Freaking cold and choppy. They said it was 52 degrees out in the deeper sections. I'm not sure it was quite that cold, but it was definitely down in the 50's. No swim caps were provided, and I didn't think to bring an extra, so that did not help. The chop got rough especially after the first turn. Every stroke felt like I was smashing right into another wave. I just tried to keep it steady and keep moving forward. I'm a little disappointed with my swim time, but considering the conditions I guess I'll take it. This was also my first ocean swim, and I did not enjoy drinking salt water, bleh.

The time is an estimate since they lumped it into the bike time. There was a fairly long run from the beach to the transition area which accounts for the slow time.

Good ride. The wind kept the average speed down - I thought I would go a little faster since the course was relatively flat. In retrospect I feel like I could have pushed it a little harder, but I'm still satisfied. The course was not well marked or controlled in some areas, and there were some scary moments with cars.

Time is a close estimate - they included the T2 time in the run split. It was a nice, clean transition. I didn't have very far to go from the dismount line to my rack, so that helped.

First of all, I honestly think that this was more than 6.2 miles. I felt like I was running much faster than 7 minute miles, and I'm usually pretty good at judging my pace. Plus there were only two people (the overall winner and one relay runner) who beat forty minutes, which I think is pretty strange for a relatively flat course. Whatever. I felt like I had a good run mentally and physically.

As I approached the turn around I spotted a guy up ahead who looked to be in my age group (they didn't mark our ages so I wasn't sure). I very slowly started gaining on him through mile 4 and 5, and in the last mile caught him and gave an extra hard push to get ahead and drop him. It worked - he never did catch up and I ended up beating him by 50 seconds. It turned out that he was in my age group, and that push to catch and pass him earned me first place in our group.

Nothing. I had the 5th fastest run split of the day (not counting relay runners, although only two of them beat my time).

There were some serious organization and safety issues with this race. It seemed like the race director's heart was in the right place, but there were just so many details overlooked. The traffic control issues on the bike course were especially disconcerting.

In any event, I am just ridiculously happy about winning my age group. One of my big goals for the season was to place in my age group in one race, and I had already done that (twice) by coming in third. The fact that it was the extra push to pass that guy on the run that won it for me makes it even more sweet.

The best part of the day was when I got home and told my seven year old that I had won my age group. She and my younger daughter were parading around the house with the trophy they gave me singing "daddy's the best, daddy's the best" over and over. Of course, my older daughter was also the one asking me the other night "Are you ever going to do better than third place daddy?" I love those kids. :)