The race started with people dropping in every 6-10 seconds. I swam the first 100 pretty quick, and then realized there wasn't a need to. In 300y, I wasn't going to gain or lose significant time on anyone. Those in front of me weren't too far, but I wasn't going to catch them, and I had about a whole length until the person behind me.

Snaking through the lanes is interesting. I had practiced doing flip turns under lain lines at masters the week before, but it's so odd to be pushing off at an angle.

I had a couple friends with me, and as I swam in front of the bleachers, I flashed a thumbs up, but didn't hold it long enough for them to get a picture.

I probably averaged 1:30/100y or a little under since the swim time included the run to transition.

Pretty vanilla transition, I think. Nothing exciting happened. It could have been quicker for sure. I don't know what's going on with the timing of the transition, but don't for a second believe I had a 17 second transition. Think :45-1:00.

For starters, this was NOT a 10 mile bike. My Garmin had it at 11.8. So I ultimately averaged 19.5 mph, which isn't bad for me for a first race of the season after some injury issues.

I spent the race leapfrogging with a teenager. I would catch him on the hills, hold him off on the flats, and he would catch me on the downhills. Multiple times.

About three miles from the start, and again on the second lap, there was a hill over a half mile that gained around 100 ft. It was definitely something of a grind. As I passed the poor folks on mountain bikes, I could tell they were regretting their bike choice. It only takes one race to figure out what kind of bike you need. Heading up the hill, my old coach was already coming down. You could tell he was smoking it.

Finished the bike leg feeling pretty good. A good place to work from moving forward.

Feet got stuck a little putting socks on, and I reset my GPS and switched it to run mode.

I need to figure out what to do with socks. I also need to figure out multisport mode on my watch.

I started out on the run slightly behind the teenage guy, who had passed me in transition. I caught him before too long, and we ran together the entire run. He started two spots ahead of me in the swim, so we pretty much did the entire race together.

I haven't been able to do much running at all do to a ligament/IT band problem, so I didn't have high expectations for the race, especially with it being on a hill. I got up to speed ok, and shook off the cycling legs. My diaphragm was cramping by about halfway, but felt good at about 2 miles.

At about halfway, the teenager, who ran track, told me that he was feeling pretty good and was going to speed up, I said, yeah, go for it. He sped up, and interestingly, I stayed right behind him. It's nice to have someone to chase, I guess. So we ended up running together most of the rest of the way back. As we got within a half mile he said that since I had started behind him in the swim, he wanted to run ahead. I said, yeah, go for it. I knew if I stayed relatively close to him, I could catch him at the end. So I tried to stay close, and as we got close, I sped it up, and then maxed out the last 100m. I passed him right before the time mats, and as I went by, he was like, "Aw man!" Good times.

I finished the race and just dropped down on the grass. I had my eyes scrunched shut and was trying to let my lungs catch up with me. People asked me if I was OK, and I told them I was fine, just to give me a minute. I never saw who took my timing chip and gave me my medal.


Not having done any sort of run training.


Afterwards I asked my two spectator friends if any of them were interested in trying a triathlon now after watching one. One had caught the bug and said that he wanted to do the race next year.