Beginning of the swim was rough, as usual! By the Time I reached the 1st buoy I was thinking wtf am I doing and why do I keep signing up for these races! At this point took a deep breath and tried to settle into a rhythm, and was able to get to a steady stroke pattern and found my self breathing to both sides. This was the 1st time I have done this in the race and it made a world of difference in my tracking of the course. Once i was in rythm i actually starting catching up with other swimmers. this is still a complete shock to my system and it causes me to pop up and see what is going on. when this happened i would pull up and stay behind whoever i ran into. in the future i need to learn to push past them and pick up pace. Going out to the 1st yellow buoy I had no problems with sighting and hit it dead on, was actually surprised that I was so close to it and rubbed the buoy as I made the turn. While heading towards the 2nd turn the sighting was a little off as I pulled to the right some but was able to correct fairly quickly. Made the 2nd turn to head back to the beach, this section was probably the area that I had the most trouble sighting. My goggles fogged up and I couldn't really catch sight of a buoy and all the swimmers were spread out so I couldn't use that as a guide. I wound up getting into the interior of the course and had to work to get back on track. Foggy goggles stuck with me for the rest of the race and was more of an annoyance than anything.

Almost 45s slower than previous year ????

Not fall into the negative thoughts at the early part of the swim, I need to accept is going to be rough to start and get into a rhythm quicker!

Overall smooth transition, I was cussing at myself for a minute because it felt like I was going slow, especially when trying to get my socks on. I need to work on growing sock less for these shorter races to save times. Of course that would take a different pair of shoes, there is no way I Would run sock less in my current pair

Bike was extremely fun, I checked wind direction before the start of the race so I knew where to push the pace and where to allow my speed to come down. Coming out of the park the course went West which put me into a headwind right away. Kept the cadence high and let my legs tell me how fast I should be going. Went to the point my quads started to burn the backed down slightly. This was a method I used throughout the course. A the 1st turn the course turned north and even though the wind turned to crosswind it still enabled somewhat of a push so I was ale to get the speed up to 22mph, over the next 4 miles I kept up this pattern. Push when I had the wind and ease up in the headwinds. During this time I caught up with a lot of other riders, and only had a few pass me, and the ones who did pass me appeared to be elite out of the Oly race but not sure!
At mile 6.7 is where the fun started, the course turned to the east and the wind was directly behind me, I let out a whelp and pushed as hard as I could. Made to around 25mph before my legs started to burn so I eased up slightly and managed to hold this pace for the next 4 miles, again during this time I PASSED A LOT OF RIDERS and had no one pass me which felt good! I would say that most of the people I passed were going about 4 mph slower at least. Probably because I was so slow in the swim. After this another turn into the crosswind and came down to 20mph, until the last turn. This put me due west and going right into the headwind tried to push but my legs were burning by this point and I figured no need to blow up at this point so I backed down, when I turned into the park I instantly saw Brenda coming out onto the course and gave her a shout, from here I was able to pick up some speed until I ran into a Crackerbox that drove right out onto the course in front of me and then proceeded to drive 15mph. I was trying to go faster but couldn't get around, and I was also concerned that drafting could come into play so I held back as far as I could. Finally after 1/4 mile the idiot got out of the way and I pushed past him to finish the bike strong.

Not much, top 3 in AG is fantastic! Even with the wind I felt strong through out and enjoyed the ride. I wonder though, If I enjoyed the ride did I not push hard enough!

all i have to do is take helmet off, kind of hard to screw that up!

This section went off smooth, well except for going in and out of the wind. Cam out of T2 and legs were slightly tight but nothing to worry about. My breathing and HR on the other hand were through the roof. Even though i didnt wear my monitor I was definitely red lined. The HR didn't concern me but the hyperventilating did, slowed the pace just slightly. At this point I reached the 1st water point, and 1 swig just about had me gagging. This water was nasty and tasted like they filled it right out of the dead fish zone of lake Erie. On the next 2 water points I didn't drink just dumped it on my head. Didn't want the taste but probably needed the hydration. Overall the run was good, I kept my effort high and was only passed by 1 or 2 runners. Bad part one of these runners was in my AG but he was cruising and even though I tried I couldn't keep up with him I had no chance. Made the turn around and continued to push I gave everything I could and passed some additional runners. Last 1/4 mile I tried to increase pace but I had nothing left. Just hung on to the finish.
Mile Splits: 7:08/7:29/7:31

Not much here either, I pushed as hard as could without falling out. The fact I had nothing left at the end meant I left everything on the course!

Who knows, probably the swim...AGAIN!
I found it extremely frustrating that my time only improved by 30s over last year.


Since I use this race as my measuring stick on how I am doing and progressing I figured I would post past race results, I am a little disappointed I didn't drop more time, even though the weather probably played a big part in this years results. I also noticed looking at the results that several of the AG leaders were several minutes slower from the previous year, maybe I did better than I thought?