Rough swim. More body contact than normal. I kept getting hung up behind the same 3 or 4 guys, plus this one dude kept body checking me. He couldn't see to swim straight and kept clipping me from my right side. Got choked a couple of times when I ran into the back of someone and then got slammed from behind or the side as I was breathing. The short leg of the rectangle was particularly rough. It was only about 50 yds long so everyone bunched up for the two quick turns. Got psyched out mentally at one point because I though I was at the last buoy. The sun was right in my eyes so I couldn't see the last one. I poked my head up to negotiate the turn and realized that everyone else was going straight.

Rig a tow line to the faster guys :)

Long distance from swim beach to TA. Walked a good part of it to get my heartrate down.

Wear skates!! :)

Felt great over a tough 1st 10 miles...was really having fun. Then just hit a mental wall after a climb at mile 10. Struggle mentally from 10 thru about 18, then finally got back in the game mentally. I just didn't have my head on straight today, but did pretty well anyway. I was shooting for 20mph+ avg, which turned out to be pretty ambitious given this course. I still almost got it.

Show up mentally

Easy T2 except for the dummy who took my spot. Had to move about 3 spots down the rack to find a gap for my bike.

Uh....have a steak dinner?

Still struggled on the run. Thought I was going to be faster than I was, but this was a pretty challenging course for me. I had a stitch in my side for the first 1.5 miles and had trouble running more than 2 mins at a time. Finally got rid of it towards the end of mile 2. Started my finishing kick with about 0.3 miles to go. Got about 150 yds out and my left hamstring/quad started to lock up. Never completely cramped but definitely hampered my stride.

Transform myself into someone who can run fast :)

walked around a lot with Karen trying to get my stuff put away, get some after race snacks, etc.


Me :)


Really enjoyed the race. I wish more people who qualified had shown up. It would have been a really neat atmosphere with a bigger field. It was unique because there were so few competitors. It ended up being half as small as the next smallest race I've ever run.