A good fun early season race

I signed up for the race so that I could get an early season event under my belt and see how my winter training had progressed. I came into the race feeling pretty good overall but still not sure what to expect. The pool "snake" swim was an interesting proposition but mostly uneventful. I passed one person and was passed by one so that told me I placed myself appropriately and swam to my abilities. After a quick T1 it was onto the bike. This was my first race on the new Ventum One and it was put to the test. A nice rolling course with crazy 20+ mph sustained cross winds and gusts in the upper 30's really test the handling of my new ride. It performed flawlessly given the conditions and I came off the bike in 1st overall. Knowing that a friend would most likely be off the bike close behind me and that he could outrun me I settled into a hard effort out of T2. After the first turn around Matt and I crossed paths and I could see that I had a sizeable lead. I pushed through mile 2, which is mostly up hill. Knowing that I ran it hard and that the final mile was down hill and fast I felt pretty safe with my lead and really enjoyed being out front for the first time. On my way towards the finish I was cheering and high fiving athletes on their way out on the run course and enjoyed taking it all in. I was pretty excited to find out later that I had broken the course record by 32 seconds. All in all a great start to the season!