This was one of those races where things just felt right from the start, probably my last official race of the season, so it was nice to end with a fun strong effort.

I arrived 2 hours early for this race and the parking lot was already half full and a steady line of cars followed me in. Reminded me of the old mountain bike races a few years back. I get registered and head to my assigned rack in the transition area. I was assigned to what I felt was the best possible location, right at the entry/exit.

After some chatting with Izi and Kieth I was able to get a nice warm up in both running and biking. I brought the mountain bike along to this race. Very nice having a second bike for warm up and travel in general.

At 9:00 the first wave (me included) enter the water for the start. After a few minutes we are told there is an issue, one of the bouys has detached and is floating away! We all stand in the water shivering for another 10 minutes before we finally get the signal to go, with no advance warning. 16 minutes later I emerge from the water feeling pretty good, I was a couple minutes slower than the fast guys but that is what I expected.

After a very smooth bike transition, thanks Mark for the use of your tri suit, I head out to the bike course. The first couple miles is mostly climbing. The legs felt great and I passed a bunch of people early. At the top of the climb I take my first drink then drop the water bottle. For those keeping count, thats two triathlons and two lost water bottles. The rest of the course consisted of slight rollers and some fun corners. The last 10 miles I spend pretty much alone convincing myself I'm not really thirsty.

After another smooth transition, thanks PJ for the number belt, I'm off and running. This is a very flat course with long straights so you can see a long ways ahead. I don't see much ahead of me, maybe I'm closer to the front than I thought. As I approach the turnaround I was able to count those going the other way, only 4 people! I look behind me and there is no one close, so my position is safe. I crank it up to try to catch the guy ahead of me, but I'm not able to close the gap much. I cross the line in 1:22:15, 10 overall and 2nd in my age group by only 5 seconds.
 
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