The swim was fun and not as tough since it was in waves. Still got punched/pulled a number of times, but its part of the experience. It was a nice swim going against the current for the 1st half and then returning with the current. The river was really shallow at some spots and you could walk. I learned that it was equally as fast to walk than to swim by watching others, so I took a couple of small walks. It was my 1st swim with a wetsuit and its incredible the buoyancy and speed improvement that you get.

Swim more to get even faster, but happy overall since this was my fastest swim to date!

It was my first race wearing a wetsuit (I'm from Guatemala where water is nice and warm!) and had no major issues exiting the water and pulling the wetsuit off. There was a steep short hill at the beginning of the bike start which I chose to run with the bike next to me and it worked out fine.

Nothing

Beautiful ride through the Sonoma Wine Country which made it really enjoyable through out most of the distance. I was shooting for a faster time, but there were more rolling hills and a few good climbs that added time to my ride. Since I was travelling with my family, to avoid carrying a big box I rented a bike (Cerverlo R3 Roadbike) and had some issues with the shifters, but overall worked well. I was well hydrated as I really had to go to the bathroom just after the first hydration point. Since I did not see anyone was stopping to water the vines, I had to to wait all the way to the second hydration point to use the porta pottie and lost a few minutes in the process.

Train harder on my bike to be able to go longer at a faster pace without killing myself before the run

It was a long run to the bike racks and I did run with my cleats in the spirit of shooting for a good time. However, due to my good hydration on the bike, I need to go again to the porta potties and unfortunately there was a line. I lost another 3 minutes here, other than that the transition went well.

Nothing

This is one of the few times were I felt really good coming off the bike and started running at a faster pace than I had originally planned. It was sunny and getting really hot by the time I started the run (I was one of the last swim waves), but there was a sporadic cool breeze which helped. I felt good for most of the run and was able to keep my pace almost steady for a good finish of 1:51 (my best run in a HIM)

Train more to be able to go even faster. Improve nutrition/hydration at the end as I really felt weak at the end, but was able to push it to the finish line.

Said hi to mi wife and kids who were outside of the tri finishers corral. Met with a few friends for pictures and sat down for some food and water. Caught up with my family, went to shower, change and then out for beers and wine tasting (well earned and tasted so good!)


Limited training time for this event along with an international trip to Taiwan the week before which did not help. But overall I felt good and I was able to achieve a new PR of 5:28 (26% percentile in the Overall, 33% in AG) and 13 min less on a tougher course from my previous PR.


Beautiful race through the Sonoma Wine Country, very well organized and with lots of great volunteers. I was travelling with my family and the race was even better than we expected. It is a must do and I plan to do it again sometime in the near future.