- Distance: 750 Meter Swim, 15 Mile Bike, 3.1 Mile Run
- Time: 1 hr 28 min 40 sec overall; 18:41 Swim, 1:31 T1, 43:38 Bike, 0:40 T2, 24:12 Run
- Place: 11 out of 35 in age group, 70 out of 248 men, 87 out of 373 overall
- Weather: Sunny, 6-8 mph winds, air temps in the mid 80's, heat index in the mid 90's, water temp of 89 degrees
I surprised myself a little bit in this race. I was able to beat my previous best time in this race by almost two minutes even though the heat index was in the 90's. If someone had told me before the race that I would be able to do that, I wouldn't have believed them. I went down to the water to warm up prior to the start and found out the water was almost 90 degrees. It actually was a nice change
of pace from the previous cold water swims I did earlier in the year because the cold water always takes me longer to get my breathing controlled. I was scheduled to start in the second wave and was able to keep a pretty good line headed toward the first turn buoy. It wasn't until I turned toward the third buoy that the sun became a factor in my line of sight. Overall, I felt like my swim pace was comfortable and I expected my time to be pretty good.
When I got out of the water the time on my watch was at least a minute slower than I felt the pace would be, but it could have been due to the course being slightly longer than it was suppose to be. My first transition was fairly fast since I didn't have to deal with a wetsuit. Once out on the bike course the first thing I noticed was that most of the roads had been paved since the last time I did this race two years ago. It definitely felt a lot smoother than I remember. About a third of the way through the course I could see up ahead there were several cars that were behind a group of slower riders, and the lead car didn't
seem interested in going around them even with no cars coming from the other direction. There was one other cyclist just in front of me that was going the same pace as me. When we approached the group of cars it was obvious that we would have to slow down if we chose to wait for the cars to pass the slower riders. Instead of coasting behind these cars at 15 mph waiting for something to clear, I decided I was going around them. Right about that same time the other cyclist that was in front of me apparently decided the same thing, so we started to pass all five cars on their left hand side. The guy in front of me went wide left into the other lane while I decided to hug the middle line and pass the cars within arms length. Since there were no cars coming in the other direction and the cars in our lane saw what we were doing and
moved over to the right a little bit, we were able to pass the whole group of cars and slow riders relatively quickly. The rest of the ride back to transition went well, and I could tell my bike time was looking pretty good. At this point I felt like I had a chance to break the 1 hour 30 minute mark if I could get back to transition and start the run by the 1 hour 5 minute mark. I was able to start the run at 1 hour 4 minutes so the only question I had then was whether the heat would affect my run pace too much. I was checking my watch constantly on the course but I wasn't able to get a feel for how fast I was going because they didn't have each mile marked. I finished the first lap of the run in about 12 and a half minutes so I knew I had to keep up a similar pace on the final lap if I was going to go sub 1:30:00.
There were a lot of people on their first lap while I was doing my second, so the trail portion of the course was getting very crowded. I had to weave in and out of people to keep my pace up and I could tell the heat was starting to take its toll on me. I continued to keep an eye on my watch and as I got closer to the finish line I could tell that a sub 1:30:00 time was in my future. I crossed the line and couldn't believe I was able to complete the race in that time. I fully expected four or five minutes slower than I did based on my lower training volume recently. This race really helped me in the motivation department and I'm looking forward to the increased training ahead.
of pace from the previous cold water swims I did earlier in the year because the cold water always takes me longer to get my breathing controlled. I was scheduled to start in the second wave and was able to keep a pretty good line headed toward the first turn buoy. It wasn't until I turned toward the third buoy that the sun became a factor in my line of sight. Overall, I felt like my swim pace was comfortable and I expected my time to be pretty good.
When I got out of the water the time on my watch was at least a minute slower than I felt the pace would be, but it could have been due to the course being slightly longer than it was suppose to be. My first transition was fairly fast since I didn't have to deal with a wetsuit. Once out on the bike course the first thing I noticed was that most of the roads had been paved since the last time I did this race two years ago. It definitely felt a lot smoother than I remember. About a third of the way through the course I could see up ahead there were several cars that were behind a group of slower riders, and the lead car didn't 
seem interested in going around them even with no cars coming from the other direction. There was one other cyclist just in front of me that was going the same pace as me. When we approached the group of cars it was obvious that we would have to slow down if we chose to wait for the cars to pass the slower riders. Instead of coasting behind these cars at 15 mph waiting for something to clear, I decided I was going around them. Right about that same time the other cyclist that was in front of me apparently decided the same thing, so we started to pass all five cars on their left hand side. The guy in front of me went wide left into the other lane while I decided to hug the middle line and pass the cars within arms length. Since there were no cars coming in the other direction and the cars in our lane saw what we were doing and
moved over to the right a little bit, we were able to pass the whole group of cars and slow riders relatively quickly. The rest of the ride back to transition went well, and I could tell my bike time was looking pretty good. At this point I felt like I had a chance to break the 1 hour 30 minute mark if I could get back to transition and start the run by the 1 hour 5 minute mark. I was able to start the run at 1 hour 4 minutes so the only question I had then was whether the heat would affect my run pace too much. I was checking my watch constantly on the course but I wasn't able to get a feel for how fast I was going because they didn't have each mile marked. I finished the first lap of the run in about 12 and a half minutes so I knew I had to keep up a similar pace on the final lap if I was going to go sub 1:30:00. 
There were a lot of people on their first lap while I was doing my second, so the trail portion of the course was getting very crowded. I had to weave in and out of people to keep my pace up and I could tell the heat was starting to take its toll on me. I continued to keep an eye on my watch and as I got closer to the finish line I could tell that a sub 1:30:00 time was in my future. I crossed the line and couldn't believe I was able to complete the race in that time. I fully expected four or five minutes slower than I did based on my lower training volume recently. This race really helped me in the motivation department and I'm looking forward to the increased training ahead.
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