I positioned myself in the middle of the pack, but then backed off a few so that I was in front of the back 1/4. I know swimming is my biggest weakness, and I didn't want to put myself in a position where I'd make it harder by positioning myself right in the middle of that "cycle".

Swim was fine. I started off trying to get into a rythem and found it. Then I concentrated on the things I had worked on in Master's class. Much better swim this time than last.

I have to say, this is the most physical swim I've ever been a part of. Maybe it's b/c I wasn't in the back of the back this time. I was there in it. At the 300-400 meter mark, I was still jockeying for position with some fellow "blue cappers".

I brought it in and just ran out hard, passing some walkers.

Overall swim felt pretty good. I know this is what I have to work on the most.

Not much. I positioned myself exactly where I needed to be for my ability.

Definitely not my fastest T1...I took my time today. I wanted to make sure everything was good to go. I could have easily cut off 30 seconds if I would have hustled more. I just wanted to have a good ride and I figured the extra few seconds would enable me to do that.

Do the hustle!

For me, this was the funnest part of the race. This is my second race using a road bike and I just felt much more comfortable racing knowing how my bike rides, shifts, brakes, and corners.

I decided early on that I was going to attempt 20mph while maintaining a high cadence. I was going to let my cardio do the work for me. Very good idea.

Since I'm a slow swimmer, I knew I had a lot of work ahead of me. I just kept the cadence up and attacked the hills the best I could. I started to catch up to cyclists, then pass them. WOOOHOOOOO!

I kept picking cyclists out in front of me, upping pace to catch/pass, then do it again. Surprisingly, I was only passed by 8-10 cyclists total. Half of those were Cervelos. As I was passing one d00d on a Specialized bike, I mentioned that I "hated" cervelos. We both laughed, as best as we could since we were going uphill while watching a Cervelo that had just passed us.

I had a huge scare at mile 9. I was so concerned with high cadence that I was not moving around much on the seat. Well, at one point, I "positioned" myself and was shocked when I couldn't feel the "twig and berries". I was so numb, I could not feel a single thing. I know this cost me big, since at that point I didn't care about the race anymore and just stood up and cycled. I did this for a good 3-4 minutes until the blood flow was back to normal. That probably cost me my 20mph average.

At mile 12, the first female (or so I thought) cyclist passed me. I got right on her tail, about 4 lengths back and just followed her for a minute. I was not going to let her beat me to the finish. Doesn't really matter, though, since she was 2 waves back (?) on the swim, so that meant she was at least 6 minutes faster than I was at this point.

The last mile, I passed her and didn't see her again.

I have owned a road bike for 6 months now. That should be enough time to be a 20mph cyclist. I just need to ride more.

That being said, I'm extremely happy with my effort and know that all I need is more time in the saddle. This is the first time I have ever felt "competitive" on the bike and it made for a much more enjoyable experience.

I almost bit it at the dismount. I couldn't unclip left foot and when I dismounted, foot unclipped at the last minute. I almost bit it hard!

I ran hard and racked my bike, put on Newton's and was out.

This transition area was shaped like a rectangle. It was a long run through it.

Just run faster! :)

As I started my run, I was thinking that I didn't feel bad, but I didn't feel great, either. I just started running at a semi hard pace. I passed a lot of runners in the first mile.

Middle of the first mile, I saw the top racers coming in. Man, they were hauling! Behind the, the other top racers were starting to trickle in. I saw one female and thought, "how the heck did she pass me on the bike and I not notice?" Sometimes, it's hard to tell when serious female athletes have got toner, more muscular butts/legs than most guys.

At the mid point, I grabbed a cup, took a sip, and dumped the rest of the water on my head. That refreshed me and stepped it up.

The rest of the race was just a push to the finish. I passed ppl and was never passed once. I kept expecting that 55+ year old to pass me, but it never happened.

A quarter of a mile before the end, I started really picking it up and spotted a few ppl that I wanted to pass before the end. As I was running up on them, the crowd started yelling at them that I was coming in hot. They started to pick it up, but I caught them easily. One guy hung for a few seconds (which seemed like an eternity), but I kept up the pace and finished 10-15 seconds ahead of him.

Train more on hills, up run volume, and do some speedwork.

Pretty happy with this run. It was tough, especially since the bike and run course were hilly.

Met family at the finish line, checked time and was disappointed that I was in the 1:17 range. I guess it just takes time to start being a competitive AGer.


The swim is definitely my limiting fact. I also need to speed up my cycling just a bit. I'm not going to complain, though. You don't get fast overnight, or even in one year. I feel like I have come a LONG way in 11 months that I have been training for triathlons. Another year or two, and I'm hoping to be a competitive AGer.


Very good race. The only thing I didn't like was the parking, which was about half a mile from the race start. Luckily, we brought the red wagon and piled the three kids in there.

Swag was ok. Shirt looks almost the same as the John Tanner one, minus the ink coloring.