I had a really bad swim at an oly in austin a few weeks back. My HR spiked before the start and I never got it under control. I had thoughts of finding kayak and calling it a day. So between then and now, I got in a couple of OWS sessions including one the day before the race at the race site.
I had absolutely no problems with anxiety during this race. I got kicked a couple of times, swam over and swam in to but I felt fine. Getting out of the water and seeing 3x:xx was good for me.

Worked harder I guess. I was happy with the swim.

My garmin had t1 as .41mi from start to finish. It was a really really long way up the beach, out of the parking lot, down the street and into the parking lot for t1. The strippers were good. Mine spoke french but there really isn't much need for conversation. The long t1 set up was unavoidable and they did a good job setting up carpet. Very nice.
I wanted to run with socks so I put them on in t1 so that I could do the bending over on fresh legs. I have a history of cramping and didn't want to risk it in t2.

I ran in my bike shoes instead of leaving them on the pedals. I really don't think that it slowed me down much at all in a race like this.

What a great bike ride. My goal was HR in the 140's, go easy up hills and maintain pressure down hills.
The climb from mi38 to mi48 was a monster for me but it was so much fun. I moved pretty well along the flat section from mi 10 to mi 25. I am looking forward to Austin 70.3 in October.

Change out my gears. I was in major denial about how much effort this climbing was going to take. Major denial.
During the race, you could tell who the locals were because on the uphills, they would just drop into this massive rear cog and spin away. I ended up doing real damage to my bike and run results because I didn't set the bike up right for the course. If you are considering this race (and I would really consider it. It was great) make are you look at my garmin elevation info and set your bike up accordingly.

t2 was uneventful. I was slow on the bike so the rack was crowded.

By this time, the damage had been done. I held an avg HR of 163 for over 2 hrs on the run. Given that my lthr is 170, I can't fault the effort.
My plan was to go at my hmp+30 sec for the first 3 mi and then see how I felt. If I could pick it up, I would. I just didn't want to go out too fast and blow up.
It was very clear very early that it would not go as planned. I ended up running by hr and time. I would take the race 10 or 15min at a time and run for 9 or 14 and walk for 1. I feel like I did a good job of staying with the run when it was time to run and keeping the walking to the time set aside for walking. I was not even looking at my over all race time during the first 1/2 of the run. I just stayed in my current box of 10 or 15 minutes.
It got hot after we came off of the path for the last 3mi or so. And hilly. This run had more hill to it than many bike rides I have been on.

I did a good job staying focused till I hit the turn around on the run. At that point, I let myself check my overall time and started doing mental math about finishing times.
This was a mistake. Next time I will stay in my box and take the race 10 or 15min at a time.
Train more hills.
I cramped towards the end of the run. I ALWAYS cramp. 6 marathons, 2 HIM. Cramped in all of them. As you can imagine, I have tried a number of different methods to get past this. From nutrition to more run volume, more bike volume, more strength training, less strength training, slower pace etc etc etc. No solution yet.

Great finisher area. Good food. Stood in line for the free massage behind another guy from texas.
Fell asleep during the 15min massage...
I must have looked like death because people kept asking me if I was alright.


Gotta spend some time thinking this one over. I know that the gear set up on the bike was a mistake.
Once again, I to sick during my taper. High fever. Sinus infection. Wound up on antibiotics a week before the race. Felt fine on race day though. Not sure of the meds effected anything or not.


Folks, this is an excellent excellent race. It is expensive to get there (I had a $300 cab ride from the airport. If you go, rent a car.) but the people are so nice and the race site is beautiful.
I have heard that they will alter the course for the full in 2013. This is a good idea. Doing 2 loops on that bike course would hurt!