I'm actually pretty ok with this swim, despite the pace. The water was very choppy, so no one was setting a personal best out there. The big challenge was going to be navigation and not inhaling too much water due to the waves.

I did fairly well navigating, sighting a lot more than normal, but because of the fairly strong current it was necessary. On the last leg in to shore I switched to breathing on the left to avoid the waves and it went better than expected. I never breathe on the left when I train, so it's good to know that I can do it anyway if I have to. Thanks to high school coach Dee for forcing us to learn way back when... :)

Be more aggressive at the start. I think I say that nearly every time, don't I?

The massive 6:16 time includes the walk back up the long steep path from the lake, so don't be too alarmed by it. I had one of the slowest walks on the path at something like 4:24, so my actual T1 time was less than 2 minutes. That walk sucked rocks, but oh well.

Attempt to run at least part of the path. I walked the whole thing.

Nice bike ride, actually. Not a great pace, but a nice ride. Lots of good rollers to keep it interesting.

Actually attempting to do some real bike training might help...

Under a minute! And that includes a shoe change! Pretty darn speedy for me.

Nothing.

Honestly, I think this run must have been short because seriously, sub 10s? With the amount of running I have been doing? Not likely. But, that's what it says and I didn't have a Garmin to say differently, so there. :) This was a good run since I greatly prefer trail running to road running. That gravel ravine pretty much sucked and I walked most of the uphill both times, but the rest of the course was quite nice and very well marked. A few slick mud spots due to all the rain, but not bad.

I was so glad I finally passed this guy I had been chasing nearly the whole run. I finally passed him with about 0.3 miles to go and made sure to keep him behind me. I did, however, get passed by someone in my age group with only 0.1 mile to go. Didn't even hear her coming. Oh well.

Run up the ravine, or at least part of the way.

My daughter, sister, niece, and nephew were there to cheer me in to the finish, so that was super nice. After the race I chatted with them a bit, guzzled some water, and smuggled some post-race snacks for the kiddies. :) Not much else really.


General lack of training.


This race went about a 1000 times better for me than Buffalo a few weeks back. First of all, I could actually move my neck, which was a huge plus. Second, I had a much better attitude in general so that helped too.

I haven't done this race before, but I have done 27 (?) others at this point, and I have to say this was one of my very favorites. The course is very nice (except that walk from the beach up the hill ;) ), the shirts are nice, the atmosphere is laid back but not disorganized, and there is no extraneous goodie bag of stuff I'll never use anyway. Oh, and they only body marked one arm, and then the back of the calf. Love that! The both arms/both legs bodymarking is excessive, IMO. And no bike orhelmet stickers either!

Despite the rough weather at the start and the hour delay, this was just a very pleasant race experience in general. I will definitely be back!