Good race for me. I was first in my heat. I would have loved it if I all the good swimmers started at the same time, but this is not possible when it s a heat start. Fun was lots of fun. You swam under a few bridges where people stood and cheered. Made it more fun.

If I had lots of time it would have been interesting to do the swim ahead of time so as to find the very best place to be in this winding river to take advantage of the current

I continue to struggle with the transition. It didn't help that the transition was set up poorly.

Practice practice practice

I knew the run was flat so I tried to race the bike leg harder. I think I did but I still need to push harder on this leg. I think my next big improvement in time will be from a faster bike leg

Put more effort into bike leg

This transition area was shared with a duathlon. I came back to find bikes crammed into my space. It looked like a duathlon team took over the rack. A couple of the bikes look like they were bought on Craig's List for $25. No Joke. I had to rack in a different place and hunt for my running gear.

What could I do?

This was a great run for me.

Walk the course ahead of time. I came up on the finish before I expected.

Walk around, drank beer and talk with some great athletes.


Race was at an altitude of 3600 ft climbing up to 4100 ft. A lot of local competition made this more of an issue for those from out of town.


I drove 700 miles in three days to do the 1 mile OW race the first day, and then drive to the sprint tri. I love to drive but this did not help my last minute preparation for the tri or recovery from the swim.