I started off fast to separate myself from the pack and have some open water to swim with. Sighting was going great for the first half of the race and then I was swimming towards the sunlight and could not see a thing. A nice volunteer was good enough to swat the water in front of me and tell me I was off course and needed to swim directly right or I was going to get a two minute penalty. Thank goodness she was there. :-) Overall swim felt good, though I may like my sleeveless wetsuit better than my full.

Pop the goggles up when I cannot see so I do not go off course. I really need to practice sighting as this is the second race this year where I have been really off course.

My transition time was my best yet and everything went pretty well considering this was my first time taking a full wetuit off. I did not have my bike in the proper gear and lost my lead trying just to get on the bike. It took me 7-8 times of starting and stopping before I got going and 2 people in my age group passed me while I was trying to get started. This all happened after T1 so it did not count towards my T1 time.

Make sure bike is in lowest gear

This was only my second time on the new bike and I was really happy I had it. The new bike defintely climbs better than the old one (though I still stink at climbing) and is faster downhill. This was a fun and very pretty ride with lots of volunteers to make sure you went the right way. Overall I was very happy with my time and perfomance. The event description said 15 miles but my computer said 16.3 and two other peoples computers said 16.2.

I need to work on hills. Where I train (W&OD) is flat and all the race courses are hilly.

This was fine. I was in and out and even had time to grab a quick drink of water.

Nothing

The course was very hilly and my toughest run course to date. I was absolutely shocked and happy to see my time as I felt like everyone was passing me. I was so fed up with being passed that a 35 year old guy passed me with 30 feet left and though I was exhausted, I went into an all out sprint, caught him and beat him by a second. Of course I almost got sick from the effort as I had given all I thought I had by this point but at least he did not beat me.

Nothing. I went as hard as I could on a tough course.

I went and floated in the lake to cool off.


Overall this was a good race. I survived, made some new friends and had some decent splits even though I only had the new bike for a few days.


This was a really good race site enhanced by a lot of wondeful volunteers, pretty scenery. As a bonus I was able to meet up with a bunch of great BT's after for some food and relaxation!