T1 is included in time, I would estimate maybe 1m off the time
Anyway, start was a wade type where you got in the water and waited for the whistle. On the start I felt good and never really was stressed in the swim, sighted esily to the 1st buoy and on to the 2nd buoy, entire time I felt relaxed and never was stressed, but I think that is an issue, especially in the shorter races. Instead of pushing the effort I just swam, and when I would run into someone I slow up and sometimes even stop. For some reason I cannot go around anyone, and the time shows it. When going towards the 3rd buoy I ran into some sighting issues, the markers were a little small and combine this with the glare from the sun I had difficulties finding it. Just followed the flow of the swimmers hoping the majority was going in the right direction. Coming out of hte water was a pain, it seemed everyone stood up in waste deep water and starte walking, there was enough people in front of me that I could not keep swimming. Probably lost quite a bit of time here.

Swim through, over and around people to go quicker. I think this comes from more races but I just dont have the time this year.

Decided on a different method today, well actually forced into. Forgot a towel so I really didn't have anything to dry my feet off with. So.. Decision was made to go sockless, figured the short distance of the run made it ok, Because of this the t1 was quick, and coming out I was even in a running flying mount and passed 3 people who were just trying to get on their bike.

Bike was a solid effort and well maintained. Came out of transition and as I was picking up speed I was feeling the affect of yesterdays 10k in my quads. A lot of burning and just general strain. So at this point I held back just a little and decided to not push so much going out, I would hold enough in the tank to push the ride coming back in. During the 1st 3 miles I was passed by a lot of riders, which made it hard to hold the effort down. I knew I could go with them but was concerned about the affect on my legs so I let them go. But it would not be long before I caught back up with them. For the 1st 6 miles I kept a pretty even effort, during this part of the course there are several rolling hills, there was nothing steep but enough to let you know they were there. About half way through this section I started catching and passing all of the riders that had passed me earlier on the course. They looked like the grade was starting to get to them and I felt strong and was increasing my speed. Towards the middle of the rollers I came up on a rider that I chased thoughout the backhalf of the course. He became a sort of rabbit for me to chase, At mile 7 my legs were feeling good and I was through most of the rollers so I started pushing the pace. Over the last 8 miles I was able to pick off another couple of riders and was never passed. After reviewing the lap data it really shows how my effort slowly increased throughout the entire ride. Laps are recorded every 3 miles, so here are times

Lap 1: 8:56 avg spd 20.1 avg HR 158
Lap 2: 8:45 avg spd 20.6 avg HR 157
Lap 3: 8:37 avg spd 20.9 avg HR 158
Lap 4: 7:59 avg spd 22.5 avg HR 156
Lap 5: 7:24 avg spd 24.3 avg HR 154

Lap 4 and 5 where definitely downhill and I believe holding back a little at the beginning really enabled me to push through this section and pick up the quite a bit of time.
The results show me as 1st in AG for this but a few of the riders have their swim time combined with their bike time so I am not sure iff it is accurate. But they would have had to of swam super slow for my bike time to not be quicker. So I am taking the 1st in AG for bike split :)


Not much, I pushed my legs to the limit

Came into transition and had to slam the breaks because I almost misssed the point, jumped off and ran to my spot. At this point I knew my legs were going to be an issue on the run, felt like rubber running next to my bike. Probably could of been faster as I seemed to be fumbling with stuff when switching gear. Couldnt grab my visor then forgot to take my watch off, finaly just grabbed everything and started running, figured to just put it on while I was running.

As mentioned above my legs were not feeling good, the 1st 1/4 mile of the run was difficult to say the least. I couldn't get a pace going and I could tell my cadence was way off. On top of this I started to regret going without socks. I kept hearing my shoes squish around and just knew that something was going to turn raw! Pushed as hard as I could until I felt my HR just pounding, looked down and was inching up on 170, which is normal for a stand alone 5K but wouldn't last in this race. Around 3/4 of mile I came up on the water stop and was really in some pain. My chest was pounding, I couldn't catch my breath so I broke my cardinal rule on a 5K, I walked the water stop and took a bit of time to get a drink. This lasted only about 15 feet then I started running again and felt 100x better. My legs where feeling better and had some recovery to them. I know I lost some time here but I just couldn't keep going. For the rest of the race I pushed hard as I could, but I just couldn't get my pace down to where I wanted. The last 1.5 miles is probably where yesterdays 10k affected me the most. Just no response in my legs that I normally have.
Lap Data
Mile 1: 7:40 avg hr 163
Mile 2: 7:41 avg hr 168
Mile 3: 8:06 avg hr 166

Final note: going sockless was not the best of ideas, early on in the run the it felt as if my feet were sliding all over the place, then late in the run I started to feel the raw spots getting bigger. Eventually wound up with 3 spots that are rubbed raw, but at least I saved 45s in transition

Collapsed underneath a shade tree in exhaustion.