Generally very good. The first leg into the sun was tough, so I tried to simply follow the crowd and spot for the buoy, not too far beyond. After the turn, I generally kept to the inside of the course (everyone else seemed to favor the outside). There was a decent wind out of the SW, straight into us on the back leg. Once I rounded the buoy and headed for home, it seemed to get more crowded and I found a group of people generally going my speed. I was finally able to do some decent drafting, then gave a good kick to finish.

Nothing really. This was a 5 minute improvement from last year! I think the HIM training is helping quite a bit.

12/106 and 55/763 placement. Overall my best discipline! Generally went very well. Run in, helmet and shades on, run out, hop on bike and off. I had a little trouble getting my feet into my shoes and getting strapped in, but it didn't slow me down too much

Nothing! I'd run harder through transition, but my HR was already in the 170s coming out of the water.

This was exciting, as it was the first time in a race that I felt I was pacing with someone and actually racing. There was a guy moving at about my pace that we kept going back and forth, passing each other about once per mile for about 8-10 miles early in the race. I eventually figured out that I was racing too hard, as my heart rate was consistently 172-175. Pre-race I thought I should target something closer to my LT of 166. There was some burn in my legs, but not as bad I would have expected given the heart rate. This is why I pushed for as long as I did. As I progressed, my HR was dropping into the 160s despite feeling that my legs were really burning. Thus, I had over-cooked things.
The adventure was far from over, however. To make things worse, my aero bars started to loosen up from all of the chatter on the roads. At first I thought I might be slipping back in my seat, as my arms felt stretched out. Eventually I noticed that I had no aero bar sticking out on the stem side of the clamps! I spent much of the rest of the ride pulling in on the bars to try to prevent them from outright falling off. Finally, on the final hairpin turn back into transition, several people were nearly wiped out by a nice little old lady on a beach cruiser who didn't slow enough to make the turn. At first she went right through the intersection into the oncoming cyclists who were just leaving T1. Then she overcorrected and nearly slammed right into my side as she was cutting back across our lane! She did cut off two other people who had to slam on their brakes to avoid hitting her. Just a little added drama for fun!

Judging by the dropping heart rate during the last 10 miles and how I felt for the initial part of the run, I needed to back down the effort here. I was very happy with the time, but I knew as soon as I set foot in transition that the run would be a struggle.

My aero bars finally popped off as I was racking my bike. I'm pretty sure it was the combination of the rough roads and the fact that I had moved my water bottle cage from the downtube to the aerobars (and the fact that I hadn't tightened the aerobars since I last adjusted them in April). I slowed here to get a big drink of water and try to stretch my legs, which were really burning from the bike. My T1 time was almost as fast. 20/106 and 126/763

Tighten aero bars, don't overcook the bike. I can't complain about a top 20% transition time.

The start of the run hurt like hell. Quads and calves were both on the verge of cramping. I don't think my legs had ever hurt quite this bad in either a brick workout or a race, so I guess I finally found my tipping point with overcooking the bike ride. My pace was much slower than my goal of 7:30s. In fact, was closer to 8:30. During mile 3 into 4, I was finally picking up the pace to around 8:00, but then the lurking IT band finally reared its ugly head! For years, whenever I ran hard after not running for a long time, I would develop severe left lateral knee pain after about 3-5 miles. As I started training for triathlons, I had been starting low and going slow, and generally had built up a tolerance to run even up to 14 miles without issues over the last 18 months. However, earlier this summer I was starting to have some issues with it again. This was just a crappy time to start again. I essentially had to walk the last 1.5 miles of the race, going from a probable 52:xx to 1:02:xx that I finished with. Definitely a bummer to limp/run/walk down the finishers chute, getting passed by what felt like hundreds of people over that last mile of the course. Watching the video at the finish line was no joy.

Improved consistency in the training would have helped. My running really tailed off after the Liberty HIM due to some sort of strain in my foot from that race. Also, don't overcook the bike :)

I did a fair amount of stretching, then bummed some ibuprofen from my brother-in-law, who was working the medical tent. He was pretty busy with the hyperthermics, so I didn't hang around to chat too much. Made my way to the beer tent and slammed my two MGDs, then went to collect my things.


Despite the slow pace on the run, I was possibly on my way to finishing in under 2:30, which would have been a PR by 6 minutes and nearly 10 minutes faster than the year before. As it was, I finished 3 minutes behind last year. Certainly the ITB issue was the problem, and I'll simply have to build back up to be ready for Square Lake in September, which will be my next race. Also planning on the TCM this year, so hopefully this will be resolved.


This is a wonderful race if you enjoy the bigger race atmosphere. With the size and effort put into it, you really feel like a rock star out there. It was also pretty sweet to see Matty Reed, Hunter Kemper, Cameron Dye among other top professionals as they were getting ready. The gear is nice, and the post-race festival and kids activities are top notch. I'll probably continue to do this race every year that I can!