This is one of the roughest starts to any swim I have ever done. A lot! of contact in the first 200 meters or so. Fortunately I have developed enough comfort in the water that this is not really too much of an issue.

I bought a short sleeve Aquaman suit at the expo because they basically said it would be wetsuit legal no matter what the temperature was....... The water was really, really warm and my Aquaman Cell Gold was going to be way too hot for this swim. I love the Aquaman product and this short sleeve suit (the Bionik 2) did not disappoint.

I swam as straight as I ever have. Lined up right in the middle at pretty much the front and went out hard, realizing that was a recipe for a lot of contact. Got on the buoy line and just swam. Felt comfortable but like I was working. Ended up catching a lot of people in the two waves ahead of me which felt good. Things spaced out from about 200-900 yards but got really crowded again during the "across" 300 yards.

I was able to swim in a group for much of the swim and actively looked for faster feet to draft off of.

Overall, felt great. I expected to be faster. I remember thinking exactly the same thing the last time I did this race. Oh well. I think I was about four minutes faster than 2011......

Nothing. Happy with this swim.

One comment I have is that I swam in to people in waves in front of me three separate times during the race. It was not malicious. They were going slow and the water is murky enough that you don't see them until you are on top of them. Did everything I could to not molest them. Unfortunately this is part of triathlon. Wish there were a good way to fix this.

I put socks on in T1 pretty much every time. Usually with no problem, just 5-10 seconds. I could not get my socks on! It was crazy. It probably added 30 seconds to my T1. I'm going to have to fix this before the next race. Either no socks or get better at putting them on.

I tried to push this. My goal was to have an average power between 200-210 at the end of the ride.

My first seven miles I absolutely crushed. I was averaging 25-28 miles per hour all the way out to highway 35. I felt like an animal. When I got to 35 I knew I had to back off a little bit in order to not burn myself totally up. I ended up in a 'pack' of about six riders. One really strong woman, one guy who was drafting off of anyone he could and then four other guys (including myself). Except for the one obvious cheater we were all riding fair and staying at legal distances. It totally blew up my pacing/power strategy. I spent about 30 miles of the ride having to constantly be vigilant to not drift in to someone's draft zone. Of course, inevitably, I would end up too close and have to put on a surge of power to then pass them (and everyone else) within 20 seconds. Eventually, someone behind me would have the same thing happen. I can honestly say that I rode that entire darn race legal despite the proximity of all of the other riders. Our group dynamic was clearly obvious because the Marshall kept coming around and driving next to us. I must have seen the motorcycle 10-12 times. Eventually three people in the 'pack' got red cards (including the guy I told you was blatantly cheating. Hah!) and that split things up. It was a very mentally and physically taxing ride. My power was all over the place.

This ride blew my legs up a lot more than other rides and I was destined to pay for it on the run :(

Nutrition for the bike was two bottles of UCAN/Infinit mixed to 400 calories per bottle. Finished the first one in about 50 minutes. Dropped it and grabbed a water which I drank about 50% of and used the other 50% to douse myself/keep cool. Second bottle was finished with about 14 miles left and I got rid of that bottle and grabbed a second water bottle which I used the same way as the first. I probably drank more of the second one as I was feeling a bit dry. Total was 40 ounces of concentrated nutrition, about 25-30 ounces of water. I could tell that I was working harder on the bike because there were a couple times the nutrition didn't want to go down well. This is my tried and true mix that usually gives me now problems at all. Just an observation.

I wish that I could have ridden this all by myself. It is harder to ride like this with the constant need to monitor your proximity to others than it would be to just go out an hit your watts. I think I would have had a better overall race if I could have just ridden. Of course, that isn't how things worked out. It probably is good practice for racing on a crowded course like IMAZ in November where some of the same dynamics can come in to play.

I ended up riding the average watts that I want to ride for a full IM. I think I can go out an ride 112 at that power if I can just ride. I guess we will see. I hope so

Don't know how this took 1:30. I was at the bike rack for about four seconds. Shoes on. Put on my hat and race belt on the fly.

Remember those socks? Turns out one of them was on a little sideways and didn't cover my lateral heal well. I would have a nice raw spot on my heel after the run to show for that.

This felt hotter than it was. I paid the price on this run for my bike indiscretions. I really wasn't hurting that bad. My goal was to run the first half at around 7:00 pace and then drop to 6:45-50 for the second half and really crush the last two miles.

Well, I kept telling my legs to go faster but they didn't seem to want to do it. I really wasn't breathing that hard at the pace I was running. I didn't feel that taxed. I just wasn't running fast.

I reset my priorities and decided that I would try to keep it around 7:30, which seemed to be where my body wanted to settle and not slow down or walk at all. This is exactly what I did. I was even able to pick it up a little bit in the last couple miles. I was passed by three people on the run. I passed hundreds. Running 7:30s in a HIM is pretty fast compared to most so I got to pretend like I was a rock start in spite of my Garmin's constant reminder that I was more of a one-hit-wonder. Alas.

The one piece suit worked great for the run. I was hot at this point. At every aid station I poured ice and ice water down the front and back of the suit. There was nowhere for it to go so the ice mostly settled in my low back and in the groin which helped me to be cool. Maybe uncomfortably cool with the groin....... I took in a mouth full of water at every aid station and coke whenever it was offered. Coupled with my bike nutrition, this once again proved to be more than adequate to get me through the run with good energy.

See bike.

I genuinely thought I could run a 1:28-30 today if I had done this right. However, instead of saving so much for the run, I burned a few more matches on the bike today. This probably was actually a more even performance across all three disciplines as a result.

Met my wife within two minutes of finishing. The diminished pace on the run had me feeling pretty OK very soon after finishing.


HTFU


Really one of the best races I have done. It was significantly better in 2014 than it was in 2011.

I will definitely come back and do this again.

If you are looking for a great HIM, this definitely meets the bill.