The water felt good and warm compared to the cold, wet rain. The swim start was fairly uneventful, I quickly found some room to swim in. I saw people doing breast stroke in the first 100m. One of the guys doing the breast stroke whacked me hard in the chest with his legs. I just kept my head down and tried to swim with the waves, overtook some of the people from the previous waves.

Start out slightly faster, use legs more in the final portion of the swim.

By bike rack was right next to the bike out area. I ran all the way from the water to my rack. Took me a while to get my shoes out of the plastic bag, but I was happy with this transition given the harsh conditions.

Ehh.. no rain.

This was the first time I have biked in pouring rain. At first I was concerned with bike handling in the wet conditions, but after a while I was able to get in my comfort zone and push it. The cops did an outstanding job of handling traffic. This was definitely needed since the roads were only two lane in some portions of the course.

The wind was a non-factor throughout most of the bike leg but it really kicked up at the southern turnaround and it was really nasty on one of the bridges. One minute you were cruising at 20 mph and the next the wind hits you smack in the face. Given all that this was still my fastest bike split in a race.

Be more aggressive, this was a fast course but I didn't push it as I was wary of the extremely wet conditions. But in the end, the rain didn't hamper my performance that much.

Long T2, my shoelaces came untied and I wasted some time fixing that.

I started the run, really strong and overtook a bunch of people coming out of transition. I soon realized that I had forgotten to wear my watch, so I had no idea how fast or slow I was going. I just kept a steady pace and tried to do my best with the rain falling on my face. There were a couple of aid stations on the way but I chose not to stop since the conditions really precluded any need for water.

Wear a watch!!

Tried to change out of my wet clothes. My transition area was soaked by now. Had some plums and pizza, and as soon as they said transition was open, I took my bike and got the hell out of there. 4 hours in the rain was enough for me.


This could have been a more enjoyable race had the weather been more cooperative. I had a friend doing the Half Iron distance but I didn't feel like waiting another 3 hours for him to finish. I checked the results and found out that I had medaled in my AG, sweet!!! Jack said he will mail the awards to the winners.