I got pounded when the swim start. I recall one good kick to my shoulder, and a few hits to the back of the head. I think the current was bunching everyone up. After reaching the first buoy it thinned out a bit, thankfully.

I thought I kept a decent pace going throughout but who knows. Didn't feel fatigued coming out of the water, but definitely had to work in those conditions. As I ran up the beach, I remember saying out loud "now that was interesting!"

Who the heck knows. I just went with the flow and swam. Tried to just stay focused, stay positive and deal with whatever comes at me!

Just like the duathlon, I didn't exactly rush the transition. Wetsuit came off no problem, quickly swished the sand off my feet, put socks and cycling shoes on, and off I went.

Nothing really. Definitely could have sped up the transition but I didn't rush anything.

Tried to ride a steady pace on each loop. Only came out of the big ring on the longer inclines but then right back, so that was good. On my second loop I spotted Peggy B. on the side of the road, only person I knew down there. So I checked on her and she said she was good. On my third loop I saw her walking her bike back to the transition, felt bad. But I give her lots of credit, I spotted her again during the run leg, so she must have walked back and decided to do the run anyways. Good for her!

With a mile or two to go on the bike, I went thru an area where I could see the leaders already running. They were likely 20 minutes ahead of me. Even though they were WAY out front, I saw their run pace and immediately felt the competitiveness start to bubble, and just wanted to put my running shoes on. I got all fired up and was thinking "I could take those guys!!" Even though I couldn't, it was kind of funny thinking back.

Only thing I can think of is to be able to ride at a faster overall pace on the bike. Training, training, training!!

Racked the bike ok and laced up the racing flats, no real transition problems. It was so muggy out I decided to take off the shirt as well. As I headed out of transition, I had to stop and adjust the ankle chip. With all the rain during the bike it slid down underneath my sock and was rubbing my ankle as I started to run. So I redid that and took off.

Again, I think I'm definitely holding back on transitions. Just not rushing anything. The shirt and ankle chip thing slowed me down for sure, but all went well.

I was pretty fired up to run. I'm always hungry to pass those that passed me on the bike, and I was aiming to post one of the top run splits. The duathlon had 5K runs, this was a 10K, so I was a bit unsure as to what pace I could hold consistently. So I just went with what felt like a strong pace but yet comfortable. According to my watch, my splits were as follows:
Mile 1: 5:33
Mile 2: 6:02
Mile 3: 5:52
Mile 4: 5:58
Mile 5: 5:58
Mile 6: 5:56
Mile .2: 1:20

Looks like the third place overall guy clocked a faster time, and someone in the relay division. This is why I'm not a huge fan of wave starts and courses with loops, if I had a sense that I was 16th overall and closing in quickly, I definitely would have pushed the pace harder and closed the gap even more. Oh well!

Quite happy I was able to keep the pace under 6:00's. Felt pretty good from a cardio standpoint when finishing so that's a good thing. With the wave start and all the loops, I had no idea where I finished so I wasn't quite running with that all out mindset, just tried to run strong, feel good, continue to learn and enjoy the race!

Short jog. Had to rush back for Austin's soccer game. My boy scored his first goal of the season!!!!! I was jumping around like a proud dad, it was awesome. He did one of those "fist-clinch" moves, I could tell he was totally psyched. Love that kid...


Nothing really. Overall, race went well. Felt good throught and felt like I had fuel in the tank when finishing. I think this IM training is really helping. I just hope I'm doing enough training for the big one!!

By comparison to the top 20 finishers, I see I'm really goofing around in the transition area. Think it's time I change gears and start treating these transitions as part of the race itself.


I give credit to the race directors for dealing with that tough swim situation. Their stress levels must have been through the roof having to change it all up on the fly like that. Volunteers were great. Not thrilled with the bike course with all those damn turns, one poor guy crashed.