The start was in waist high water. The starting area was small so they broke us up into groups of 25. Started well, tried to pull out front but couldn't break away from the pack. Had a hard time feeling the water and my kick seemed useless, but the wetsuit made up for many of my sins. This was an aggressive group and there was lots of contact at the beginning, but I held it together. I had some trouble staying on course during the first half but it could have been other zig zagging into me. I settled into my stroke by the time I rounded the last bouy, felt really good, caught up to and swam around some of the ladies from the previous wave. Ran out of the water feeling great. Overall this was my best swim yet and I did it close to the limit of my current ability.

Arrive sooner and warm up more. At least 500y.
Get used to my wetsuit. It was only my second swim in it and I felt disconnected from the water. I had to trust in my muscle memory.

This was a run up the beach into the transition area. Racks were preassigned and because I showed up late I was right in the middle. I was careful removing my new wetsuit and burned some time getting my feet out.

Practice my transistions, arrive sooner to get a better spot.

I felt good after my swim and hammered the bike. Both my Garmin and Runkeeper show the course was actually 15 miles long and my average speed was 19.6mph. This is 2mph better than any of my previous three races. This was my first race with clip on aero bars which definitely helped. I lost some time stuck behind slower people in the coned off single lane parts. I took it easy on the decents, worked hard on the climbs, and generally enjoyed this leg of the race.

Train more on the bike, ease up towards the end to get ready for the run.

I was not in the right mindset for this transition and wasted half a minute fumbling with my gear. Ate a Snickers bar as I ran out of transition.

This was a challenging run course, with nearly all of it on grass covered trails. I suffered calf cramps at the beginning and had to walk them off. The grass really freaked me out as I am prone to rolling my ankles. The cramps went away after the first 3 minutes and I settled into a solid pace. Overall I had a good run, reaching my goal of sub 24 min. Splits were 8:15, 7:45, 7:30

Go easier on the bike to prevent the calf cramps. I have yet to do a race where I don't cramp in the first few minutes of the run.

Walked around the vendor tents, ate a banana and hot dog.


I really enjoyed this race and will do it again next year.