The swim was not good, but I've only been in the water once a week for the last month or so. 2 minutes into the swim, my wedding ring got kicked off of my hand. I was pissed the whole swim and very frustrated, couldn't refocus or get into a groove. My wife had warned me about this the last 4 years that it would happen and it finally did. Very stupid on my part and it threw me off the whole swim.

Not wear my ring and get back into the pool.

Almost wiped out getting back on the bike. Still pretty flustered about the ring.

I probably would have been over 22 mph, but my buddy who I was racing with was one of many who blew a tire. Stopped to help him but the spare he had didn't match his tire type. Not sure what it was. All in all I was pretty happy with the bike. The roads were in bad condition... rocks, concrete breaks, etc...

Nothing...could have pushed it a bit more, but I'm pretty happy with it.

Not much too say, pretty good.

Took it easy the first 2 miles, then picked up the 3rd and went hard on the 4th. Found my buddy walking back from dropping his bike off. He was in good spirits and actually walked back to transition to do the run, despite not recording an official time... he wanted to finish.

Nothing... I was kind of testing myself for the HIM in September by forcing myself to take it easy on the run in the beginning.

Walked back with the kids.


Being frustrated from losing my ring. Other than that, not much.


Although I had a good time and the race was well organized, I've got a few beefs. No race day packet pick up sucked, and the fact that the packet pick-ups weren't any where near the race local wasn't great either. It's an awful race for spectators... specifically my wife and 2 young kids. She had to push the 2 kids, carry their loads of crap over a mile to get to the race. Throwing that on top of the bonehead losing the ring on my part, made this a less than enjoyable race experience. I also thought the roads were real rough and as far as scenary goes, this would rank near the bottom. Most of the race was through an industrial area. Anyway, I always enjoy racing so I had fun, but it really makes me appreciate the state park more family friendly races in Iowa and smaller communites.