It began to rain just as the swim was about toe begin - not real hard, but a steady drizzle.

I feel like this was my first decent swim in a race this year. I decided to really push since it was a sprint, and I was able to come out of the water about a minute behind the leaders in my wave.

I maintained contact with the lead group for until the first turn buoy, then lost contact in the middle stretch. I ended up coming out of the water with Chris, one of my teammates.


I'd love to be able to carry this speed over to longer distances for next season!

10 seconds off the fastest T1 - maybe lost a few seconds getting off the wetsuit, but overall good.

Pretty happy with the bike split. My speed increased by about .5 mph over last year, and it was wet this year, so I took the corners a lot slower.

Heading out of the park, I knew there were three teammates ahead of me who were all faster swimmers. I quickly passed a few other people from my wave, then began looking for orange and white suits. As the bike leg progressed it started to rain harder, so I had to take the turns a little slower than usual.

Around the 3-4 mile point I passed Jim, and in the distance I could see two more riders, who I knew were Brent and Colin. I was able to pass both of them over the next two miles and take the overall lead. It was kind of cool to have a motorcycle for an escort. Another two miles after passing Colin the course took a right hand turn, and there was a steady climb of 250 ft over the next 2 miles. Unfortunately, Colin went straight where the course, and the volunteers didn't initially realize his mistake. One of them had to drive after him, but he ended up biking close to 1.5 miles extra, which was a major bummer!

My average power when I reached the top of the climbing portion was 312 watts, and the next 3/4 of a mile dropped 250 ft. My speed hit 48 mph on the descent, but my watts dropped to 295 by the time I began to pedal again. The last four or so miles of the bike course was a net downhill, and I was able to cruise along at around 27-30 mph, pushing around 310 watts.

As I came back into the park and near the transition area I encountered a car that had somehow gotten into the biking area within the closed off park roads. As I attempted to go around it to the left the driver probably saw me but swerved to the left at the same time, nearly causing me to go into the woods at 20+ mph. I shouted out a few choice words, my HR spiking, and about 30 seconds later dismounted, arriving in transition.

Looking at my HR, I probably could have pushed a bit more, but it still was a pretty solid ride.

Gravel transition area led me to brush my feet off a bit, but I still got plenty of rocks and gravel in my shoes - what fun!!!

By the time I got back to the transition area the rain had pretty much subsided.

I was hoping to be in the low 18 range for this run, but I just couldn't get a good turnover in the first mile. My 2nd and third miles were at a 6:00 pace and I felt a lot better at that point.

I didn't realize how big a lead I had in my wave going into the run, but it was around 4-5 minutes, so I didn't see any other runners until I was around mile 2 on my way back to the finish. It was at that point when I ran by Colin and he shouted out that he had biked 1.5 miles extra that I realized why he wasn't closer to me. It was also a little hard to really push the pace with nobody around, even though I knew I was racing against the clock.

After crossing the finish line I waited a bit over four minutes for Colin to come in, soon followed by Brent and Jim.

Push a little harder right off the bike. I know I can be running sub 6:00 in a 5k off the bike. It was also a bit weird to have nobody else around for the first 2/3 of the run.

Got some drinks, and hung out with my teammates. Got some food, but the food line was crazy long. They were making waffles and omelets to order for 300+ people - I felt bad for those who weren't near the front of the line.


Not much speed training for shorter sprint events.


Nice way to cap of the multisport season. Now on to the NYC marathon in 6 weeks. I'm really looking forward to two weeks of absolutely nothing after NYC. Because I did Beach2Battleship in October, then went right into Boston training, I never had an off season this past year. I think my body will thank me for taking a bit of time off!