Pigman sprint Tri in Palo, IA - just outside Cedar Rapids for those who know where that is.
The race sold out super early this year so it was going to be a full house with 800 people.
Packet Pick-up - I always like the way Pigman does the packet pickup, it's in a very nice hotel, easy to find, usually some decent food, and always a local tri shop selling stuff. I picked up my packet and walked past the tri shop's table, good thing too because I spot race belts and say to myself "!@#!" well there's a quick $8 and like my 5th race belt.
After a quick trip to the hotel I get to go out and get some food, lucky for me I spent about 6 months living in Cedar Rapids so I was lucky enough to go to my favorite BBQ place there (Sure it's not the best pre-race food but its a sprint and the food is sooooo good!).
Race morning- Transition opens at 6, I arrive at about 6:20, get set-up, and discover item number 2 I've forgotten - Aero wheel adapter for the pump. I promptly ask the guy next to me if I can borrow his and all is solved. Crisis number 2 averted. Nothing like the first race of the season, I excel at forgetting things anyway but thats another story.

Water temp is cool at just above 60 degrees. I decide not to wear my wetsuit, I told myself that this is a training race and I need to learn to stop being so dependent on a wetsuit and get used to swimming in colder water. Of course I was about the only person not wearing one and the others that weren't that I talked too all said this was their first race and they didn't own one. In fact when I told a guy I had mine in my bag back in transition he asked if he could borrow it (a little big for my suit or I would have let him). I made sure to get plenty of time in the water before the race to try and adjust to the cold which was a good frecking idea. Once my chest hit the water it took my breath away, and getting my head under water was a challenge all in itself. But I just worked at it little by little until I was comfortable enough to breath out underwater.

Start - This race actually has a cool system where they award prize money to not only the top finishers but also the first person to cross the finish line. For this to work they let the elite women go out ahead of the elite men by a few minutes. Waves go Elite Women, Elite Men, Clysedales & athenas go with teams, then there was my wave, 20-24 men and women. Now I understand why they let the athena crowd go first, logically they are going to be slower to finish and we all want to finish at about the same time, but (and anyone who has read my race reports before knows I say this everytime) this just ends up being a very bad idea. I had to crawl over so many people during this race it wasn't even funny. I'm not used to catching the wave in front of me since I'm such a weak swimmer but with the cold water many people wouldn't even put their head under the water. At the turn around I knew I needed to get done soon because I started to shake uncontrollablly. I tried to speed up a bit and thankfully emerged from the water. I've never had this much contact in a sprint before, but all in all it wasn't a bad swim given the temperature of the water.
600m in 12:14 400/800 - given that I wasn't wearing a wetsuit and the temp was so low I thought this wasn't too terrible.

T1 - 2:52, Transition was pretty far from the beach and fairly big in itself, I was actually very smooth in T1.

Bike- Ahhh its my time to shine. There was definite wind, and a few challenging hills but the bike course is great. The bike in a sprint is one of my favorite events, its nice and short, plus I always come out of the water so late that I get to pass a ton of people which helps for a confidence booster. My rear derailer was given me some trouble, Nothing that affected my performance much, but something was loose and it bothered me more mentally than anything, I'll be taking my bike to the shop this week for sure before next week's race. Because of some spacing issues on the road I was almost forced to draft a big truck for about half a mile. A motorcycle came up behind me and I was worried I was going to be DQ'd for it but he must have understood I couldn't get around because I had no penalties. I came off the bike good, I was starting to hurt but it was ok.
40:39 - 22.6mph - 60ish/800

T2 - passed my rack by one, had a slower transition than I would have like but again, nothing bad.
1:25

Run - This part confuses me. I suffered on the run. I suffered bad. I couldn't get my legs to change over and once they did I couldn't get them to move. This was my slowest 5k to date. This includes Triathlons, road races, training, anything. I forced myself to keep proper form but just couldn't kick the pain in my stomach and sides, let alone catch my breath. All three miles were brutal in their own ways. I crossed the line and looked at the watch, my run time had been a painful 32:15. OUCH.
Rune 3.1miles in 32:15. 481/800

All in all I had a good time. I know my training had been lacking lately and it certainly showed. The interesting thing is that my training lately has been focusing on much longer distances.
I am looking for any tips anyone on here might have as to why my run time dropped so much, and if you have any tips on what I can do to improve it. Besides the run I felt I did well and am looking forward to the QC-Tri in just two weeks!