Swim started good and I felt smooth and strong the whole way. Managed to pass my lane partner a few times. When she was done a very fast swimmer took her place and reminded me how relatively slow my swim is.

Not much, my swim was good. Flip turns and better speed training would yield the best improvement.

Getting out of this pool is always a challenge, with the deck being almost a foot above the water and arms feeling like rubber. Once I managed to get on my feet transition went smooth. My rack was near the swim out and I quickly put my shoes and other bike gear on and jogged over to the bike out.

Work on getting out of the pool quicker! I plan to start doing lap swims there so I will get some practice before next year.

My goal for the bike was to push my pace during the first half and give my legs time to recover during the last mile or so on the way back. The weather conditions were great, overcast with just a slight breeze. I didn't notice the breeze much on the way out however on the way back it was a touch of headwind.

The course is almost all rolling hills through beautiful farm and vine country, nothing too tall however there is very little flat ground. My hill climbing needs some work so I wasn't able to hold as fast of a pace as I would have liked. Having started in the early waves there were not a whole lot of racers out on the bike course. I passed a handful and was only passed by one.

When I was about 2 miles from the bike finish I looked at my time and realized I was cutting it close to my target time. Instead of giving my legs a rest I decided to push my pace and finish fast, coming in 90 seconds faster than my target 55 minutes.

Get better at hill climbing.

When I left T1 the transition area it was fairly quiet as the racers in the early morning waves went through their motions. When I got back for T2 it had become a busy and bustling hive of activity! A racer who was looking for a spot to set up happened to be standing with his bike right in front of my rack space. Fortunately he quickly got out of the way when I called out to him. Despite the busy transition area the rest of my routine went quickly.

Considering I didn't give my legs a break at the end of the bike I was expecting them to complain at the start of the run. They felt funky as usual however I was feeling better than expected. For the first mile I let my body just go the pace it wanted to after my legs got into run mode. Much like the bike portion, the run course was fairly empty and I only passed a couple slower runners.

As I neared the hill at the end my pace was a bit slower than the first mile even though I felt like my effort level had not changed. As I climbed the hill I kept my pace and effort level steady, pushing it a bit as I hit the top of the hill. From there it was mostly down hill and I let gravity give me a boost. Hitting the final stretch towards the finish like I kicked in and finished strong.

Overall good run.

Stretched my legs and drank a bunch of water.


Hill climbing!


Great local sprint on a beautiful course.