The start was from the right of the beach. We headed out on an angle toward the right, went 150 or so yards to the left and came back to the left side of the beach near the boat dock. Sighting on the way out was good. After the second turn, I had a hard time seeing any of the buoys but I did see the burning man so headed towards him. I was spot on for the middle buoy but I had a hard time with the final buoy. A safety boat was between me and the buoy part of the time and that did not help but mostly it was just me. I was glad that it was wetsuit legal because I feel safe in it. I did feel a tiny bit warm in it after a while though and I got really really thirsty about halfway through the swim.

Visited with Suze and some of the other participants. Ate some bread from Great Harvest (yes, I'm a bread addict) and then headed out for a bike ride.


I need to work on my swimming and I used this as an opportunity to get some practice in.


When I did this course as part of the 2010 Beaverdam Oly (with 1 mile swim), it took me 45:27.5 so this is a slight improvement.

With just over 100 participants, this was a nice event. There were at least half a dozen safety boaters and plenty of FS Series staff on hand. I like the T shirt and the swim cap. I was pleasantly surprised that there was food. I do kind of wish that they had coffee afterward :-)

I was not the only one planning to ride after the event. I think that several people were running after the swim too.

There was a swim clinic before the event which I could have done without. I'd rather have started to swim at 8:00 with no clinic than wait until 8:30 to start.