The water was chilly and a bit shocking at first. You really had to concentrate on not hyperventilating because that was what my body seemed to want to do. I was kicked in the face really hard around the 200 yard mark and this really screwed me up for a few minutes. I had to swim head up for a while to catch my breath and re-focus. The 2nd half of the swim was good.

There was a 150 yard run with your bike through the sand to the bike mount line. I decided to put my shoes on in T1 so I didn't get sand all over my feet and have to ride 30 miles like that. This made things a little slower...but everybody was in the same boat. I didn't have a saddle bag so I put my gels and tire changing stuff in my shirt pockets and took off. The 150 yard run in and out was counted in your bike time so this made the bike splits a little slow.

I need a good aero saddle bag for Eagleman so i don't have to put them in my pockets. Other than that...not much different.

As I said above, the 150 yard run to the bike mount was counted in your bike time so the bike splits are a little off. I took 2 bottles on the bike with me and lost my bottle of accelerade when I hit a bump early in the bike. I also lost some tubular repair stuff so good thing I didn't get a flat. The temp was in the low 50s with low humidity so luckily I really only needed on bottle. Took 2 gels on the bike with the water. I got passed by 2 people on the bike with the 2nd guy finishing just barely ahead of me. I thought my pacing was OK. I probably started off a little too fast. I don't think I felt like I had a great bike but it was OK. With the fastest bike split around 1:13...I wasn't too far off. A little better effort and I could have been in the top 8 bike splits. I did get drafted for a few miles bike some dude but I think he got a penalty. They handed out quite a few drafting penalties for such a small event. This makes me happy since I'm usually the one gettting drafted.

Start of a little easier. Make sure my flat repair stuff and bottle are secured better. I'm lucky I didn't need more fluids because there was nothing on the course. I'm also lucky I didn't flat...because I would have been walking home.

My hands were pretty frozen when I got to T2. I was thirsty because I only had one bottle on the bike. I took some extra time to eat another gel and drink some extra water in T2. I also had trouble getting my shoes on even though I had speed laces. My hands were too cold to grip the shoes to get them on. It took extra time to open the gel and put on my shoes because of the cold. I'm usually pretty good in T2 but this was just a mess. I really don't think it cost me any places though because the guy in front of me finsihed a good 1:30 ahead.

Since I lost the bottle on the bike I had to spend more time in T2 to hydrate. I suppose not losing stuff on the bike would have fixed this. Not sure what I could have done about the shoes....this usually won't be a problem so I'm not worried about it. That's why these local sprints are good...they get you ready for the bigger events.

Sue called it correctly after the race when she said that I'm a closet runner. I LOVE biking but always seem to place much higher in my run splits. I started off fast because I wanted to catch the guys that smoked me through T2. I caught them in a matter of minutes. I probably passed 5-7 people in the first 1.5 miles. They weren't running all that fast so I never worried about them re-passing me. After this, I looked ahead and didn't see anybody in front of me that was close. At this point, I put my running in cruise control and slowed up a little. This was a mistake that could have cost me. With about 1 mile to go, I see two guys off in the distance. I was disappointed that I hadn't run harder so I could have caught them. I said "what the hell" and started REALLY pushing the last mile. I caught one of the guys with about 300-400 yards to go and he didn't respond. The last guy saw me coming and picked up his pace. I sprinted by him with about 100 yards to go. He laughed as I passed and told me to slow down. I think he said something like "Don't worry dude, I'm not gonna try to keep up". I ended up finishing 9 seconds ahead of him. He was a swimmer/biker and I'm a biker/runner. We know who always wins these battles. :) One thing to note...I took a wrong turn that cost me 10-15 seconds. The race volunteers on the run course didn't really say much until you had already gone the wrong way. It was a confusing run course and the volunteers should have been more vocal.

Keep a fast pace throughout the whole run. I probably could have finished ahead of those two guys without the frantic sprint at the end if I would have kept a strong pace the whole way. In the end, it was a fun finish but it could have cost me a few spots. I probably could have had the 4th or 5th run split with a little more effort.

Nothing. High fived Sue's parents who came out to cheer me on. Ate some food and waited for results to see if I needed to stick around for the awards ceremony.

Turns out I finished 2nd in my age group. The guy who finished 1st in my age group was 2nd overall so I got the roll down and the award for 1st in the 30-34 age group. I think I'm a little lucky because it didn't seem like this age group wasn't that competitive. If I was in the 35-39 age group, I wouldn't have gotten shit. I'll take it though. My first hardware. I'm just disappointed that Sue and my two girls couldn't be there due to the weather. :(


A little chilly. Kicked in the face on the swim. Underfueled on the bike. Lollygagging on the run. Even so...with a perfect effort, I wouldn't have finsihed that much higher...maybe one spot. The course didn't seem that fast today and this is reflected with the slower than normal times for the course. They moved the transition area to the sand which also slowed things down from years past.


This is a great local race that is organized by some great poeple. The post race food was good. The race only started a few minutes late which is pretty good for small sprints. The swim course was nice...the bike course was great. The venue was a great place to take your family (if the weather were better). I absolutely recommend this race. The finish times do seem quite a bit slower than last year though. Not sure if this is because of course changes or because the field wasn't as deep.

The police on the bike course were fantastic. Never a question which way to go. Always held traffic (even though there wasn't much)

Two complaints

1) They need to change the location of the transition area so it isn't in the sand. What a mess. I had sand on everything. And the 150 yard run with the bike through the sand both ways was terrible.

2) The volunteers on the run course needed to be more vocal. It was a zig-zag course with people running every direction. There were signs but it was easy to be confused which direction to go. This cost me about 10-15 seconds. The volunteers should be pointing and yelling the whole time telling you where to go.