Swim in Walled Lake. Clockwise rectangular course, out 350 M, across 100 M, and back 350 M. Good breeze coming out of the north created a minor chop, but nothing bad enough to interfere with breathing on either side. I started on the left side of the wade start which provided me with a direct shot at the first buoy and provided some elbow room compared to the right side. Things went well and I was on a pair of feet drafting within moments of the start, he seemed to be swimming rather straight and I followed him to the first turn, then waited til rounding the second turn to hammer it home, with no one to draft I felt all alone again but I was swimming straight and just out from the buoys. I'm guessing I'm fast enough to be ahead of the mop and bop'ers but not fast enough to hang with the fop'ers. The water was pretty clean with only a small weed bed to swim over on the way out and the way back in. Otherwise spotting other swimmers was rather easy.

Never thought it was going to be wet suit legal so I forgot to pack the Body Glide and had just tossed the wet suit in the truck at the last minute. Remember to put Body Glide in my new Tri pack.

The run wasn't to bad from the water, but the transition was setup in a gravel lot, coating the feet pretty good. Didn't waste time with water, just a quick swipe across my feet, socks on, etc and down the carpet and out on the bike.

I enjoyed the ride overall which was 3 loops, but it seemed a little long and I had 16.37 and a few other folks apparently had 16.4 miles on there computers. So maybe mines not off. The ride had one dedicated lane to ride which made it nice. There were plenty of folks at the intersections directing traffic etc, making it a safe course. The only issue was the set of railroad tracks on 12 mile. I didn't even think about it til I noticed a race official at the tracks when I passed the second time and I was thinking how much that would suck to get stuck by a train. After passing it on the third loop I was happy to have that behind me. I didn't hear of anyone getting stuck by a train. Rode hard throughout and drank one bottle of water. I had placed a GU in my tri top which fell out when taking my wet suit off. Didn't really need it, but was just trying things out for next weeks Oly.

I witnessed one major drafting violation, a guy was right on the back wheel of a fast dude, and I mean right on his wheel. The lead guy actually tried to shake him by switching sides of the lane. And of course this happened where the worse headwinds occurred, creating quite an advantage. He must of said something as the violator ended up falling off. Then again it was nice to pass the cheater at the end of the bike and not see him again as he came in several places behind me.

Everything went well overall, I could've cut more time out of these transitions if I didn't have to run through a rocky parking lot and wipe off my big feet.

Got on the run and felt pretty good, took it easy the first mile to loosen the legs but was cruising good. Passed the first mile marker at nearly 10 minutes, I'm thinking no way I'm moving that slow. I was having a good run. Second mile I turned it on a little more, once I hit 22 minutes I was hammering once again to pick off a few folks, and assumed I would be closing in the finish within 5-7 minutes, well once I hit 30 and I'm still in the woods, I'm really wondering what the heck happened. This was my best tri run by far. I didn't stop for anything on this and was on cruise control throughout, and I enjoy running trails as it's my main source for long runs to prevent to much damage to my aging body. And my normal trail runs are hillier then this route. Oh well everyone runs the same course. The last section of the run was through a parking lot and I had no one to pick off in front of me and no one coming up behind me. Crossed the finish line and was happy with the result.

Walked around, grabbed a pita sandwich and some gatorade, put the bike and gear away. Wanted to get back in time to see a co worker cross but was to late, spoke with him for a few minutes then headed home as there were other things to get done with the family.


The course seemed a little longer then advertised. But otherwise a decent event that could be better if the transition wasn't on a gravel lot, but theres not many other options close enough to the beach. The bike was pretty nice with one traffic free lane to make passing easy and avoid drafting.