This was the probably the most frustrating section of the race for me. I had the energy and drive to push hard on the swim, and I started out strong. I was feeling good, but unfortunately for me, I caught up with some slower folks (not hard to do when the swim comes last). I managed to swim around a couple, but I got really hung up behind a bunch of them. I couldn't seem to get around them, and even got so flustered myself with excessive kicking and floundering of others that I stopped a couple of times in the middle of the lanes. I also didn't handle the turns off the walls well at all. Ideally, this swim would have been possibly an entire minute or more faster without the trouble I encountered. But that's part of the game I suppose.

Learn to swim underneath people. Guess I've got to start practicing my hypoxics if I want to pass people in a crowded situation. It would have been an ideal technique here.

T1 from Run to Bike- This probably could have been a tad quicker, but I felt pretty darn good that I didn't really dink around this time. My last couple races have had horrible transition times, and I had no intentions of repeating that again- so all in all, I'm very happy :)

Think faster! Unbuckle my bike shoes.... Maybe on these shorter races, use my running shoes on the bike. It takes a long time to get the cycling shoes on.

Could have done slightly better on this course. Had a poor start on the bike... Couldn't get my shoes clipped in at bike mount. Lost some seconds there. Slowed down too much on the corners because of the volunteers' warnings (I'm always trying to follow rules)- could have safely taken them a bit faster. Also, on lap two of the downhill section, got stuck behind a bus and had to ride my brakes.

Be more aggressive on the course. Take full advantage of the downhills. Not sure I got the most out of all of the downhill sections in this race.

Bike to Swim transition. This was kind of frustrating for several reasons. I got in, stripped my shirt(s), bike shoes, helmet, etc. off and began running out of the transition area. Well, I almost forgot to take my socks off, and almost left my goggles behind like everyone else did. Fortunately, realized it before I left the transition area, so I didn't pay much. Did forget my towel though- no big loss.

The biggest frustration here was the walk they forced on us all the way to the pool. I was okay with not being able to run through the bldg and in the pool area, but at the same time, I thought it was a bit silly to make us WALK to the building through the parking lot. I really wanted to run it, and kept getting warned the entire way in...

Give the volunteers Randy's line... i.e, "You think this is fast? You should see my run!" Or else just suck it up and walk like everyone else, and quit being a baby about it :)

This run was sweet! I pushed myself hard and pulled off a first lap of around 6:40/mi. Mile two wasn't so friendly, and by mile 3, I really wanted to walk BAD... but I didn't- I was determined to keep going despite the pain. I wanted this run time to be EXCELLENT, and I wasn't willing to sacrifice even seconds.

Not really anything... I paced myself well at the beginning, resisting the urge to run sub-six min miles with the rest of the front of the pack. I think it definitely allowed me to survive mile two and finish strong in mile 3.

Chatted with Randy and Dave when I got in, and waited for Jason, Brett and Brian to come in. Dangled our feet in the hot-tub for a bit watching others, and discussed our races.


Poor hydration during the run and bike, and normal uncontrollable race conditions (ie, cars on road (BUS), and crowds of people in the pool). I feel like I gave it great mental effort- didn't fall short on this race.


This is a riot of a race. I loved the reverse-order triathlon for a change. It was so nice to think all I had was a short swim after the bike was over :) And it was a great way to end the race season just in time for the winter months.