The start was surprisingly difficult. I got stuck in the melee and took a while to break free, but not until I had taken some shots and sucked in a little lake water.

I would wear some clear goggles. I forgot my primary pair and was left with some dark mirrored goggles and I had a terrible time seeing anything, much less sighting. The sensation of swimming blind threw off my breathing and my swim strategy went out the window when I felt panicked and started breathing with every stroke. It's happened before, but this was prolonged. Thankfully I ended up with a pretty good time, but this is my best event and I would have liked to do better.

My chip did not register on the way out to the bike, so my T1 and bike times got combined. I'm estimating based on how I felt I did in T1 and on the bike.

Nothing - pretty good transition

Very good T2

Nothing, went perfectly

After posting an 8:58 pace a month ago and concentrating on run training for the past month, this was a "What The French Toast!?" result for me... but it was hot. Dam gum hot... and I was feeling it.

I'm going to have to practice running in the heat a bit more.

drank some cold water and walked around.


I was okay after the race, so maybe I just wasn't mentally there for the run portion. Gotta get my noggin' right.


The Bridgeland neighborhood is very nice and the volunteer support was excellent. The field is huge for this race and I can see why. I'll be back next year with my kids to do the kids tri on Saturday and I want to do the Doggie Splash and Dash with my Lab/Vizla mix. I'll probably do the sprint again as well.