Well it was the swim. I did OK for me. There weren't any real packs, everything got spread out in a long line pretty early. I probably could have gone a little harder but I was pretty relaxed for most of the swim. Surged a few times to get away from a few people that were swerving all over the place. They shortened the swim this year to 600 yards, but I still think it was long.

I just need to swim more. I swim like a rock. My navigation was a lot better this race.

I was a little slow here. Fumbled with my helmet and glasses but otherwise OK.

Practice. I really haven't done any T practice in a long time.

For some reason I just felt like I didn't have anything on the top end. Up to about 22-23 I was fine but anything faster than that and my legs just didn't want to cooperate. Same thing on the hills, any time I tried to push or surge it felt like I was on the edge of blowing up.
Went back and forth with a lady for about the 1st 5 miles until she finally went ahead for good. She would pull ahead near the top of hills and I would come back near the bottom. At 135 lbs I didn't have much weight advantage, just chalked it up to riding over the top and staying aero. She was in good shape and went on to win the womens overall.
Rode by myself for about a mile until somebody picked me off. Check his calf and he was in my AG. I don't know where he came from, I was checking behind me every minute or so. We ended up flip flopping back and for the rest of the ride. I tried to surge a few times to see what I could do and my legs just didn't want to respond. With about a mile to go I went by him and told him not to worry about me, I wasn't a runner. I don't think it mattered, he definately was. We came into and out of T2 together and that was about the last time I saw him.

Hell, I don't know about this. I felt like I was in pretty good shape, I just didn't have any top end today. I managed the hills pretty well.

Perfectly executed my first running dismount in a race. It was a thing of beauty. Probably looked pretty neat too since the guy I had been riding back and forth with came in pretty much at the same time and did the same.

Get my shoes on a little quicker and not worry about getting my visor on until I'm running

I knew I hadn't had the best bike ride in the world so I tried to see if I could push the run. That didn't work real well. Same thing as the bike, I just didn't have any top end. I was fine going about 85% but anything above that and I was on the edge of blowing up. Still went under 8:00 pace which is pretty good for me considering how hilly the bike was.

Do more run training

Like I said above, I didn't have any top end today.

Well It turns out I was just starting to catch a cold. Not bad but maybe why I couldn't push the envelope.


Much, much improved from last year. That plus lots of pizza and spaghetti after the race were pretty good. Not real impressed with the "trophies", a towel with a race checklist on it, but I'll give them a little credit for trying to do something different.