This is about as good as I can swim this. I felt great. I am not fast but I am making progress. This si 5 minutes faster than my last HIM swim but that was on a completely different course. Hard to really compare but this sure felt good for me.

Swam perfectly straight without sighting at all pretty much. Every time I did sight I was just in a perfect line aloung the buoys. Eventually I just stopped looking because I was going so straight. Weird.

Breathing was fine. Never felt like too much effort. I just kept within myself and swam a nice race. My only complaint would be that I did not ever really find someone to draft off of well so I mostly swam this whole thing without much help.

Find someone to draft off of

Need to take the plunge and leave the shoes on the bike.

Decided to wear socks. Added maybe 10 seconds.

Otherwise OK with this T1. It did not feel this long so I am wondering where the timer started and ended.

Leave the shoes clipped in.

Had a little trouble getting clipped in to start but otherwise it went well. I just need to commit to leaving the shoes clipped in. I do this at home but have been leery of doing it in a race situation.

I had my best triathlon ride ever. Got up to power and just kept going. I passed a lot of people and got passed but a few. Speed was anywhere from 21-26 MPH during the ride with most of the time being between 22-23. It was very flat and the roads were in really nice shape. I certainly got passed by less than usual. I usually feel like I am not pushing hard enough on the bike but in this race I really felt like I got to the right effort level and then did a good job of keeping it there. I may have been going a little too hard at times. I did feel a little bloated a couple times so I would back off about 10 watts or so until I felt a little better and then pick it back up.

I took two bottles of Infinit and two bottles of Gatorade. I had four gels in a gel flask but as I said I was feeling a little bloated on the ride so I only took about two gels. I also went through three bottles of water. Most of it was just dumped over my head and body but I did drink some as well.

So, here is the kicker. At mile 12 of the ride a woman crashed her bike in front of me. Bad! She knocked herself unconscious, clearly fractured her jaw and just generally messed herslf up. by the time I got there there were several people already there. One person was holding her C-spine neutral. She was breathing and had a pulse. I had passed a motorcycle helping someone about a 1/2 mile earlier so I rode back and flagged them down. They came up and called 911. At that point it seemed like everything was under control. The guy holding her c-spine was calm and willing to stay. I checked to make sure everyone was OK and then got back on the bike. I wish I would not have had to stop but I am not sure I would feel OK about myself if I didn't. I am not sure how long this took up but I am guessing 3-6 minutes and it added about 0.6 miles to my ride.

Not have the lady crash in front of me. Otherwise very happy with this ride. I would have been under 2:30 for the 56 miles without the stop and that was my goal so I will call this successful

took off my timex watch and started to run out of T2 and realized I never grabbed the Garmin. Had to backtrack and grab it so I would have an idea of my pace.

Not forget the Garmin

This is just a flat run with no shade. No real hills. I would love to have the aid stations come a little more frequently. They were really about every 1.75-2 miles. I would have liked a little more access to ice.

From the start of the run I could tell I had been closer to the edge of my performance limit on the bike. Usually I have taken it easy enough on the bike that I am able to turn in a really nice run. The bike, combined with the heat made this run a lesson in will power. My legs would just not turn over as fast as I wanted. I "felt" like I was going fast but the Garmin did not agree at all. I walked a couple aid stations to get in some water and ice but otherwise just kept chugging.

I passed almost 200 people on the run. I was passed by four people. I guuss that is an ok ratio. I really wanted to run sub 1:30 to finish this but just did not have it in my legs today.

As I was running toward the finish line there was a guy about 100 yards ahead of me. I accelerated to catch up and pass him but my legs cramped as I did. I was able to go by him but the fact that my legs cramped with even this nominal acceleration showed how close I was to falling apart and ending up walking. This actually made me feel better about the run. Without that cramp-up at the end I might have been questioning my effort on the run. Instead, I am convinced I gave what I had today on the course.

Run faster :)

Walked around. Met up with my wife. Went in the water--where my calves immediately cramped up.


I did what I could today. Training, training, training.


Great race. Loved it. Well run at a great venue. I would come back for sure. I think it is hot every year.