The roughest swim I've ever done. After about the first 300 yards, the wind really hit the water and created a lot of chop. This created difficulty siting and because it was an out and back, the waves would push me in to the return leg lane. I was hoping to improve on my time from GCT but ended up about 2:30min slower. The swim time included a 100yd run from swim exit to the timing mat. Not too disappointed with the time considering the rough water.

Do some more OWS when its windy/choppy.

Good T1, 2nd in my a/g. I would have preferred the bike rack to be a little bit higher because I had to angle my bike to get it under the rack. I also had a slight problem getting out of my wetsuit but recovered well.

The water temp was questionable for wetsuits up until 1 hour before swim start so I was mentally preparing to race with no wetsuit. I still should have practiced removing my wetsuit a couple of times before the race.

This was definitely a hilly course. However, the hardest part was probably the long false flats, headwinds/crosswinds, and rough roads. Eating on the bike doesn't work well for me, so after GCT, I switched to liquid nutrition. I had 1 premixed bottle of nutrition for the whole ride and 1 water bottle to swap out. Around mile 12, I hit some rough road and lost my nutrition bottle so I went back picked it up and took off. A little later I went to drink from the nutrition bottle but the fall loosened the top which came off spilling half my nutrition on my bike and the road. I had a hard time trying to screw the top back on and staying on the road but managed to do it without stopping again. The weather was cool enough for the ride, but the lack of nutrition caught up with me on the run, more on this later. I was able to keep my HR in the 150-155 range which is better than I had been doing in training (160-165). There were a number of false flats that caught me off guard and the headwinds on most of this course were more than I have trained in but I felt that my legs were in good shape coming off the bike.

Because the race numbers for the bike were so large, I decided to race without my Bento box. Normally, I keep extra nutrition and my CO2 in it. I had a spare tubular strapped to my Hydrotail and taped the CO2 to it but I didn't carry back-up nutrition with me. Won't happen again.

Again, 2nd in my a/g. Actually heard a couple of compliments about my flying dismount coming of the bike which was encouraging.

Nothing.

The paved road section wasn't that bad, but once I hit the off-road section it seemed like HILLS, HILLS, HILLS. My goal was to run the whole course with the exception of walking every other aid station. I did this but because I didn't get enough nutrition on the bike I stopped at the aid station just after mile 4 and had 2 orange slices, a 1/4 banana, and half a bag of Sun Chips. I found that by crushing the chips in my hand saved time rather than trying to chew them. Washed everything down with some water and Cytomax along with a little bit of RC Cola. However, the RC was still carbonated so burped for about the next 2 miles. I ended up doing this once more and each time I did my minutes per mile went up to 11. I kept pushing to try and get some sub-9 minute miles and only achieved that once making my run average around 9:50min/miles. Slower than my goal, but better than GCT.

I had done hill work, but I wasn't expecting this course to be that hilly. My run has come a long way over the past year and look forward to continued improvement in the off-season. I never practiced stopping to eat, and didn't want solids hanging around in my stomach while running. Fortunately, eating during the run worked out for me this time.

After crossing the finish line, met up with tribesman, stretched, drank my Endurox and grabbed some food. Then got in the car for the long ride home.


I haven't trained in choppy waters or ridden with a strong headwind for long distances. Not sure how to plan/train for that. I've made a lot of improvements in my second year of triathlon, but still not where I want to be.


This was my second HIM and the most challenging race I have done during my 2 short seasons of triathlon. I have mixed feelings about this race. I finished, I beat my GCT HIM time, but I didn't meet my time goal. I found out that I can swim in choppy waters, ride in strong headwinds/crosswinds on a hilly course, and eat during the run. It was a humbling race after coming off strong finishes at NYC and PTC. Probably a good thing going into the off-season to let me know that I still have a lot of work to do.

Riding with tribesman to Raleigh made the 7 hour trip bearable and it was cool that our transition areas were next to each other. Although, I only saw him before and after the race. Guess I'll have to wait until next year to learn how to play that trick on him. Anyway, thanks tribesman for all your training help and tips. You really do inspire me to become a better triathlete.