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 Swim
Comments: Even after reading many stories about the chaos of OWS especially with a beach start I decided that I was fairly confident in my swimming ability (even though I really hadn't done any open water yet) and if I got run over then I would just chalk it up as gained experience and move on. The first wave was for men 34 and under so it was a good size group and I was lined up in the front row right in the middle of the pack. The horn blew and we were off. I started off a little faster than I normally would to try to get out in front of the mob and was just just waiting for the stampede to come. Much to my surprise we got halfway down the first stretch and no one had touched me yet. I looked up and saw only 2 swimmers in front of, I was in 3rd! I hit my pace and just kept going. I couldn't believe it when I hit the beach and was the 3rd one out of the water. Talk about a huge adrenaline/confidence boost to carry into the bike. It helped that my 2 and 4 year old neice and nephew were standing in the front of the crowd holding signs and cheering, Hopefully I am planting the tri bug early. What would you do differently?: Need to work on my sighting. It was not a fluid motion as it should be and it really chopped up my stroke a few times.  Transition 1
Comments: I haven't gotten too many goodies yet to make T1 faster so I put on socks, tied my shoes, etc. Plenty of room for improvement here. I was worried about the wetsuit getting stuck but it came off easy.  Bike
Comments: I knew going in that this was going to be weakest leg. My first time on a road bike was 4 months ago so I really wanted to just get through it without losing too much ground and without killing my legs. The big hill at mile 4 was a killer grinding to about 7-8 mph at the top just trying not to blow up. It was sure fun coming down at 38 mph though. It was really tmepting to try to keep with the guys passing me on this leg but I knew that I had to stay with my own pace if I wanted to finish strong. What would you do differently?: Biking will be a big part of my off season training plan Transition 2
Comments: Easy transition here. Rack bike, helmet off, number belt on, off we go. What would you do differently?: Nothing  Run
Comments: Legs felt pretty good coming off the bike. They were a little wobbly coming out of transition but with the crowd cheering and spotting my wife and family the adrenaline boost was overpowering and I could have sprinted out onto the course. I could have liked a little more water on the course. Part of the problem was that the water station was on one side of the road so on the return trip I would have had to fight through the line of oncoming runners to get to the table. Not worth it so I just kept going. I wanted to hold about a 8:30 pace ofr the run, I was afraid if I got too eager and went under 8 that I would struggle at the end. That strategy worked out well and I came in at 32 minutes. What would you do differently?: Better hydration Post race
Warm down: Walked around the park for a while and stretched. Talked with fanily and friends who had come out to offer their support. Event comments: Crossing the finish line was a great feeling. It is so incredibly rewarding to put months of effort in to acheiving something and then to finally accomplish it and surpass the goals that you had set for yourself. I thought it might be a stretch for me to finish under 1:30 and I couldn't believe it when I saw my time of 1:18. It is amazing what we can do when we set our minds to it and more often then not I think we end up surprising ourselves when we figure what we are capable of. Last updated: 2009-08-24 12:00 AM
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United States
Final Stretch
Overall Rank = 108/511
Age Group = 25-29
Age Group Rank = 14/37
Woke up at 4AM to get the day going. Ate the same breakfast I normally do before morning workouts; an egg, two pieces of toast with peanut butter and some cottage cheese with fruit. Oh, and can't forget the coffee. Started getting all of my gear loaded into the truck and checking everything off my list. Woke the wife up at about 5 and once she was dressed and ready we were on the road for the 45 minute drive to Hudson.
Being my first race I was a little tense getting ready to go. Really wanted to make sure I didn't forget anything and tried not expose myself for the true newb that I am. Fortunately there were only about 3 other bikes in transition when I arrived so I was able to get a choice spot on the racks. Once everything was set up I took the bike out for a couple of miles to get everything working. I was starting to feel more at ease now. Racked the bike and went for a quick jog. By this time transition was getting pretty full so I took all the extra stuff back to the truck, hit the restroom, and started to put on my wetsuit. The wetsuit had just come in the mail the day before and I had gone out to a local lake with it that night just to put it on but that was my first OWS and first time in wetsuit so I headed down to the beach to swim a little more before race time. Very glad I did. It felt great and I was able to find my stroke so I was ready to go.