Well, the big race for me this year is behind me and I feel really good about the results and everything really went as planned.

I woke up at about 4:50am to grab some food and look over my gear one more time. We then headed over to the race site at about 5:45.

The air temp was a bit cold at 57degrees so it actually was a little warmer to be in the water at 71 degrees. The swim went well, though my navigation was off. My goggles kept fogging so I couldn't sight the way I wanted so I got into a rhythm of 20 strokes free and then 1 or 2 breast for sighting. I ended up with around a 35-minute swim time.

The bike went very well. I followed some advice to take it easy at first and really didn't kick it in until about 15 mile into the race. Unfortunately, I got caught up in a group that was doing a lot of passing and I believe I'll be hit with a drafting penalty (I saw the motorcycle ref right my number down, but the official times won't be posted for a few days). The sun came out and the temp stayed moderate. I ended the bike with a 2:34 time.

The run was an out and back 2-loop course. I ran the first half at about a 7:40 pace and felt like I could run like that all day. At about mile 8 I started to slow. It was kind of funny because I thought I was holding pace because my cadence felt consistent, but my stride length must have dropped because I dropped to around 8:15 pace. Finally at mile 10 I really felt like I might hit a wall. I did muster some final energy for the last 2 miles and just kept telling my self (your floating on air, keep it on auto pilot.). Run time was 1:46.

My time before the penalty (if I get it) was 5:01:34. I feel really good because when I started training I was targeting 5:30. Then after I saw my training going well and I learned that it was a really flat course, I set a target of 5:15 with a 5:10 stretch...

Now its time to focus on the 3 sprints and 1 oly I have left this season....