Not a bad swim. Not a great swim either. I started off fairly well. I found some bubbles, drafted a bit, then broke off. I really prefer to swim solo. It's just so much less stressful. After rounding the first buoy I found a pair of feet to lock on to. Unfortunately he dragged me way out and off course. It wasn't too bad, but it's not where I wanted to be. The next buoy I was solo again, and pulled far to the right.

Fortunately moving far to the right actually saved me some time by cutting a bend a little shorter than most other people. I caught back up and found a few pairs of feet to follow in. I kept on them to the end.

Overall it was very decent. I didn't push too hard to keep energy in reserve, and it worked out reasonably well.

Navigate better. Again. I could have pushed a little harder through here too. I managed to walk out of the water still feeling fresh.

Great T1 time. 14 in age group and 77 overall. Just sayin. This was a good transition. Everything was visualized, and everything worked out well. Only small snag was that I didn't prepare my velcro straps, and I struggled a bit getting them on. Of course that's not reflected in this time.

Take a closer look at prepping my shoes. Rack the bike in the proper gear.

Gained no places in my age group, lost no places. I may have taken it a bit too easy through this ride. It's funny how much more strategy there is for a race of this length. I'm obviously not going to go balls out for the entire ride, but at the same time where do you?

Starting off I tried to power up the hills to make my passes. It worked a little, but I usually got passed right back when I failed to follow through in an attempt to pace myself. It felt like a nice relaxed group ride for the first half.

The second half... well that unflavoured Sustained Energy tastes like chalk. I didn't mind drinking it, but it wasn't very nice. This is where I started to feel my stomach bother me. I hate to keep talking about GI issues, but this determined the rest of the race, so I don't have much of a choice.

I also felt a lot more worked in and worn out much earlier. I didn't gain as quickly to other people on descents. I just seemed like I had just lost momentum. With about 15k left it finally clued in that not pumping my tires might be having an effect. After a week sitting, I'm usually down from 110 psi to 90. When I got home this was confirmed for the front, but the back was all the way down to 80. That's very substantial. Is it 2 km/h slower? Maybe. It felt like it.

Also during the last 15k I started getting some pretty bad gear skipping. It appears that my chain had been bent in one spot, either from crossing over too much, from last night's chain removal and cleaning, or from a combination of the two. It got so bad I was almost unable to put any power down without slipping from the middle chainring to the small. When I looked down it was twisted on an angle. Crap.

I've wanted to upgrade to a 10-speed groupset, but I didn't want to be forced into it. But with 10-speed shifters already on the bike and needing a new chain, it looks like that might be the best option at this point. Or maybe I'll just get a new chain. Haha.

Review my nutrition. Save some reserves for the last third of the ride maybe. Not remove my chain the night before.

20 in age group, 130 overall. MOP.

Not a bad transition at all. I found my bike okay (the yellow towel was a FSMsend), and used the extra time to put my IT band strap on (properly too). I didn't forget anything, and this time I was somewhat confident of that.

Not much actually. Maybe try running with the bike better, but this is going to be tough to improve on very much.

I don't think there are enough words to describe how suckage this was. On this "run" I only beat two people who had a finishing time. Whatever it was, the Sustained Energy or anything else I ate on the weekend caught up to me here. It started immediately on the run and only got worse.

The first 3k were okay, but after that point my stomach was cramping worse than it ever had. Ever. I thought I needed to get my appendix removed or something. Any time I ran it just got worse, so I walked. I walked 95% of the last 10k.

I probably should have just quit the race, but I had some crazy need to "finish" it, like as if that was considered an actual "finish". That wasn't anything like racing, it was walking.

It's like as if Bruce Jenner was competing in the decathlon and said "ehhh, I did good enough with everything else, so instead of the shot put I'm going to play marbles." Totally different game!

Even the people giving support were pissing me off. "Come on, you can do it, just a little bit left," or "come on, hustle a little." EFF OFF! I'm doing what I can! If I had any option other than walking I would be doing it. But I smiled and tried to thank them or be positive. Their intentions are good, and I did appreciate that.

It's unfortunate that a crappy run defined what was otherwise a pretty decent swim and an okay ride. I think it's been enough for me to put my plans to do a half iron on hold for this year. It would be a great experience, but if I can't run most of the run I don't feel like I'd deserve a lower case i.

This race was supposed to determine whether I signed up for the half-iron. Right after the race I was undecided, but the next morning... yeah, that's not happening this year. Besides, I've accomplished a lot this year, no sense it using it up all in one year.

For this year I've still got to finish an olympic distance where I'm running the full 10k. I've still got to do a half-marathon. I'm still going to try out cyclocross. I've got to keep myself from being injured. I've got to figure out nutrition. Lots of smaller goals for this year, so it's not like I'm going to be slacking off.

I'd hate to have to wait until NEXT September to do my half-iron, so I think I'm going to do a half-iron distance race or two during the year, maybe finishing off with Muskoka. If I feel like I absolutely need to get a real lower-case i before September, there are a couple other races that are relatively close and easy to get to. So we'll see. I think it'll be a fun year getting to concentrate on one distance.

Woah, off-topic. In other words the run sucked.

On the positive side, no injuries. And bonus, I realized that the ankle pain that I have (the one that doctor google diagnosed as something I'd end up needing surgery for (he's very aggressive)), was actually from smacking my ankle on the effing crank. So stupid that I didn't realize it sooner. But at least I can make the adjustments easily enough. Hopefully toeing in won't cause OTHER injuries to my right side. Haha.

Completely scrap my nutrition plans and start from scratch. That tongue-in-cheek rule about steak sandwiches is actually not tongue-in-cheek anymore. I would have only eaten simple, low-fat, easily digestable foods, like plain rice, bagels, chicken breast, and vegetables for the days leading up to the race. Race day I would not have tried out a new type of nutrition (especially not one that tastes like chalk). And oh yeah, I would have known that no matter how much of a rush you're in, you're supposed to CHEW your bagel before swallowing it.

You mean other than the 10k walk?


It's all listed above, but to recap:

1) nutrition
2) mechanical issues
3) poor navigation


Nice race overall, but I wasn't feeling the run. Not much shade, and too many turnarounds. The ride was gorgeous though, and I loved the swim route. I didn't stick around for the post-race activities, but they seemed to be set up well, and it looked like good insurance to be indoors.