This is your basic pool swim. but the twist is having to share a lane with 3 other competitors. I chatted with them all briefly before the race to find out who wanted to lead the way, and who would be slow. I took off 3rd when the 2 guys in front of me said they would do the distance in 7:30 and 8:30 respectively. I figured 9:30 or so for myself. I ended up getting out of the pool in 8:24, after passing the guy who went out 2nd.
Since we were reasonably matched, I was able to draft for a bit, so that was actually good practice for open water practice.

nothing. it was a solid swim for me.

I racked right next to the swim exit, so it made finding the bike extremely easy, but made my run to the mount line a little longer than for others.

not sure if a better rack spot would have helped all that much. perhaps it could have been worth a few seconds.

I kept a very consistent effort on each lap. Charging up those hills was ridiculously hard. After the initial momentum was lost (which was pretty much immediately), was reduced to my easiest gear and standing half the time, only to muster up about a 7 or 8mph clip. But of course the flipside to every nast uphill stretch is a wickedly commensurate downhill to fly down. This one was amazing, too! I was able to max out at 47.7mph on the first lap. That is scary-fast. But I felt pretty comfortable in aero taking the long sweeping turns. That was ALMOST worth the climb to the top.
Hydration: all I drank on the bike was a couple swallows of HEED during each loop. It worked well because I took in more in the early miles of the race so that I wouldn't have sloshy stomach syndrome.

Maybe I could have pushed it on the downhill sections a little better, but I tended to just conserve energy and let my HR settle a little bit.

This went smoothly. Not much else to say about it.

Nothing.

I was really worried that my side cramps from yesterday would come back to haunt me again, but it didn't happen. I think it was a function of my better hydration plan. But anyway...
I started off with a quick turnover into the field to start the run. I thought I was moving at a good pace, but since there was only very very slow runners out there, it was hard to tell how I was doing. When the trail got steeper, I asked a guy coming back down it how far away the top was, and he replied that it was about 150yds up. I don't know if he lied just for fun, or if he was a terrible judge of distance. About 50yds up this staircase of a steep hill, I reached the top, grabbed a quick sip of water, and went barrelling down the other side. I passed a lot of people on the way back. It was easy to pick up the pace on the way back because of the downhill.
I made a hard sprint to the finish and was pretty happy overall.

push harder up the hill on the way out. i know i can run faster than this.

stretched well. drank my chocolate milk (that's right, i brought in my cooler!) i went for a jog with crozetiga afterwards as well.


the all-out sprint i did the day before probably slowed me down a little bit. though when i think about it, i never felt fatigued.


It went pretty smoothly. They have nice t-shirt designs, a DJ spinning tunes, and nice volunteers. I'd do it again.