The wave was a battle at the start because we had to run in from the beach and everyone hit the water together. I fought a pretty good fight for the first 100 yards or so, then finally had some space to myself.

T1 was pretty uneventful. Took my wetsuit off, then my cap and goggles. I changed into my MTB shoes, put my helmet on, then ran with the bike to the mounting area.

Going into this race I thought that I knew how to ride a MTB, but the bike leg was definitely an eye-opener! It was hilly and very technical, and with last night's rain it was very slippery. I crashed once, and came close to crashing 5-6 other times. Along the way I lost my water bottle, so I ended up doing almost the whole race with no water.

Spend more time training on single-track, and maybe wear a Camelback for the bike leg. Maybe even upgrade to a more modern bike, since I did the race on my 1989 Specialized Rockhopper!

Running along the beach with the bike was tough and I had to clean off (and dry) my feet, so I took my time in T2, even sitting down to put on my socks and shoes. Nevertheless, I still managed to pass several people in transition.

Despite the challenging terrain I was able to maintain a better pace than I expected, although I did roll my ankle at one point and hit the deck. They only had one water station, so I mostly did the race without hydration since I lost my water bottle on the bike leg.

Do some trail running in training.

Walked around for a few minutes, found my family, then packed my stuff into the car before helping my girls set up for their race. They did a 50-yard swim, 1 mile bike and 1/2 mile run, and they both rocked it!


Lack of experience with off-road triathlon, lack of hydration.


Considering that this was my first off-road triathlon and I placed in the Clydesdale division (although I don't know how many there were), I'm pretty pleased with my result.