The course looked long from shore but turned out to be accurate. The first buoy looked a long way off but came up surprisingly fast. Felt OK on the swim, but wasn't able to establish a decent rhythm until after first buoy due to crowding. Got slightly off course on third leg, but nothng major. Surprised that I swam about 10 seconds slower/100 this year than last, but that would turn out to be the story of the day.

T1 felt like at least two minutes, so I was pleased to see it was 1:15. Still, should have been under 1 minute. My rack was as far from the Bike Out as one could be, so that added some seconds.

Felt good on the bike and on the hills, which were long and steep in a couple of cases. Darn good breeze blowing which allowed me to hold 32 mph+ on one long stretch, but once we hit the turnaround it was a grind to hold 14-16 at a very high cadence. Fortunately, I've done a lot of hill and wind riding these last 3 years, so while it was a grind, the hills and wind didn't wear on me psychologically. Again, 3 minutes slower than last year. See the pattern here?

T2 went very well, and again, since my rack was the last one back, I had to run the full length of the transition area.

I was worried about the run because I haven't done any distance or speed work in so long due to hamstring injury. Thankfully I had no pain, but my aerobic conditioning is poor. I've accepted that this season is what it is due to lack of running and I'm OK with it for now. I'm encouraged that I had no pain, leading me to believe that a renewed running schedule is just around the corner. There was plenty of water and even ice cold sponges on the course.

Get my running game back.

Water, oranges, pretzels and beer! (Hey, it was noon somewhere!)


Loss of aerobic conditioning due to laying off on the run.


This race has a reputation for being well organized and on time. It was chosen by USAT as one of their Grand Prix Circuit races this year, so we had mui marshalls on motorcycles watching for violations. My only rant: I will say that I've heard of cheaters on the bike course before, but never have I witnessed it or been a victim of it before Saturday. One guy in my wave, I'll call him Disc Man, came by me on a downhill. I passed him at the flat at the top and then pulled away and stayed ahead of him past the turnaround. Suddenly, on the headwind leg when all honorable racers were struggling into the gusts, a bike passes me and on his rear wheel is Disc Man, drafting through traffic like he's in a crit! I was angry and would have reported him if I had gotten his number. I wanted to yell out "Pass or drop back," but by the time I established he was in fact drafting and not just stuck behind a slower biker, they were gone.
Anyway, it didn't ruin an otherwise fabulous day!