The swim...usually my best leg but today was a mess. First off I failed to properly position myself and thus was not up near the front where I should have been. Secondly, I did a less than stellar job getting through the surf on the way out but better than most. The swim portion went fine but I was stuck behind some obvious pool swimmers who were swaying back and forth like crazy so ideally I would have passed them and avoided all the bumping and crap.

The best part was the way in...we came in during a set and I thought I was going to catch a nice overhead wave so I pushed it but was a wee bit late. While I did catch the wave I got sucked straight up the face and thrown over the falls like a rag doll. Ouch. I'm sure from the shore it looked cool but I was leaking salt water out of all my orificies for hours to come.

However, it did remind me how much fun it is to body surf. : )

Position myself better and train more. I tried to swim faster than I was trained to go.

T1 was fine. The guy racked beside me was packing up his stuff (most likely since he had not finished the swim but I didn't ask) and I didn't know what to say. I hope he races again. The transition was fine but I was a little disoriented from getting pounded in the surf so it took a little longer than I would have liked.

Not get pounded. Get to the race earlier so that I get a rack closer to the exit.

I was far more tired than I would have liked to have been. I also found it hard to ride in the aerobars which isn't surprising since I really haven't trained in the aerobars all that much (I just installed them 2 or 3 weeks ago).

The ride was going fine but I seemed slower than I expected I think this is primarily due to the fact that the swim took more out of me than it should have. I also spent the last half of the ride wondering if my rear brake had started rubbing again. I was pretty sure it was all in my head but I wasn't positive. When I picked up my bike after the race the rear brake was once again rubbing against the rim but I'm pretty sure my bike must have been bumped in the rack area because I just can't imagine I would have been able to ride with the brake rubbing for that lonw without a more noticable drop in speed. I also know at the start of the ride that the brake was not rubbing since I checked before leaving T1.

The bike was also handling badly which, as it turns out, was because my headset had become loose. Bombing down Grand is a little unnerving to begin with but with the bike acting a little funny it was especially scary.

Nutrition: For race day, I woke up an 1.5 hours before the start so I did not eat anything. I drank my usual pint of water immediately after getting up and then drank another 24oz of water before the start with a single gel 5 minutes before the gun. For the rest of the day, I had a cup of water immediately after exiting the swim, 3/4 a bike bottle of sports drink on the bike, and 2 cups of water and 1 cup of sports drink on the run.
I have worked a lot on my distance fueling but have not practiced or concerned myself with fueling for shorter races. I'm sure my nutrition hurt me a little but I can't imagine it hurt me much. In the future I need a nutrition plan even for the shorter races.

Thoroughly check over my bike the week before the race. While I did check the frame and the drivetrain I didn't check the headset or the brakes nearly enough. Practice riding in the aerobars. Plan my nutrition.

I had to use the facillities so this transition appears longer than it really was in terms of getting everything done.

Not have to use the facillities.

The run went fine. I was tired and unable to put in a faster run. I was also experiencing discomfort in my left knee. I would have like to have gone faster but this is a better run than I put in last year so I'm happy with it. Alternated taking water and gatorade at the aid stations.

Keep training the run. The transition runs have been helpful but I need to put in some additional longer runs and begin to work in some short bursts of speed to work on running faster and pushing through muscular discomfort.

Drank water and gatorade and had some food. Picked up all of my stuff and waited for Mike to finish (he was in a wave that started more than an hour after mine did). Met up with Mike's wife and son and waited along the finish chute to see him cross the line. Just like last year he finished very strong on the run.

Met up with Mike after the race and bumped into ChrisM. It's always nice to see familiar faces at races. It sounded like Chris had a great day with a smoking bike and a much better than expected run. I also got to meet Chris' lovely wife. Very nice people!




Oddly enough I am going to go with a lack or swim training. I also need to pay more attention to the details if I want to go faster like carefully going over my bike and planning a nutrition plan.


The time is 2 minutes faster than last year. Slower by 4 minutes on the swim, but faster by 4 minutes on the bike and 2 on the run.

The race was well run the aid stations were stocked, check in the day before was easy and I found the race to be well organized. There were some positive changes from last year, like having the portapotties located inside T1.

However, there were some negatives that it would be good to fix. The biggest of which was the lack of food at the post-race table. In previous years they had far more stuff like bars and plenty of drinks and cookies and so forth. This year they had water and some fruit and not much more, while they had gatorade when I finished there was no gatorade by the time Mike finished. Ideally they would have enough so that the later waves would also have a well stocked finish line. I would also make sure to instruct the bike only participants on their obligation to stay to the right so that faster cyclists can pass. There were times I came upon huge packs of bike only participants riding side by side taking up a large part of the road.