Awesome swim. Compared to previous years, this water was as calm as a lake swim. Water seemed a little cleaner and clearer than previous years as well. I don't think it can get much better than this.

My swim was pretty solid. With the great condition, I honestly feel that I should be down in the 22 min range so I'm a little disappointed. Not much...but a little. I haven't gotten in as many swims as I would have liked to with all my work travel, so again...I'm just a little disappointed at what could have been as opposed to the actual performance.

I think the key to a good swim is going out at only a moderate pace - sprinting it just counter productive it seems. There's too much to think about and pegging the HR just makes things more difficult. All the drafting I did was in the first leg out to the first turn. I think that's the ideal time to nuzzle up behind someone that's a little faster than you and lay on their feet for a couple hundred yards.

And to the poor dude at the 2nd buoy whom I swam over - sorry bro.

Get 2 swims per week in per plan - especially when travelling.

Not a bad T1 actually. As huge as the Transition Area was, I had a damn fine place near the bike exit. Ideal for people like me who haven't learned to tie up their shoes with bands yet.

Suit off, glasses on, helmet on, shoes on, grab bike and go

This was one of my fastest bikes ever. Again - pretty much perfect conditions made for a fast as hell bike. I gave everything I had on the course. The legs would get tired before the lungs and HR would - which is the big difference between this year and last.

I still have a load of improvement to make on the bike, but I knocked off 3+ minutes from last years time. I've never averaged 21+ mph in my life. Really happy with the end result - but I paid for it on the run

Again...my spot in transition allowed me to cut to the extreme left of the transition area and run up the sidewalk. Would have been about 15 seconds faster, but I chose to put on socks to prevent any blisters. Last year, I purposefully ran 8-10 miles regularly without socks so that I would get the blisters and toughen up the feet so that come St. A's I could go sockless. Just never remembered to do that until a few weeks prior to the race and by then it was too late. Since I am racing 6 days after St. A's didn't want to risk any feet issues, so the socks went on.

Consider racing flats
Build up the callouses on the feet.

Wow! Can you say...disappointed! I totally expected to be way better than this time. Most of the slowness is becuase I hammered so hard on the bike. But still...I'm in pretty damn good running shape. I wasn't expecting to struggle so flipping much on the run.

Highlights of the run:
Saw Coredump, Marma, Kendall
Feeling semi good after mile 2
Coredump pushing me into a sprint at the finish (thanks bro!)

Lowpoints of the run:
Left thigh cramping during mile 1
Left foot going numb from miles 3-5
Looking down and seeing the 8:30 splits



Run Forest Run! Gotta pace a little smarter as well as get in better shape off the bike.

Treated myself to the nice ice cold towels at the finish line. Guzzled a gatorade, got my medal and then got a quickie (massage).


Work travel :( I try to bike and swim where I can, but being on the road really sucks up the plan a bit.


Pretty good race for me overall. Qualified for nationals! Got a PR as well. I'm pretty happy with my personal results. The absolute best parts of this race though was being around all the BT'ers. If you're checking out this RR and haven't been convinced yet to do St. A's, please do. Its so very nice to be around these folks that I've spent the last 3 years with racing in Fl. I miss them terribly and can't wait to race with them again.

The other mega highlight of the race this year was that Nease was racing with me. She really got screwed last year with having mono and sacrificing her race season to recover. I was so freaking worried that I would see her bike in transition when I got finished my race and so relieved when I saw it was gone. I'm very proud of her. She's just as screwed over with my traveling - if not more so because she has to deal with 3 kids by herself. I'll say it again...there's nothing that made me more proud than seeing her going at it. All along she says to me...I just want to finish...that's my goal. So imagine my surprise when I see her at mile 5.7 and she looks over at me and says, "I want to beat 4 hours!". And she did. Grats baby!

She's got this bizarre ritual though...I got to see wifey come into T2 and spray herself with water. What's up with that Denise?

I think the ass crack gnomes found my suitcase and destroyed 4 pairs of tri-shorts.

Great race guys! Happy to see you all again. Ovetta - you're gonna kick this race in the nuts next year and I want to be there to see it.