
The Swim: The swim was 1500 meters in Lady Bird Lake. The water was pretty warm so it was a non-wetsuit swim but I didn’t wear a speedsuit. I got into a decent rhythm and swam a 23:49 which wasn’t a bad swim for me. I believe I was the 15th man out of the water. Balzas, the Hungarian pro who will also be racing in Kona swam a blazing 18:50 while James Bonney swama 19:17.
The Bike: I was a whole 5 minutes back on the top swimmer so I had a lot of ground to make up. The bike was a total of 40k which consisted of 3 laps. Each lap had a handful of turns with a few 180 degree turns. There were a few hills but nothing too challenging. It was pretty windy out on the course with a few good gusts. I made up a lot of time on the bike and clocked the 2nd fastest time of the day riding a 56:21 which I was happy about without having a disc wheel. I didn’t feel super sharp on the bike because I raced IM Canada the week before. Bonney had the fastest bike split of 56:00.
The Run: James Bonney was the first guy out on the run and was lead with a lead bicycle on the course. Balzas was 2nd and I was 3rd. I started rolling to try to make up some ground. I got to an intersection and then a spectator said that the course runs this way. I continued on the two loop course. I ended up seeing James Bonney and I thought in my head “ hmmm I caught him rather quick, I thought he had a bigger lead” Well when I passed him the lead cyclist was taking me. I started my 2nd loop and came back to that same intersection as the lead cyclist took me around this loop. I realized I had missed it the first time so I ended up running it twice (entered the exact same spot where I missed it the first time) to make up for the first time I missed it. Doing that little loop twice I found myself behind James Bonney again. I got to about 1k left of the course and my friend Steve White said “You’re 26 seconds behind.” I could see him ahead. All we had left was an out and back on the bridge so I motored my way to try to catch him. Then with about 150-200 meters to go I caught him and flew by to beat him 5-6 seconds. My total time was a 1:56:09 and I clocked a 33:00 10k run. James Bonney finished 5 seconds behind me in 1:56:14.
Then I found out that Balzas (who would have most likely won it), myself who finished 2nd, Peter Mallet who finished 4th and another guy who finished 5th all got disqualified because we ran off course. Myself, Peter and the 5th place guy all ran two laps the second loop around to make up for the missed section the first time. Therefore, we all ran the same distance (10k) as everyone else and did not have an advantage at all. Balzas was really directed off course multiple times. Because 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th were disqualified James Bonney became the Champion of the Austin Triathlon.

The reason why the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th guys off the bike missed the turn the first time. #1. I was told a sign blew down. #2. I was told that the chalk on the grass blew away. #3. There was not any volunteers that section as myself and 3 other guys missed the turn. Roughly 5 minutes went by and then after they started realizing everyone was missing the turn they put a volunteer there. Peter and I both looked at the run course online before the race too and I knew the course had about 10 turns per lap. With spectators guiding us the wrong way and a course that was not marked properly, no wonder why the 2nd-5th guys out of transition 2 missed it. Now why didn’t James Bonney miss the turn and get mixed up on the course as well? He was first off the bike and had a lead bike guide him through the course.
Overall I was pleased with my performance to bounce back from IM Canada and finish 2nd overall. Unfortunately the top 4 out of 5 guys had to be disqualified at the Austin Triathlon.













