Finally, a respectable swim leg - 5th in AG. Only two minutes from the fastest AG time. I sighted well. I did 10 strokes, then stroke sight which I have been practicing at Dynamo. After the first turn, I found Jonathan and latched on to his slip stream. I stayed there until the next turn to shore. I got cut off from his feet and never found him again. The last 300 yards seemed to take forever. I am determined to get under :25 at Tugaloo.

Nothing. I really do like the time trial start better than the bar fight start.

I ran hard to my bike. I got tangled up with the Sprint racers who seemed to be taking a stroll to their bikes. I had to be rude after asking them to move so I could run for my bike without any reaction. So, I shoved past. Not the nicest thing to do, but I was in a hurry. I made the decision to put socks on. I may have slowed me a little, but I did not want a blister like I got at Tanner. I used the bento box to make it easier to deal with the food.

Still would like to get the shoes in the pedals thing down. I did not try, but I know it is worth 10-15 seconds.

I knew I had to be careful on the bike. I have not put in the miles, so there was only so much in the tank. I did not listen to this knowledge at all! I came out of the blocks screaming. The first 6 miles were flat and rockin fast. Then the rollers started and I paid for the next 8 or 9 miles. If I had a little more form, I would have killed this course. I really liked it. However, I hit some bad spots and had to back off a few times. Overall, I will take the bike leg as the best I could do with the condition I have and look forward to killing it next year.

More saddle time with some interval work.

I took my feet out of the shoes before transition and did a flying dismount. All good, except one of my shoes fell off the pedal. I grabbed it and ran with the bike. I had a good graceful transition as far as going through the helmet off, shoes on, start running while putting on the hat, race number, blocs in back pocket and garmin.

If the shoe did not fall off the pedal, this would have been a very good transition. So, dumb luck.

I started out stronger than expected and simply ran out of conditioning. This is were I paid for the decent bike split. I ran the whole time, but progressively slowed down as the race went on. I felt like I was running in place a few times. I nice guy tapped me on the back at a bad spot and said "it will pass, don't let it get the better of you...just move your feet quicker." It kind of snapped me out of it. I did not do a finish line sprint for the crowd...just wanted to cross the line. Again, I will simply say this was the best I could do with my current condition level. So, I will not complain or be negative.

Just need more endurance to finish the race off. I will get it right by Tug. No worries.

Walked around a little to keep the body moving and cooled down. I ate a nice big piece of water mellon, damn it tasted good. I ate a bagel with nutella, damn it tasted good. I sat with Brett and some of the NAMS group for a few minutes. Cleaned up on transition and headed home.


I need more consistent workouts, control the intensity more to avoid the nicks, and drinking massive amounts of adult beverages early in the week while on vacation could not have helped! I am very confident I can get under 2:40 consistently in OLYs. Just need to figure out the staying healthy part.


First time for the race and I really like the course. I thought it suited me very well from the clockwise swim, time trial start, excellent bike course and mostly flat run. I know there is a PR on this course for me in the future.