All of the swim stages went very well. The lakes were calm, clean, and even somewhat clear. I didn't seem to be taking the lines that most people did, but I don't think I was extremely off-course - it seemed like I was pulling to the left a bit, but it did help me get out of the way of a lot of people and in some cases, I think my line was more efficient. During the first swim, I lost a bit of time toward the beginning when I realized my top was zipped down. I felt it flapping around a bit, so I stopped and zipped it (with difficulty, since I was wearing paddles). I did the best on swims 3 and 4, because I consciously picked up my cadence. There were a few people I felt I could catch, so I picked it up as best I could. The stats indicate I made a decent increase. My shoulders were definitely tiring because of it, but I felt much stronger than last year.

Swim ranks were 6 on the first two and 4 on the last two. There's no reason for me not to pick up the pace on the swims from the beginning. If I work even more on my arm strength next year, I'll be prepared for it. I was in pretty good shape for this as it was.

I did a good job with most of the runs. I started out very slow and easy through the first two runs. Both went fine, though on the second run I fell when jumping through a small stream we had to cross (I thought it was deeper than it was). The third run was the hard one. I was prepared for the first hill, but still had trouble with it. It's quite steep as soon as you turn into the woods. I ran up a lot of it, but walked on the steepest part to try and keep my HR down. I was able to regroup and start to run again, passing two women who had passed me right out of the lake (I dropped my paddles THREE times - they wouldn't stay down the back of my shorts like they did on the first two runs - before just carrying them). I did a good job of keeping it slow and steady up the remaining inclines. I also did well with the roots, rocks and logs that had to be avoided. I think they cleared some off of the trail since last year, which helped, but I also think I'm just stronger, so I was less tired and disoriented by the time I got to that point and could do a better job of placing my feet. Two guys had caught up to me just before the really tricky part and I let them go ahead, but I ended up being able to keep up with them through the end of that segment. The fourth run started with an awful uphill, sandy swim exit, and then a really steep uphill in the woods (not the power line section from last year, but the same hill right to the side of it). I walked up to keep control of my HR and then got back to running. This segment wasn't as tricky - wider paths and more gentle terrain, despite a lot of fist-sized rocks covering one wide trail. I managed it pretty well and actually moved up the rankings a bit. I felt good through the end - it was hard, but I wasn't completely destroyed by it. While it is definitely tricky to increase my pace on the rough, technical terrain, there were some parts of the race where I could definitely have gone faster. Next year, I'll have to exploit those points.

My run ranks were 31/16/16/14. While I didn't want to kill myself going out, I think I held back much more than I needed to. I could afford to take it a little faster on that first run in order to stay closer to the pack I'm going to finish with. The same goes for the second run, which was very flat. I set myself back so I had to play catch-up the whole rest of the race (though I didn't know it at the time).

Walked around a bit. Not much of a warm down, really, because we had to get back to Rutherford for a busy day.


My own caution. The course was really tough for me last year. Since I knew what was coming, I was extra-cautious on the early segments. I ended up being better able to handle the tough parts because I'm in better shape, so I didn't need to hold back as much as I did. Next year, I go after it.


This is a really cool race in a gorgeous location. If only more people signed up, they'd probably have the means to do a better job with the post-race activities!