Started kind of middle of pack. I don't typically like to push my way to the front as I am not usually the strongest swimmer and don't particularly like being run over the entire swim. I ended up getting a pretty good draft until close to the first buoy (maybe 200m). After that I was getting no draft as the people in front of me were quite a ways in front. I rounded the second buoy and then saw that there was nobody in my sight. After the second buoy it was a long stretch to the third buoy and I kept sighting but not really seeing the buoy. I knew I was making better time than I normally do so I was hesitant to slow my pace a lot to sight. After another couple hundred meters I still didn't see the third buoy but I saw one other guy. That kind of worried me since I started thinking the two of us must be really far off course. I kept sighting enough to make sure I was going mostly straight and ended up seeing the buoy just a little ways to the right. I adjusted my line and headed straight for the buoy knowing I didn't need to try to swing it wide since there was nobody in front of my at this point to run into at the turn. After rounding the third buoy the fourth buoy was a straight shot since it was not too far away. Rounded the fourth buoy and was on the final leg. This leg was easy since I breathe to the left and the dock was on the left so I didn't really have to sight as I could just make sure I wasn't going to run into the dock on every breath. Made it to the ladder with no problems and pulled myself out of the water.

Nothing. I swam a much better race than any of my previous races.

This was the first race where I tried keeping my shoes clipped in to the pedals rather than running with them on. It was way easier. I didn't do a flying mount since I didn't really feel like eating it doing something I had never done before. Maybe doing a flying mount would save me a little time, but I don't know that it is necessarily worth it for me. Just having my shoes clipped in was enough for me to get to the mount line, get on the bike and start pedaling.

Maybe try the wetsuit strippers. But I never seem to have problems with getting my own wetsuit off and I think that laying down to have someone else do it would actually cost me time. So I will probably never try the wetsuit strippers unless I start having problems getting my own wetsuit off.

Bike felt good. My HRM wasn't working after I got out of the swim so I really don't have any kind of basis as most of my training is done using HR. I pushed it to where I felt comfortable but in hindsight I probably could have pushed a bit harder and still maintained the same run I did.

The course was two loops of which the out section was pretty much a false flat uphill along with a few actual hills (maybe 50-100 ft of total hills). I feel like I could have pushed harder during the whole bike since the last nine miles of the bike was essentially downhill and allows you to maintain a good speed while still getting a bit of a rest for the legs.

The first section I hammered a bump and I must have been sitting slightly off center so it crushed the soft tissue. The rest of the bike I was trying to un-weight over all the bumps since every bump was now hurting a bit. I did pretty well at posting up on all the bumps so there wasn't too much more pain through the whole course.

At the end of the course I was determined to keep my shoes clipped in again to try and save time. There was nobody around me at the dismount line so all I had to worry about was not crashing. It went off without a hitch so that was nice.

Push a little harder. Figure out what is wrong with my HRM since it has been screwing up during training quite a bit.

I have my new aerodrink that I have no used in a race (have used it a lot in training though). Apparently it makes it impossible to rack by the brakes though since the bottle sticks down between the aerobars. Not sure if I want to use the aerodrink going forward though for this reason. It wasn't a huge problem, but it did cost me a couple of seconds since I then had to spin my bike around to rack it by the saddle.

Look into different hydration. Maybe go back to the torpedo mount or something similar.

Again, no HRM to adjust my effort. I really need to learn to pace the run though. The pace I held was my typical training pace for longer runs which means I probably should have been able to go a bit faster than I did. I didn't actually watch the pace that the garmin was giving me and was just going by feel. At the end of the run I wasn't as tired as I probably should have been so I likely gave up a decent chunk of time here. The aid stations all went well. I only grabbed water since it was only a 10k and I didn't really want any gatorade.

Pick it up a bit. I think that for a shorter course I should push myself to be a little more uncomfortable to pick up some time. Maybe for vineman this was not a bad pace as I have a lot further to go, but for just a 10k I probably should have been down in the high 7:00/mi to low 8:00/mi range.

I did a little stretching at the finish line while I was waiting for Nicole to cross. My legs were somewhat sore (obviously expected) but nothing too bad.


HRM not working was a bit of a pain. I know the HR that I typically train at and had a plan to work at a certain HR. That obviously is tough to do when you don't know what your HR is.


The race itself was good. The bike course had some pretty crappy sections but not too bad. Corpus itself was not at all what we were expecting. One of my coworkers built it up to be this awesome place to go on vacation. Would I go on vacation here? Not a chance.