Time trial start, 10 seconds between swimmers. I felt OK heading out to the first buoy (200m) Was working fairly hard, but it felt sustainable. Swam straight and my form felt decent. Rounded the first buoy and over to buoy #2. Still working pretty hard, but was in a good groove. As I approached the second buoy, I encounter a bit of traffic as 6-8 swimmers were right around the buoy. I had to slow and breast stroke trying to pick a route through the congestion and around the buoy. It was then that I lost it. As I began the last 200 back to shore, I could not find a groove at all. Felt exhausted, a bit of panic, no more groove, couldn't swim straight, my stroke fell apart. The last 200 was quite difficult; HR was racing, form was terrible...it sucked. By the time I hit the beach, I was really struggling. Had about a 300m run from the swim finish to T1, I was able to jog but HR was way to high, I had worked way too hard and I knew it. I had hoped for a much better swim and I knew I had wasted way to much effort and I would be paying for it later.

I need to improve my form and build a better base for swimming endurance. I felt like I ran out of gas the last 200m. This will take much more work...

Had a bit of difficulty getting my left foor out of the wetsuit, but not too bad. I was still pissed about loosing it on the swim and didn't focus very well, but I didn't make any major mistakes. While there is still considerable room for improvement, this transition was certainly better than my first one.

Might need to cut a couple inches off the wetsuit legs.

The bike course was an out and back over rolling hills. A moderate headwind out, tailwind back and several nice long straight sections. I was pissed from the crappy swim and went hard on the bike. I didn't wear my HR monitor, but knew I was riding at race pace. I did get passed by the overall winner right before the turn around, I stayed with him for about a mile then just let him go- would have required too much to match his speed. As it was, I was a little worried I would not have enough left for a good run, but I decided I would deal with that later. I had a bottle of Cytomax I had intended to drink on the bike...but it was mostly frozen because I had over slept and left it in the freezer too long. Overall, I had the 2nd fastest bike and am pleased. I could have gone harder, but not much. My issues are not with the bike...

Make sure I get up in time to get the Cytomax out of the freezer a little sooner- it's hard to drink frozen Cytomax.

Better than the last (first) one a few weeks ago. Helmet off, bike shoes off, running shoes on, race belt and hat and I was off.

Not the run I had been hoping for. I was basically in survival mode for the whole run, never felt like I had good legs. I was passed several times and just didn't have anything to respond. Disappointing.

My theory is that I expended too much energy on the swim, and it caught up to me on the run.

Had some water, Gatorade and a breakfast burrito. Hung out an cheered on the remaining finishers.


I had been hoping for a better performance. I actually thought, if all went well, I could place in my age group. As it turned out, my performance was not up to my expectation, and my age group was pretty darn competitive. My time, disappointing though it was, would have placed top three in 30-34, 35-39 and 40-44. I was more than 5 minutes from top 3 in the 45-49..not even close.

Again, like a broken record, my swim is very weak....and my run is not much better. I also recognize that real improvement will take many more base miles, and probably several seasons. I must be patient and take a longer term perspective, as difficult as it is at times. I am a reasonably strong cyclist, but have been riding and occasionally racing bikes for more than 10 years. Tens of thousands of miles. I have been running and swimming for three months....

I will also stay with my tried and true breakfast of oatmeal and a banana- no poptarts (maybe ever again). The taste of strawberry poptarts trying to make their way back up is not pleasant.


Very well organized and well managed. Great race. I will definitely be looking forward to this one next year.