I self seeded myself in the middle of the pack on the right hand side. My original plan was to swim wide right to go right and get out of the pack. However, all the life guards made a narrow lane to swim in. This meant I was stuck in the middle of the pack. As a result, I was dodging people and not swimming as fast as I could.

Be more aggressive and maybe start in the front.

You go up a hill right off of the start. Therefore, I didn't have my shoes precliped. I got a little caught up trying to get my shoes on.

It was a fun, fast bike course. Since I knew it was only 8 miles, I knew I could go all out on the bike. I passed people. The turn onto Isabel is sort of confusing so I slowed down but others just went right through. Vineyard has rolling hills that you can get really fast on the downhill part. Unfortunately, there is also wind blowing at you on Vineyard.

The course had police at the important intersections blocking traffic and the lane was clear of traffic on Isabel and Stanely (but not vineyard)

Nothing

Run is on firetrails inside the park. They are all packed earth with gravel top. This made the run challenging. The trails do several crosses so you can see other runners. The guy who won it was coming out just as I was running up. There is also a lot of up and down.

I took it easy on the run but I am not sure why. As a result a lot of people passed me.

Be more agressive. My short runs were all 5 miles plus because I am training for a longer race.

Hung out and watched people finish. They didn't open the exit until 9 because bikes were still coming in.


Not being aggressive on the swim and on the run


This is a no frills race. For a lot of people, it is their first triathlon and it is a nice friendly race for that to happen on. Everyone was really nice and encouraging. For others, it was a practice race.

Because it is a no frills race, there were no vendors after the race nor any swag bag.

Also, I did it in June on a cool June day. It can get into the 100s out here in the summer.