Got up early. Had a muffin and headed to the race. Found some parking and walked to the race. Then just waited to set-up transition.

Went for a 1/2 mile run,then gathered swim stuff and waited at the dock. Finally got in a short warm-up swim.

Swim was slow. We got in the water and then had to tread water for 12-15 minutes while the highway was opened for the ride. Really affected my start. Also, the first 1/3 was really crowded with no open water. Hard to get a clear line, and just had to go slow till we got through the bridge. As we got out, seemed to take forever to get to the turn-around. But once I did, had a good swim coming back, but knew my swim time would suffer.

Train more. That's all folks.

Transition was huge. Long run from water, and the largest transition area I've ever seen. I was caddy-corner from the bikeout, so had a super long run.

Nothing.

I didn't get to train much outside this year, and was very under-trained for this ride. Held 20+ the whole ride, so was happy with my results here.

Get out and ride more.

Again, probably could have trained more, and lose the extra 10-15 I'm carrying. Started to really feel the pain around mile 4. Just kept dragging on.

Train more.

Just walked around, got some fluids and waited for transition to open so I could get my bike.

Changing jobs, and not training enough.

Nationals is awesome. Great experience. Lots of really fast people. It's hard going into a race where you know you don't have a chance to do well. But it was fun racing, and taking the time to see the whole course, not just hammer a result.

Best part of the day was getting my medal from Chrissie Wellington. She is awesome.

Fun race and would definitely do it again if I qualified. Milwaukee put on a great event and was very happy to be part of it.