I started out running from the beach and dove into the water, resulting in one of my goggle lenses getting half full of water. I had to stop to clear it but didn't lose too much time. I didn't get a chance to warm up and didn't feel right from the start. My breathing was not great and with the minor waves there were I ended up drinking more water than I would have liked. After rounding the second buoy and heading back in my breathing settled down, but I never got into a good rhythm. I got a cramp in one of my calf muscles in the last couple hundred yards but it didn't last.

I've been missing swims due to meetings at lunch and had only swam an easy 800 yards the day before the race in the last week. I need to be more consistent.

My transition spot was the closest one to the bike in/out that should have helped. I made sure that my timing chip and Garmin were under the wetsuit when I took it off, but this didn't help too much. In both arms and legs I got some suction that made it difficult to get the suit off. I then had trouble getting into my cleats on the bike and lost an entire minute right outside the transition area.

I think this transition was an aberration that I'm not going to worry about.

This was my worst bike of the season. My HR was very high for the first 15 minutes and I tried to slow down to get it under control and I eventually did. My quads seemed to have no energy and I couldn't keep up a good pace. The road had some significant defects and I had to keep my head up more than usual and this didn't help. The wind didn't help, either.

My last week of training was not that great and I really wasn't in the mood for racing.

This was pretty fast for me since I had such great access to my bike.

Nothing.

My hamstrings wire super tight at the start but they loosened up after a while. My legs felt dead similar to the bike. I kept up a decent pace for the first half and then ran out of gas. I managed to muddle my way through.

Not much.


I waited around for the awards ceremony and finally gave up. They didn't post any of the unofficial results ahead of time so I had no idea how I placed. They had (one slice) of free pizza after the race but they ran out and i had to wait for it.
There were a few dangerous potholes on the course that were not marked.
having hot showers available at the race site was a nice plus.