I was a little nervous since this was only my second OWS race and the 1st was this race last year so I started towards the back/outside of my wave (2nd wave). I really don't know what to make of this swim. About 100m out there were some waves from a boat wake and I took a big mouthful of water. This kind of became a theme. After that I just put my head down and went. Got bumped and bumped into a few people every now & then but nothing that bothered me too much. I found a couple of times I was passing people or getting caught behind them which confused me since I'm not that fast. Somehow I moved to the inside rounding the turn buoy - I didn't really want to be there but it worked out ok. Saw one guy right in front of me start heading toward the beach at the 1st turn buoy - I don't know if he figured it out, but he definatly added some time to his swim. On the way in I tried not to push too hard since my stomach wasn't liking the mouthfuls of water and I ended up breastroking every now & then when I would catch a mouthful. From the 2nd to last buoy I just sighted on the arch, put my head down and swam straight for it. There wasn't any time went I felt like I was swimming real hard but more importantly I never felt like I could get into a rhythym. Overall room for improvement but much better than last year.

Need more OWS experience. I had alot of trouble breathing and my form suffered. Had some sighting problems on the way out due to going right into the sun so I basically used the person next to me and when I found I was swerving towards them I would try & straighten out. Work on bi-lateral breathing.

Would've liked to be faster. I had to dry off my feet to put my socks on which was the biggest slow-down. Then as I grabbed my shoe the front wheel of my bike went sideways and it almost fell over. The helmet fell off and I spent maybe 20 seconds looking for my sunglasses.

Maybe find something to put against my front wheel to keep it straight. Learn to get in my shoes on the bike. Although - since I need to put aocks on anyway I don't think I lose that much time here.

After the 1st roller I pushed a hard pace and passed quite a few people. Spun a good gear up Rt. 36 and tried to concentrate on keeping my back straight and staying as aero as I could. Got a bit of a cramp in my side on the flat ot of the res. Eventually I got it under control but I wanted to push somewhat hard since I knew even with a good run I would give back alot of time on the run, so the cramp ended up coming back on some of the hills. Held a good speed on the flats - its interesting to feel like you're flying at 27-28 mph and then hear the whroom, whroom of a disk and get passed like your standing still. Legs started burning a bit on Diagonal Hwy so I turned it down a notch then spun higher coming back to the res. Popped out of my shoes and did the cool moving dismount thing into transition.

Keep working on the engine... Could probably have worked on hydrating a bit more but overall I was happy with the bike.

Transition went great. I was at the far end from the bike entrance/run exit and I was racked, shoes on and out of my spot within probably 15 seconds.

Nothing. Went smooth.

My goal was to avg better than 9 minute miles. From about the second I left transition I had a huge side-stitch. My plan was to try & negative-split but at this point I knew that would be difficult. Slowed it down going up the hill since I know I usually go out too fast and to get the cramp under control, which I did. Then it started coming back again at maybe the 3/4 mile mark and was bad enough that I couldn't run thru it and had to slow considerably. I started getting passed left and right. For about the last mile I altered my breathing to just let it go and not really control it which helped and let me pick up the pace a little bit. Even with all that I met my goal pace (although I was secretly hoping to do better than 8:30 pace) so I'm happy about that.

I've always had problems with side-stitches when I run hard, although this one was bad enough that I couldn't run hard thru it. Not really sure what I can do to overcome that. My legs felt heavy to start with but felt pretty good for most of it. It didn't feel like they were holding me back - it was the cramp that kept me from pushing them more. I think next time I need to work on controlling my pace at the end of the bike leg so I'm a little fresher coming into transition.

Drank some water, walked around a bit and stretched a little bit. Found Cathy where she was cheering on the side of the course and chatted with her a bit. Got some pancakes (although my stomach was not in the mood for much), cleaned up transition and then found Erik & Cathy again & hung out with them a bit. Unfortunatly I didn't see any other BT'ers.


A big side-stitch cramp for alot of the run and a decent part of the bike. Need more OWS experience.


They put ona great race. Very well organized and a great atmosphere with so many people of all abilities on a fun course. Overall the race went really well, with improvements in all three legs. I took about 11 minutes off of last years time so I'm very happy.