The Swim went better rather well. My goal was to do freestyle the whole way and to use good form. I got a left calf cramp at a 1 mile and so I roled on to my back to see if I could massage the calf to get it to relax. Touching it just caused it to spasm, so I tolls back to my front (and some how ended up swimming the course backwards), I tried changing the kick and going to now kick at a combination of the two got me through. I did roll on my back a second time to prevent any more spasms. Note: this calf is the one that has been causing problems through most of my training. :-( My time was 3 minutes better than my goal of 38 minutes and 5 minutes better than what I though I would be at 40 minutes. I didn't over do the swim either. It was a very easy pace so I could bike with out my hear rate being high.

Hmm? I am not sure? Over all it went better than I hoped.

I forgot that I had a timing chip strapped around my ankle until my wet suit got stuck around my angle. Getting it unstuck the chip off and then retrying cost me about a minute. I almost for got my bike glasses (not that I could use them in the fog (100% humidity because they were cover with water). Over all the transition went as practices. A moderate pace and then I was on my way.

I would have sent about 15 more second applying sun screen. I though I covered my self pretty good in 15 seconds, but discovered that some patched got missed. :-)

I need to get a bracelet to use as my timing chip when practicing T1's because I hadn't considered that at all in training and it cost me a lot of time.

I took it very easy from the T1 up to the Hospital. My HR dropped from 158 to 145. I passed about 5 people and was passed once. At the hospital (about 5 miles into the ride and the first down will of the day. I started to take in calories) and started to get into my race pace. I pased about 20 people and was cruising through the course at about 3 MPH faster that my training ride even though my effort was still on the concervative side (so probablly about right were it should have been). At mile 30 I got a front wheel flat. I got the tire charged and tead to inflate in under 10 minutes only to discover that the new tubes had short valve stems and couldn't attach to the CO2 vavle. Someone stopped with a valves estender and in about 20 minutes I was back on the road. I slowed thing down about 2 MPH so prevent any problems on the C02. I regained about 15 rided before the 40 mile aid station. I stopped to get my bike checked to make sure I had the correct tire pressure only to learn that the two volunteers with no bike knowledge were present. One said she had a bike pump in her truck, but it was for fat stems no skinny stems. She insisted that she used it on her skinny stemmd bike so we tried to use it and I though we inflated the tire to about 90-95 PSI. Mile 30-40 were up hill and after 40 I has some down hills so I went back to my pre mile 30 flat effort and was getting some 31 mph speeds in going down and up hills. I was very happy to only have 13-14 miles left and felt that even with the 7 minutes lost at the mile 40 aid station that I could still make 3:20 or better on the bike leg, but 31 MPH prooved to much for however much air I had in my tier because I got a second flat. I wasn't sure wat to do at that point. I found that I had a patch kit with me so I looked for the flat and found a pinking flat near the valve stem that would be hard to repair. I took things very slow because I only had one patch and only one more co2. I got got the one hole I found repaired and the tube back on the tire and tried the CO2, but the tire didn't inflate. It was my first time doing CO2 having another triathlete do it for me on the first flat. The tire didn't inflate. I had another person stop and give me another CO2 but it didn't inflate either. I wasn't sure if I was doing it wrong or if the inner tube was bad. I decided that wasting more CO2 was not the best option, so i decided to run the last 13 miles to the T2 and make it a semi Full Iron Man by doing the full marathon. At that point I felt if I could make the time cut offs and finish that would be better than a DNF. Someone called the Sag-Wagon and they go me a new inertube and up and going, but I ran out of fluids with about 10 miles to go on the ride. No fluid for the last 35 minutes was not good. I had my quads start to crap. It was getting really got by that point and I had been out in the sun on the black top changing tires with was a lot worse and a 20 mph breed on a moving bike. So my bike technical put me in a bad position to start the run

I am not sure if it would have made any difference, but I could have put another 10 PSI in the inner tubes for 105 PSI fit rather than 95 psi. The higher speed (i.e. 31 mph where I was 26 on training rides) may be what got my tires today. I also would verify that the tube I have fit and since I am about the only person on the course with 650 tires would carry to spares. Also I would take a water bottle on the frame. My 64 oz take is good for about 2 hours. We were told that bike aid station would have bottles that fit in bike cages, but that was not true they were to thin to fit in a bike cage so fluids I was count on from the course I couldn't carry past the aid station. Finally I would take more sodium on the ride. I am deffinatly a cramper and need more fluids and sodium that what I got in this race.

About all I had to do here was take my helmet off and go since I bike in my running shoes with toe clips. I did have a 16 oz Gator aid in the transition and the 30 seconds it took my to down it was the only thing that really took any time at the T2.

I would have take that extra 15 seconds to apply a 2nd coat of sun screen.

I was not in good shape coming off the bike having gone 30 minutes w/o water and already starting to cramp. I made it a point to stop at every aid station to get fluids. They had oranges that I couldn't resist so I did them at the first few aid station and didn't touch my honey packs. I drank about 20 oz of fluids at ever aid station (every 1.6 miles) and took in some more sodium tables too. I had no idea what my pace was because my watch was out of sink with the mile markers. I was passing everyone on the course, but I felt I was probably going to slow to get a good run time. I trenched myself in ice water and every aid station and would about dry by the time I got to the next aid station 1.6 miles away. With out the ice water I never would have been able to withstand the heat on that black top. As it was I took the run like I would a long training run. Not dogging it and focusing on form, but by no means at a race effort. At 7 miles into the run I felt the wall. I stopped and became to walk and took my first Honey pack. I remembered that this was was something that I trained for and that if I worked through it, it would go away. I worked through it and sure enough I got back in my pace and feeling better after about a 1-1.5 miles. Unfortunately I became to cramp up. I had to walk again and took my 2nd honey pack at about 10 miles. I made it to the last turn around and took my ice water drench, my fluids, sodium etc then continued past the turn around for 1/4 mile (cones were still marking of the road, oops) so I added 1/2 mile to the run. The final 3.275 went fairly well. I felt cramps again but the sodium and fluid my have start to work their magic because I slowed down and never got a spasm that time to force me to walk again. I want a sub 2 hour run, but was just over it (dang cramps I couldn't go any fast or I would have cramped and doubled up on the ground.

I would have hurried through the last aid station a bit. My first aid station were about 20 seconds a stop. My last ones were getting closer to a minute a stop. I also needed to have a way to get reliable splits. Not being able to pace myself didn't help anything. With the cramping though, the biggest limiter was nutrition. I need more sodium and fluid on the bike.

I took in a lot of fluid and a lot of calories. Stretching put my legs into spasm, so i just kept walking and moving and drinking fluids.


Cramping was the biggest one. I needed more fluids and sodium on the bike. Also the heat was getting close to 90 degs which means that on black top were well over 100 deg. The ice water sponges at the aid station was a life savor for the heat, but basically I needed to get to the run 90 minutes earlier before it got hot and before having spend my energy in the sun with bike flats.


I would have liked to have bike aid at the aid stations. They weren't prepared to help with bike technical at all which kind of made the station pointless since the water bottles didn't fit our bike racks and the only gel they had was the double espresso which people that can't have caffeine (or coffee) can't even use. Some of the bike course routing was confusing too. At the bike turn around I was expecting a turn around to come but didn't know if it was here or in 2-3 more miles and the one guy at the turn around with one cone wasn't making any signals to the riders to indicate this was the turn around or where to make our turns. Also one of the road stops there were 8 cars backed up both ways on the 2-lane highway and a police vehicles in the solders. The officer on my side wasn't paying any attention at all to the bike course (just the stopped cars) and I had no idea where the bikes were supposed to pass. All the solders were block by police cars and all the lanes block by stopped cars and the officers didn't even seem me approaching since they were watching for bikes. I opted for the shoulder since I half guessing that the officer was going to let cars go through the lanes with out even seeing that a bike was coming. the officer in the shoulder stood in my way on the shoulder and when I was about 75 feet away and yells coming through he looked up and saw me but didn't make any effort to get out of my way or to direct me where I was supposed to go. I had to break and pass through the mess at a snails crawls. Hmm??? what else? It would have been nice to have some music or activities at the T2. It was really dead. I expect that on my training transition in my driveway at home, but for an event I expect the transitions to be something I can hear before I can see and something that gives me a boost of excitement as I pass through. As it was I was just relieved to be off the bike and to have made it to water. Then, with not a word to me from anyone, I was out on the run. Over all I think finishing my first 70.3 Triathlon on a hot day with no real previous Triathlon experience that it was a great day. I would do it all over again in a heart beat. :-)