Was told that it "swam long" and felt longer than 1/2 mile. I don't know about that, but I did have the same thought I have in all my open water races -- what the hell am I doing in the middle of this lake when I could be in bed? Water was clear, meaning you could see your hands and the feet of the person in front of you as you swam on top of him. I've had worse. Water was warmer than the air, which felt good, and didn't taste bad.

For the race, nothing. I dived in quick (think I was the 2nd person to stop wading and hit the water) and swam hard at the start to get away from the pack. For training, I need to do more sprint work. And practice sighting.

Ok, I have to work on my transition. Fell to the ground like a lame turtle trying to pull the suit off over my ankles all while my wife is taking photos for posterity. (I haven't even looked at those ones yet.) I don't have a tri suit so had problems pulling my shirt onto my wet body. Could not get my fingers into my bike gloves. Slipped on socks and shoes onto slightly wet feet with no concern for grass debris between the toes in an effort to hit the bike as fast as possible -- cue up ominous music, as that skipped 2 seconds to wipe my feet would cause me to stop during the run to take off right shoe and sock and dislodge debris from middle toes. And when I made it to edge of transition, could not get my shoes to clip into pedals. Just could not do it. Actually said to myself, out loud, "slow down, pal, and just clip that thing in," causing the race marshall to respond, "yes, #25, take your time."

Wipe off feet. Toughen up feet to race without socks. Practice taking wetsuit off -- wife has offered to spray me down with the hose in the back yard this summer so I can practice with a wet wetsuit. Slow down a little and do things correctly.

Hills are tougher, i.e. longer, than they appear, and the turns are tight, especially the turn around. Course is on country roads, so little traffic. Hit 40mph on the downhill portion coming back, which means I must have really sucked going uphill to have such a slow average time.

Had a good ride, but should probably do more hill training. And practice getting on and off bike.

I'm happy with this transition. It's a slight run from dismount to bike racks and out the gate, enough to get your legs moving after the ride.

Learn to ride with feet on top of shoes, to jump off the moving bike, and all that other show-off stuff.

Remember the grass debris between the toes? About 1/2 mile in, the foot said enough of this, it hurts, get it out now. Lost about 15 seconds here. As for pacing, I figured the run would take me about 28 minutes, so I paced it out and hit the turn at 14:31, and then picked it up coming back. Told myself that I could push it a bit harder for another 14 minutes, and from my run time, I obviously picked up the pace pretty hard. Couldn't believe the time displayed on the chute as I approached the finish line.

Wipe off toes. Ride course in advance to note mile points.

Hugged wife, walked up to the registration point and ate a brownie.


Poor sighting on the swim, first transition, not enough hill work for the bike, and not knowing the mile points on the run.


I'd do it again. Would have been a great day if the sun was out and it was warmer.