The swim portion of this triathlon takes place at the north end of Canandaigua lake, at a recreational boat launch. The water is shallow for most of the swim, only getting deep near the outer buoys. Because of this, many competitors decide to "run" in the water for the first 300 yards or so. Others porpoise. I chose to swim the course and not run. Unfortunately, I swam near a runner and he dove in the water just ahead of me and kicked me in the face. It was a hard kick and I sucked in a bunch of water and momentarily lost my goggles. I took a minute to recover and kept swimming. I felt really good on the swim and my watch told me I was out of the water in 14 minutes, a new PB. The race time is a little deceiving because there is a 100 yard run between the exit from the lake and the transition area. Transition was farther from the water this year than last year.

Not get kicked! Other than that issue I felt my navigation was good.

This transition was lengthy because I took time to put on my race jersey. I didn't wear a skin suit or tri top under my wet suit because, well, I'm fat and it didn't fit. :)

Get out of my wet suit quicker and get skinny enough to wear my tri top.

I really enjoyed this bike course. Nearly 1/2 of the course is climbing with a couple of good descents later. And the view of the lake from the top of a small hill is really beautiful. The wind was very gusty at the higher elevations but I don't run disk wheels so it wasn't much of a problem. I rode conservatively because I wanted to save energy for the run. I drank 1/2 a bottle of weak gatorade on the bike and that was my only nutrition for the race.

Push a little harder on the bike, but not much. I felt good for the ride but I could tell I hadn't put much training time in on the bike this season.

I didn't get a chance to put speed laces on my running shoes so I took a few extra seconds to tie my sneakers. No big deal, I felt that this transition was pretty smooth.

Speed laces on my running shoes.

I really wanted to push hard on this run and it paid off. The course was a little longer this year, closer to a 5K. I started off strong (for me) and didn't really suffer until about a mile and a half into the run when my right knee (ITB) started to act up. I just kept running hard, trying to stay with faster guys and gals. It hurt like heck but I didn't want to slow down. I didn't drink anything on the run but just dumped water on my head. Time was a new PB! Hot damn!

Try to get this ITB issue figured out. I know I could have run faster if it didn't start to seize up.

Drank water, walked around, eventually ate lunch.


Getting kicked in the face during the swim, training time on the bike and ITB issues on the run.


The "Score This!" crew put on a great race. Well organized, plenty of food and water, and very good organization. Transition was in a new area this year and it seemed to work out okay considering the location.