I had full intentions of pulling off a 5:15 swim on this, but instead, yes, I HAD MORE GOGGLE ISSUES! D'oh! My goggles were working like a charm for the first 100, and then, after a brief push off the wall, I'm looking through sloshing goggle water. It made me start freaking out, breathing erratically, just looking for the wall. I stopped at the next wall, dumped my goggles out, tried again, and AGAIN, my goggles were full of water again. I decided on the fourth lap I was just going to have to live with it and finished. Unfortunately while I was messing with my goggles, I got passed once, so I lost a spot. Dang, maybe I'll get it right the next time!

Make sure I stick my goggle straps through the keeper so they stay tight before going. And learn to deal with leaky goggles. It's possible to keep swimming even with water in the eyes!

Wow, I really need to get my butt into gear again with these transitions. I've taken this "relax in transition" strategy way too far. I could have almost advanced two places in age group just by shaving two minutes off of my transition times.

I messed with my new Garmin way too long in this transition too. Didn't help.

Faster! Much faster transitions next time. No more goofing around... I thought it might help me perform better in the bike and run, but I don't think it has enough effect to justify it. Let's put it this way: I'd be better off running a minute slower than sitting around in transition wasting it.

I should have pushed a bit harder on this and pulled off the 19+ I was aiming for. I think I was easily capable of it, but I'm way too cautious about everything. I need to lay it all out on the line and see what I can do!

Push HARDER! I might have been able to get 20 if I really wanted it.

Again, I took WAY TOO LONG here, but I do have an excuse. I needed to have some water- didnt have any on the bike- so I thought it was justified. However, I could have done it in 1 min rather than two.

Quit messing around. If I want the gold, act like it!

The run felt really good, with the exception of the hill. I struggled to hold a decent pace (I may as well have been walking), so that impacted my overall performance. The one exception to this that allows me to say the run felt really good was the mental trick I used about half-way through. I started telling myself "this is a piece of cake" and "the finish line is just around the corner" and I was a different athlete. I fixed my poor start with an excellent finish.

Again, I could push myself harder. I think I had a 7:30 in me for this course if I had wanted it bad enough.

Run harder faster stronger!

More on this later.


The mental game... It's always tougher than I imagine it will be before hand, and when I get there and it's time to deliver, I refuse. "Getting that high rank" in the race just isn't enough to motivate. I need to find a real driver.


Excellent race. And excellent race website if I do say so myself :) I'd definitely do it again. I especially liked the Subway sandwiches, bagels and Great Harvest bread at the end! Very cool!