The water was fine. The river is quite wide enough to accomidate all the swimmers. Visibility is about to the end of your fingertips, which makes drafting tricky. I was run into several times, and bumped three or four. No big deal on any of the bumps. I tried to draft, but couldn 't see well enought to stay with my puller. Coming back was very difficult just because sighting was impossible in the sun. I used the right hand bank and other swimmers, but swam some zig zag. I ended up on the wrong side of one of the bouys, but the guys in the boat yelled and I was able to correct before passing it.

Warm up a little more. Train the distance more.

I was real pleased with my T1 time. They required us to wear the run number for the bike, so that added a couple of seconds, but 1 min is right up there with the fastest. I put my riding gloves on after mounting the bike. Seemed to work well - better than in T1

perhaps run faster with the bike?

I was real pleased with the progress I've made in speed. My average was over 18mph - good for me. I did push it some and don't believe I left anything on the table. I did have to back off a few times to get some strength back. The downhill return off the spilway was awesome. up to 29mph. Whoo Hoo! Lots of riding at 27. I think the warmup helped (compared to the last race) I also think the longer distance suits me better. I really got going after about 8 or 9 miles.

Keep working on training. I've got to start being more serious about chasing the fast guys out of town on Wednesdays. Add more speed work to workouts. I'd like to cut 20 minutes off that time. I was not able to take the gels I had planned on. Took part of each - just didn't want them. After doing a gel - put the empty in my back pocket rather than back in the bento box. makes a mess.

my socks got knocked off the shoes, I put one on backward and had to take it off and re-do it. Everything else went as planned. I took a second to dump some water on myself before heading out on the run

maybe socks in the running shoes instead of on the toes. Don't take time for the water

For the training I've put in I was well pleased. I'm firmly in the 10 min pace even with walking 1 min out of 5 plus or minus. I made myself walk quite a bit especially in the first mile. Aide stations were wonderfully frequent - almost one per mile. I took two cups at each - drank just a little and dumped the rest on myself. That really helped. I alternated between an easy pace and a faster one. At the end I picked it up for the last mile, but didn't have enough to do the whole thing hard. - effort just about right.

Train more. Take a gel with me on the run. I think I just ran out of energy. I believe my plan to take a gel just before the end of the bike was a good one - I opened it and took one mouthful - just didn't want more.
Maybe I should try some beans or something not so messy, and which can be taken in smaller doses?

Walk around. Two banannas. lots of gator aide and water. stretch a little, swim a couple hundred yards, and cool off in the river.


Mostly just training. And speed training. But I'm happy I got to this point, I just still have lots more to do.


I really enjoyed the race. Well organized and a good venue. I really like OWS. It would be nice if they could pull this one off early enough to not swim into the sun.