Triathlon #1 for the year is complete. This was a sprint distance course; I had done the Oly course last year (Swim/Bike only). Mrs. Zoxe joined me for the sprint so we could make each other nervous in line to swim.

I PR'd my sprint distance by taking 7 minutes off my previous best. The weather was great. The water was COLD, so cold (open water swim). Even with a full-sleeve wetsuit, it was COLD.

I did manage a super quick 400 swim at 6:16. This is blazingly fast for me, probably in part due to the cold temp motivation.

As with all races, I learned a few things. I drifted wide in the last leg of the swim because I got lax on my sighting. I lost a minute or more in T1 because I fought my equipment and had to pause and regroup before setting out, and lost time again in T2 because of similar problems (forgot my bib number and had to go back for it).

Equipment changes (wheels, seat, aero bars) on the Bianchi made in the offseason worked well and will pay off on a longer course. Very happy with my rig at the moment.

My run speed was a PR for my 5k distance. I felt like I struggled with it, so was glad to get the time I did. I don't enjoy running and really hadn't prep'd much for it, and I am glad to be done with it.

This venue tends to be more competitive than another race I've done (Naperville IL). My time today would have been a solid middle of the pack up there (if not upper 40%), but I was 8/10 in my division today. The number of guys doing sprints wearing Full and Half IM logo equipment and IM stickers on their bikes was astounding. Very competitive crowd. Sounds like I'm complaining, but I'm not - makes me want to find more speed.

I'm back to the same venue in a month for an AQbike -- swim, bike, no run ... Olympic distance this time.