I was seeded 17th with a 5:30 estimated seed time, which to me indicated some pretty stiff competition, or a lot of people entered a low seed time to get an early start in the race. I was not scheduled to enter the water in the first 'wave' of 16, but there were a couple no-shows and I was off at the gun. Unfortunately, there was mass confusion in the first wave of swimmers about what lane to swim in and many just took any lane they wanted, and a few of us found other swimmers in our lanes and had to waste 15-20 seconds finding another open lane. This could have been averted with beter instructions from the volunteers running the swim assignments before the race began. (unfortunately, one swimmer who lost 20+ seconds or so in the confusion actually lost the overall race by only 10 seconds).

As I finally got into the water I just swam a steady 400. I paid no attention to where others were in the water and worked hard on my turns, glides, and pace. I've been training to hit a 1:27 or lower pace in my 400 M swim and I think I was right on pace. I don't know my actual swim time since the swim split includes the run from the start line to the pool, and from the pool to the timing mat at the entrance to the transition area.

Un-eventful. I probably could have been faster getting on my shirt and cycling gloves, and the run with the bike was pretty long.

My strategy on this course is to gain as much in the first third of the course. The hills are gentle here so I used my big chain ring and hammered in a high gear. I passed two in this section and only got passed by one bike. For the rest of the race, there were no passes other than one other rider with whom I traded positions on and off the entire race.

Once I hit the hills on Gillis Falls Rd I hammered down the hills to get as much speed as possible to carry me up the climbs. I had to come out of the saddle a couple times on the ascents. I spent most of the remaining bike ride trying to catch the guy ahead of me. I'd get pretty close to him then he'd gain on me again. Unfortunately he missed a turn on the course (the volunteer wasn't there) so when I actually caught him it was because he had to turn around and backtrack. Not much satisfaction passing a guy under those conditions. He and I entered the transition area at the same time.

Helmet and gloves off, bike shoes off, running shoes on. Grabbed my number belt and was off. I put on my number belt as I was running.

I came out of T2 trying to establish a fast cadence right away. I set my watch to beep every minute on the run, and I counted my cadence (strides per minute) every other minute, aiming for 90 spm. The first half of the run I was averaging between 86 and 88 spm. Then at the midway point it increased to 90 as I turned and headed downhill. I alternated 1 minute recovery/1 minute counting my cadence to keep up my pace. It worked and I was able to keep my average pace just over 7 minute miles. I crossed the finish line and saw the race clock was 1:14 and some change and I knew I hit my personal best for this course.

Nothing. This was not only the fastest 5K I've run in a sprint triathlon, it's the fastest 5K I've run period.

I thought I had an outside chance of re-claiming third place in my age group this year if I had a good race, and after a great race in May (Columbia Triathlon) I was feeling pretty optimistic. My previous best on this course was 1:16:30 which was good enough for a 3rd place finish. I knew I beat that by nearly 2 minutes, but I had no idea who else in my age group had finished faster. So, I went home and told a friend who was volunteering to pick up my medal if I made it into the top 3. Later that day I got a call saying I won my age group. It took 16 triathlons for me to get my first age group win.