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 Swim
Comments: THE SEAS WERE ANGRY THAT DAY MY FRIENDS Wow. All I'm used to is the frigid Ohio lakes that remain relatively calm. This was warm...but....tumultuous. The first 1/4 mile I did mostly breast-stroke and side-stroke. Catching my breath wasn't the issue, it was trying to find some rythm in this water between swells. When I got the turn and was swimming perpindicular to the waves, it became better and I was able to get a good rythm of freestyle to sidestroke. I dare not do any alternate breathing freestyle. Just breathed every stroke. The last 1/4 mile I was going with the waves and it just got easier. I really found a good rythm of freestyle at this point and could have gone another 1/2 mile. Most of the, I think, red caps swam passed me and the silvers were beginning to. I hung on the rail and almost fell down getting out. Being in an angry ocean for 45minutes then on solid land is a little disorientating. What would you do differently?: Just do the crawl and not spend so much time sighting for who is going to swim over me. Oddly my swim time was only a few minutes off of my other Oly's in much more placid conditions. I guess it's attributed with a lot of swim training focus the last several months. I like swimming, so I guess I did good at this.  Transition 1
Comments: I mostly walked in and out. I downed a gel as I got in, took my time drying the feet, put on socks, shoes and helmet and walked my bike out..WITHOUT my sunglasses. Luckily the sun wasn't much of a problem this early. What would you do differently?: Remember my sunglasses.  Bike
Comments: Well, it was on an MTB with knobbies-so no excuses. Not much else I could do. I had only about 2 weeks of 'bike training' peaking at one hour for this race. Truthfully, I was only ready for half the bike distance. Obviously training for the bike is my least favorite of all three. I just wished I didn't get a flat-as I had not a backup plan. I drank my 30oz of gatorade in quarters during the ride and had a gel at the halfway and end of the ride. The MTB did not go un-noticed. What would you do differently?: Train for the bike. Like it. Embrace it. Get a road bike. Transition 2
Comments: This is where it got difficult. My legs were spent from the bike since I didn't train much on that. Getting off the bike was otherworldy. Rubber legs is an understatement. I just walked the bike into the transition area, racked it walked out of the transition area. I jogged on my way out passed the people. What would you do differently?: Train for some bricks.  Run
Comments: I have only trained up to 30minutes running this year, although mostly consistent. Since my legs were spent already, I jogged a 1/2 mile out of the transition till I got past the mobs. Then I walked for 2minutes and noticed my left calf was tight, then ran for another 1/2 mile and walked two minutes through the first aid station. I continued running a mile and walking 2minutes through the aid stations. It helped a lot instead of trying to run through without stopping. What would you do differently?: Train for the distance. Post race
Warm down: I walked for about an hour trying to keep loose drinking another 20oz of gatorade. Met up with jldcarlo and we then, eventually, found the blatantly obvious BT banner. Had some beers, met more BT'ers and compared swim notes. Then went to the postrace B&B and relaxed. I think I was catatonic most of the time. What limited your ability to perform faster: Training. Event comments: Great race. You couldn't get off-course if you tried. Everything was marked and attended. Very timely. Lot's of people though-but everyone was nice and helpful. Last updated: 2005-12-01 12:00 AM
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United States
75F / 24C
Precipitation
Overall Rank = 2762/3030
Age Group = 30-34
Age Group Rank = 165/173
I apologize if I screw up any BT'ers names but from never meeting any to about 30 of them, I was inundated. On Saturday I got in a drove around about an hour around The Pier trying to figure out where to park and where stuff was. Janice (Foolproof) was, I think, the first BT'er I met live.
I got my packet and walked around the expo but mainly I kept going back to the swim exit to watch the OWS practice. The ocean was not looking like it was my friend. I was mesmerized wondering what I was going to do the next morning. Went back on pulled out the Iron Maiden-my MTB. Got it in the transition area and then it was pasta dinner time where I met the rest of the gang. MIND YOU, I'm am a quiet, shy, introvert. You know the type, 'building model airplanes/bookworm/science guy' guy...so meeting about 30 strangers, that I knew (oxymoron?) was a little surreal.
They told me to not change anything on race day so I did just that. Went home with some BT'ers (TriTakeMeAway, Jamesreeves, coredump, Jeff) and then after they went to bed, I drank a half a pot of some RICH, THICK coffee...which was very good ;) and proceeded to stay up for another two hours. Went to bed around 11pm the night before and went to sleep around 1am...woke up at 3:30am-so all according to plan so far...Had some oatmeal and more coffee and drove about 30mninutes to the race.
Arrived around 5:30am, place was crawling with people, still dark. Got numbered, laid out the transition, had about 12oz of gatorade then ran with jamesreeves to the beach as was running late...in hindsight, a good warmup for this swim. Jamesreeves is a good guy, very supportive as the freaked look pre-swim washed over my face. We arrived near the end of the prayer and anthem. Got the chip installed, went to the beach as the 2nd wave started. Was lining up with my wave and reached to get my swim cap...NO WHITE CAP! OMG! And there was aboslutely no way I or superman had 20minutes to go back to the transition area to get it in 2 minutes. Luckily the girl I panickly asked told me the chip people had extras. It was true. I thank them for the attention to detail.