The swim start was a little crazy. Our wave was not too big but I gotta say that there was more contact on this swim start than any other Tri I've done. It seemed like I could not get away from people swimming on top of me, into me etc. etc. I ended up swimming out to the left away from the bunch and sprinting in front of a lot of people. This gassed me a little bit for the rest of the swim though. After getting away from the group I was able to swim better, with the exception of a few times where swimmers ran into me (or me into them) and I stopped swimming and came up.

Not sure what I could have done. I'll have to come up with some strategy to deal with this better in the future.

I placed my (spare/dry) shoes at the swim exit because there were tons of little thorny stickers on the ground. The run from the water to transition is probably a couple hundred yards so I ran in my shoes to prevent getting stickers in my feet. I stepped on quite a few anyways running out of tranition and they sure don't feel great.

The wind seemed to pick up quite a bit and gust pretty hard at points. I could really feel the gusts from the side with my rear disc cover. I rode a very hilly route the day before so my legs were not fresh at all. I was still sore in the morning. I think I could have done a lot better with fresh legs. I felt pretty good though all in all. I did not get passed at all on the bike. :)

Nothing

I stepped on a few more stickers back to my transition area and I knew it would suck for the run. T2 went pretty quick though.

Nothing

I think I could have and should have pushed the pace harder. I lost mental focus, I kept thinking about the pain in my feet. (when I got home I hade to pull 10+ little thorns out of my feet) Anyways, the last 1/4 right after the hill I snapped to and sprinted the last bit. A guy tried to pace with me but I out-kicked him, which was a lot of fun.

Run in my bike shoes to keep from getting thorny stickers in my feet.

As I came across the finish I saw my family walking up. My wife, daughter, brother and his family all came out to watch. I grabbed a water and a cool town which felt great. We all went back down the course a little to wait for my dad. Once he came in we got some food and sat uder a shade tree. We stuck around for the awards hoping we placed.


Training through the race and lack of focus.


Great race and eventhough I got my feet poked I had a great time. It was really cool to race with my dad and to have my family there. Especially since we made the podium. :)