me who don't know the course, only cost maybe 10 seconds though.

2OA/1AG. Short, steep, sandy hill into transition and my bike was right at the swim entrance, dipped my feet into Brent's water bucket, threw on helmet and glasses, and took off. It was a long run to the mount line from the racks.

not use the water bucket, Ken managed 5 seconds faster than me.

Nobody was in sight coming out of transition or around the lake (although it is very hard to look around without running off the road), finally saw a couple guys ahead of me on the first climb away from the lake about 3 miles into the bike leg. My plan was to hit each climb with the hardest effort that I could maintain through the hill, easy spin to recover on the descent, and walk that fine line between too easy and too hard when it was flatish. I was catching the 2 guys I could see at a pretty reasonable rate, as we approached the turnaround there was a group of 3 coming back which put me in 6th, caught the 1st guy at the start of the descent before the turnaround, saw that Ken was the next guy when he made the turn, and caught Ken at the top of the hill after the turnaround. That put me in 4th and there didn't appear to be anybody coming up except those I just passed.

Drank about 24 oz water, ate nothing.


nothing.

11OA/1AG. For some reason I took my helmet off after I unbuckled it while I'm still running with my bike, it then occurred to me, I've either got to stop and put down the helmet or rack my bike one handed, I chose the third option, drop it on my bag and watch it bounce and roll down the hill toward the lake while racking bike. It only rolled about half way to the lake. Put on socks and shoes.

Socks take a lot of time to put on, don't wear them.

Walked the hill out of transition and handed my man card to the lady at the top, although I still believe it is no slower to walk than run and probably more efficient. Tried to maintain a comfortably uncomfortable pace the whole time, the leader went by shortly after I passed through the first mile and was flat out cruising (5:21/mile avg). Managed a negative split through the run, no doubt aided by the hill out of transition. Took a shot of water and dumped the rest on myself at every aid station.

nothing, maybe run up the transition hill and keep my man card.

sat in lake, took shower at campground, stood in shade and sweated.


A real nice low key event, this is one of my favorites.