I spent 20-30 minutes in the water warming up. While I was warming up I felt two really sharp stings on my face (chin and cheek). I talked with some other people who experienced the same on their arms, hands or necks and they said that there were jellyfish. They told me that my face was red around the sting points and to head in to the first aid station. The folks there rubbed some kind of antiseptic onto the two stings and then used a piece of duct tape to pull out the stingers. My reaction was fairly mild. I saw a couple other people who had fairly ugly swelling.

The wind was blowing out from the land at about 18 miles/hr and they advised that the current would be pretty strong on the leg back into shore.

I started all the way at the back and to the outside of the pack and was one of the last people to start swimming. I tried to keep my stroke long and easy and managed to avoid most contact all the way out to the first turn buoy. I moved in a little closer to the buoy line for the leg parallel to shore. The water was a little choppier and I ran into quite a bit more contact as people seemed to be having a tough time holding a straight line. I was swimming with my head up (as usual) so my sighting was pretty good. When I made the turn into shore, it got pretty rough. The current was pushing us away from the buoy line and the wind was causing quite a bit of chop too. Even with my head up, it was tough to see the buoys, but I did a much better job holding the line than in my last race. It would be interesting to know how long that last 600 meters took.



I was pretty satisfied with my swim. I came out of the water ahead of 460 people so I figure I must have passed about 400. I still think I have lots of room for improvement on the swim, but I also believe that I've hit a turning point with my overall swim confidence.

Time estimated. They had a shower system set up about 10 meters past the swim exit point so I stopped just before that and took off the bottom part of my wetsuit. The water was nice and cold and felt great. I got to my bike and took my time. I applied another layer of sunscreen and quickly found out that I had a nice brush burn on the back of my neck from the wetsuit chafing (and I did put on a good layer of bodyglide pre-race). I let out a pretty good yell when the alcohol in the sunscreen hit that chafed area.

Not a lot - I could try to go faster, but I am fine with taking it a little easy and calming down after the swim.

My plan was to try and average 145-150 watts and keep a cap of 190-200 watts on the climbs. I ended up averaging 149 watts which is the bottom of my power Z3. I still managed to log 23 minutes at 200 or greater watts - I think I would have fallen over quite a few times if I had not pushed a little harder. I was really surprised at my heart rate for the duration of the ride. It stayed down in what I consider Z2 and I debated many times whether or not to push my average wattage higher to bring my heart rate up. I resisted the temptation and that was tough especially earlier on when so many people were passing me.

In retrospect, I think holding to my plan was the right approach.

Given my current level of fitness, no major changes. The big do-differently is to get stronger on the bike.

Time estimated. I racked my bike, changed shoes and then ran to the nearest port-o-potty (it was closer to my bike than the changing tent) and changed into my running shorts. After that I threw on another layer of sunscreen and screamed again when I hit the back of my neck.

Nada - at my current level, I think taking my time is the right thing to do.

My goal was to keep the pace slow - at around 6 min/km for the first 5 km at least. I purposely dug in behing another runner that was hitting that pace and hung on. At 5km, I turned up the pace just a little, but it was really hot and tough so I backed off and stayed pretty close to the 6 min/km mark. I walked the aid stations and took either coke or sports drink. The 10km aid station had really cold ice water - they dumped two small buckets over my head and I felt good to go. I cranked up the pace and passed quite a few people on the way back in. It felt great - my legs were back and my heart rate did not climb.

Nada given my current fitness level.

grabbed a few glasses of coke and water and then went into transition to pack up my stuff. It was interesting to be there watching people still coming in from the bike leg and just starting the run. It took me about an hour to get back to my hotel because I had to cross the run route. They had cops out managing the traffic. Once I got back to my hotel I found a TV station that was broadcasting the finish line and I ended up watching that for a couple of hours while knocking back a few well-earned brews and a light dinner.


Only my current level of fitness. I want to take all three disciplines to a higher level next year and I know that is possible.


The race is very well managed and the volunteer support was fantastic. I will either do this race or the full version next year.