Wanted to keep people from swimming over top of me, so went straight to breast stroke with a frog kick at the start--worked very well, as I never got mugged. Once things opened up a bit, switched to freestyle. Found my groove right away, felt very smooth and relaxed. At the start, I was switching to breast stroke and sighting every 20 strokes; found this was not enough as I kept drifting WAY to right. In order to stay on track I had to switch to breast stroke and sight every 8 strokes. This slowed me down quite a bit, but I figured it was the most efficient way to go. About half way through, the next wave started to catch me. Found a group that looked like they were swimming close to my freestyle pace (and swimming straight). I manged to get mixed in with them, and was able to switch back to sighting every 20 strokes. Rounded the last buoy and switched to all breast stroke for the last 200 meters. Started to run when the water was chest high. All in all this was a great swim, my pace was better than my last sprint tri.

Should have kept swimming a little bit longer, running through that much water caused my heart rate to spike. Need to learn to sight while freestyling.

When I got out of the water I noticed my heart rate was way too high so I did not push it on the run up to transition (about 150 yards). Helmet, socks, shoes, and race belt all went on without a problem. When I setup in the morning, I did not notice that the mount line was on a slight incline, so my bike was in too high of a gear to start with. Made the first few strokes a little difficult but nothing I could not handle.

Leave the bike in a lower gear to start off with.

Since this was my first Olympic distance triathlon, I did not want to push too hard on the bike. My goal on the bike was 1:20:00, which is a very comfortable pace for me. It was hard to watch people fly by me when I knew I was capable of keeping up with them, but I wanted to stick to the plan. Took in bottle of gatorade on the way out and a bottle of water and a gel on the way in. There was A LOT of blocking going on in this ride; on four different occasions I saw people riding three wide taking up the entire lane (course was open to traffic).

In retrospect I should have pushed harder on the bike. I think the run course would have punished me no matter how fresh my legs were.

Smooth transition, just like in practice.

Nothing, I don't think I could have done this any faster.

Felt great coming out of transition. Did the first mile in 9:20, grabbed two waters at the aid station, poured one on me a drank the other one. Did the second mile in 9:30, took in another gel and water at this aid station. Shortly after aid station two, we began what the local athletes referred to as "the hill". Being a flatlander, I was in no way prepared for this. I slowed my pace way down, but half way up the hill my heart rate was over 200. In order to keep the heart rate in check, I had no choice but to walk/jog/shuffle the rest of the way up. Once I made it to the top, I tried to compose myself before heading back down: took in a glass of gatorade and poured a glass of water over me. On the way down, I thought I was going to be all right, heart rate was coming down and I was feeling reasonably well. When I got back to aid station two (mile four), I hit the wall, I just couldn't bring myself to run anymore (my legs were fine, but my cardiovascular system was rejecting me). Ended up walking a good chunk of this mile. A little after mile five, some locals setup a cheering section, they sprayed me with their hose and I actually started feeling better. Started running again and was able to run the rest of the way in.

Obviously need to find a way to do some training on hills. A caffinated gel (or some other quick energy) might have helped me to get passed the wall faster.

Got my medal and towel and eventually found my wife. Wanted nothing more than to lie down and take a nap. Brandy convinced me that this was probably a bad idea. After a bit of walking around, felt like some food and began devouring everything in sight.


Lack of run training on hills and lack of training in the heat. I think I could have handled one or the other, but not both. All in all though I was very happy with the way things went. I only missed my goal time by three minutes which is not too shabby.


This was an amazing race. The bike course passed Interlochen Music Camp and the students were out playing songs. Part of the run was through the state park campground, the campers cheered us on and the kids shot us with their squirt guns. There were a bunch of cherring sections outside of the campground as well.