The course was not well marked with the bouyes. They were spaced too far apart I thought and with the sun still low in the sky it made it difficult to sight them. Also, there were so many people in transition after the race, and I'd have to totally agree, that were pretty pissed off that the course was long. It was long by at least 400 meters for the Oly route. I can't justify being 20 minutes longer in this swim than my previous worst swim.

Nothing really other than actually swim training in the first place. It's just something that's pretty far down on the list of things I need to do or want to do.

T1 was pretty good considering I was so tired from the long swim. My race belt got caught on my handlebars and it took a second to get it free so I could put it on.

Make sure the race number belt is free enough to let go and get off the handlebars. I also need to make a decision as to what goes on and in what order (sunnies, race no. belt, helmet, watch, etc.)

I had an uneventful ride (thank God!) this time around. No flying over the handlebars and spending 5 minutes on the side of the road fixing bike and patching bloody body parts up. I felt pretty strong throughout and my lower back hung in as well as I could expect given the sparse bike training I've done.
Considering how my run turned out though, I spent too much energy on the ride and my legs were trashed for the run leg. I should have aimed for ~18mph avg to save something in the tank.

Control pace especially on the first half of the ride to better manage energy reserves for the last leg of the race.

My quads were very fatigued when I hopped off the bike. Running the bike back to the rack was really uncomfortable and putting on my socks AND shoes kept setting me up for quad cramps. I'm pretty familiar with this happening in T2 but I know that it was specifically for biking too hard for my current fitness.
Right foot sock have me a little trouble as it bunched up by the toes for the inner lining.

Nothing, did as best as I could with the T2 portion.

Very poor run for me. Legs were too fatigued after the bike to leg out the run without having to take walk breaks. The heat and beating sun would have taken it's toll regardless as well and there was not reprieve from the sun for the whole course. I've run on courses where the street is shared with auto traffic and that was the case for this race. Still, a silver Mercedes coupe came down the street in the lane reserved for the runners with her driver & passenger cars swinging open. The driver side door actually came within 1-2 inches from me as she turned onto a side street. "Assholes!"

On race day: nothing much. The bad run was a function of the effort put in on the bike and it's as simple as that. It was a tough pill to swallow having to stop and walk and not having a run I could be proud of. It's something that I'll have to learn to accept later but right now it's embarrassing to be so far off my historical pace capabilities.

Drank everything within grasp and made sure to get some calories and fluids back in my system.


This was just a simple lack of consistent training and lack of significant workouts. My swim could have been better despite the long course if I was just more fit and the run would not have been as bad if I had the strength to continue after my good bike pace.


I was not alone in my thoughts that the swim course was poorly marked, described and distance not accurate as well. Also, the run course did not have enough marshals for the fact that Florida is not bike or runner friendly for the auto traffic on the roads. These drivers get pissed off and literally attack defenseless bikers and runners with their cars. While the location of the event and the super flat bike course make this a true destination event, the race director and staff could invest more towards the safety and accuracy of the courses that they provide for their paying customers. It's the last time I'll do this race as I don't need a 3rd strike to happen and possibly end my life (see 2013 race report). I tried to spread good will during the race, in Transition as well as after the race so that people would not be adversely scarred to triathlon by the poorly conducted race. There was a lot of positive things to take away from this race and the bad performance I put in was my own doing, but it'll definitely be the last one I do there.