Even though the conditions were quite worse than last year, I managed to post a slightly better time. I could have done quite better, but I had a hard time getting into a good rythmn with the chop.

Focus on keeping good form during the swim. I got caught up in fighting through the conditions that my form suffered more than it had to.

Both legs cramped up completely when taking off my wet suit. Quads, hammies, calves, everything. I cannot identify the source of the issue. I don't cramp during training, but I had cramped in the last three races. Given that the last three races have been super cold, I'm willing to write this off until a race that has decent conditions.

Given the conditions, can't really say there was anything else I could have done here. Based on the last race, I went without the arm warmers and gloves and instead just went with the light jacket. That sped up the transition by almost 2 minutes versus my last cold weather race, but its still longer than I would have liked.

Brutal conditions. Perhaps we had been lucky the last couple years with good weather, but not this year. The temperature slowly dropped into the low 50's. Winds were out of the N/NE at 20+ with gusts. Half way through the first loop, I seriously considered DNF'ing just to get out of the miserable conditions. To make it worse, it started to drizzle creating some wet conditions. I thought I paced well given the situation, but still came in about 6 minutes slower than I would have wanted.

Not sure I could have done anything more here given the conditions.

It was a slow transition for a number of reasons. First, my hands were numb. That made it hard to get my darn shoes off. Then once I got to my rack, I couldn't get my jacket off. My fingers just wouldn't work well.

My T2 is usually pretty good. I don't use socks and I have elastic laces. That makes for a pretty quick transition.

The only reason I made it through the bike was my desire to crush this 10k course. I've done two open 10k's so far this year. Neither time was I able to break 43 minutes, a goal for this year. While the weather conditions were crap for swimming and biking, they were perfect for running!

I decided that I wanted to go out at a 6:50/mi pace for the first two miles and then I would make a call from there on how to tackle the rest of the course. I ended up hitting mile 1 at 6:40 and mile two 13:10. I decided I wanted to try and keep it right there, and hit the turn around right at 20 minutes. I knew I was cooking a bit too much and that I already had a great time going, so I decided to slow down a hair and consolidate my time over mile 4. I did that mile just shy of 7/mi. Once I hit the 5 mile mark, I tried to push it back up and hold till the end. I was shocked to see the 41:25 result. Heck, I was shocked when I hit the turnaround at 20 minutes. I think its fair to say the course was a bit short, maybe I should have been closer to 42 minutes, but I definately ran stronger than I could have hoped for regardless.

Nothing, executed the plan perfectly.

Hmm, warm down? Try warm up. I sat in the heated bathroom for five minutes trying to thaw out. The heater in my car never felt so good.


Weather conditions, though I do need to focus on biking now. It has clearly become my limiter.


I was a bit upset about the changes in the last week of the race. I feel they could have been communicated better and earlier.

Making the packet pickup mandatory at the last minute was not fair. This race had always allowed same day packet pickup in the past. Making this change at the last minute was not fair to the out of towners.

Closing transition down a half hour before the first wave and a full hour before the last wave, especially on a cold day when a proper warm-up is essential, was a bad call. Further, this was not communicated to the racers until race day. I would have brought another pair of running flats I could have kept outside of transition had I known.

There were no race instructions in the packet that should have contained important information like above.

There weren't as many flats this year, but I still saw quite a few racers off the side of the road.

I just don't see paying $165 for this race again. I've done this race three years now, I think its time to move on. Its local for me, so its attractive, but not at that price point.

All of that said, don't let me scare anyone away. Its a well run race. The swim course is as well marked and you won't find stray buoys. They are out there the day of the race resighting all of the buoys. The lake is usually very smooth. The bike course can be a lot of fun and you'll PR the run course. Its a fun and fast course.