I haven't been in the pool since Ironman Florida last year, so I went into this race wondering how the swim would go. My goal was to beat last year's time of 53 minutes and change, and to really hit the bike and run hard. I started in the first of three waves, and settled into my pace. The water was reasonably warm, and even though I really did not enjoy a single moment of the swim, I still felt more comfortable in the water than I did last year. I couldn't tell where I was coming out of the water, so I dashed up the beach and transitioned as quickly as I could.

After a quick transition, I was out on the bike course, riding a new set of HED s-bends for the first time. I couldn't quite find a confortable position, and as a result, I didn't blaze the bike course as fast as I wanted. I was cruising, but not really hammering. I passed several people, though, and moved up into third place in my wave. As I pulled into T2, I was within sight of the second-place guy. I solved my shoe issues from the previous year, and after a very fast transition, I dashed onto the road.

I ran down the man in front of me within the first quarter-mile, and with nobody on the road in front of me, I entered time-trial mode. I felt a lot better off the bike than usual, and posted a 16:56 run, the fastest of the day. However, one athlete from the second wave beat me by less than a minute, relegating me to third place overall. Not a bad race, but I'm reminded why I like to stay on solid earth for the entire race.