I was a bit off to start the swim, for some reason I thought the swim start time was 8am so I was kind of pitting around when I heard the call for the elites and my group was right after the elites. I zipped my wetsuit and managed a short 100yard warm up before heading to the starting line.
So with minimal warm-up the gun goes off and I take off, 1st few 100 yards were rough as I tried to find my rhythm, but once I settled in there was never really any struggles. My site line was pretty good on the way out, but surprisingly I never had other swimmers around me. It seems there were 3 types of swimmers, the super fast up front the slow in the way back and then me in the middle.
Nothing really exciting happened during the swim, the time is a3 minute improvement from previous year though.

Get a better warm up in so that I was ready for the effort to come. May have cost me a bit of time.

I think I curled up for a nap somewhere in the middle of this, just seemed to take for ever to get in and out. Probably cost me a position in the AG ranks.

I actually managed to get a running mount and took off quick, which was a good thing after the pokey transition. From early on I had committed to a hard effort but coming out of the park I found myself in the 170's for heart rate and even though I was having fun passing everyone I knew I couldn't maintain the effort, this was especially the case when I hit the long stretch with the head wind. Pulled the effort down to only hard, instead of ridiculously hard. Continued to pass a lot of people which was a bit surprising but realized the majority of them were du athletes that had started a bit earlier that the sprint tri. Once I made the turn onto the long back stretch I really started to push, the wind was at my back and I was able to pick up a few extra mph.
I was passed by a few riders at this point but if you can pass me at 27mph then have at it. As with the swim nothing exciting on the bike, but I did manage to pull off the fastest Bike split in the AG for the 2nd race in a row, and managed a top 11 split over all.
Lap speed (5 miles each)
1: 13:35 @ 22.08mph AHR 167
2: 12:10 @ 24.63mph AHR 163
3: 8:40 @ 21.45mph AHR 159 (only 3.1 miles)

Not much,

Felt pretty quick on this one, even came in with my feet on top of my shoes and almost jumped off running. Quickly switched shoes and was off on the run.

Well it's a sprint so it's going to hurt, a lot! And it did hurt, A LOT! Coming out of transition there was a runner in front of me and I didn't like his path so I pushed in front of him. Bad part was this put me around a 6:20 pace and it felt like 5:20. So I pulled back a it and let him go out in front of me by about 20 ft. I found a good stride and just tried to hold the gas down, a few times I felt my pace starting to slip and was able to pick up again. Around mile 1.25 was when another runner passed me and I realized he was in my AG. I didn't want to let him go as I felt it may be a spot for podium. I somehow managed to find another gear and was able to stay with him. Even managed to pass the runner who I had traded positions with earlier, never to see him again! Hit the turn around still feeling strong, but, Coming back from the turn around there was a small hill, probably more of a bump but it hit my legs hard and I lost my pace quickly. The other runner put some distance on me by about 200 yards and I really struggled to maintain from there. Around the 1mile to go mark I started to pick up the pace again and was going to give everything I had to catch the guy. I figured if I was losing a position it want gong to be without a fight! At the 1/2 mile mark I had pulled within about 20ft of him and was looking for more, but my legs were toast and I couldn't get any closer. I wound up finishing about 6s behind him.
Mile splits
Mile 1: 7:08 AHR 165
Mile 2: 7:13 AHR 169
Mile 3: 6:55 AHR 174

Nothing, I may have been able to suffer a bit more, but I have not ran many 5ks recently and wasn't sure where to pace. But looking at the times and the HR graph there wasn't much more to give the HR rose the entire time and the last mile was the fastest mile so there wasn't much more to give.

Air, lots and lots of sucking air!


Managed to knock 6m off from the previous year but still did not reach the podium, which is a little disappointing but I can't control when the faster guys show up and there is no way I am going under 1:10 to get a spot....well not until next year! It's all in the swim.