Started out kind of fast (for me), held on nicely. Once again, the pack went very wide and I was able to cut lots of distance by holding a straight line. I'm beginning to think that playing water polo helped because (a) I can swim with my head above water for a few strokes (b) I am used to swimming without lanes and (c) I'm not thrown by the contact.

Sight better toward the end. There were two buoys near the end. One was to let you know that you had to stay away from the dock. The other was the actual marker buoy. I had to take a hard left turn and loop around the dock at the end, which cost about 10 seconds.

Put shoes on at transition area instead of on the fly. T1 was fairly close to the swim exit, so no big travel time. They let you ride as soon as you left the racks, so you didn't have to run with the bike.

Nothing.

Got passed by a few folks on the bike. Wish I still had the Cervelo. I'd make up ground on the hills, but they'd lose me on the long flats and downhill sections. Overall, I did OK, but didn't feel good at any point on the ride.

Use the Cervelo

Again, you could ride right up to the racks, so the transition was quick. Tried different race socks, which worked OK.

Take some deep breaths before I get off the bike. I'm always breathing too hard when I go to put my shoes/socks on and need to sit a second to get some air.

Not too technical for a trail run, which was nice. The extra distance broke my spirit. In the first mile, I passed one guy and had two others in my sight. One of the two locked step with me and we pushed each other toward the next guy. When I realized that I was 10 minutes in to the run but nowhere near the finish, my heart sank and I began to feel the pain. When two miles came and went with no end in sight, I had to let the guy go. He stayed 15-30 yards ahead of me the rest of the way. We never caught the other guy.

Make sure that the run distance is what they say it is. It's not a long distance and I can easily run it, but when you're mentally ready for one distance and they keep you out there longer, it messes with your head, especially when you worked extra hard on the bike and swim thinking it was a quick run.

Stretching, eating a free banana, commiserating with the other racers about the race.


Wasn't working out too much in the past few weeks, plus the wrong distance on the run.


It's a small race because this was the first year. Very cheap and close to home, which is nice. Will be better in the future when they figure out how far the run is. Lots of first timers here and local tri club folks. Good overall atmosphere.