The swim was a zoo. People were almost swimming over and under each other and at times literally four-wide in lanes that were barely wide enough for three swimmers.

About half way through the swim I caught up with two guys and I backed off waiting for the swimmer in front of me to pass the guy in front of him at the next turn-around. After the turn-around I was right on the hills of the one guy in front of me touching his feet once in a while signaling that I wanted to pass at the next wall. The next wall came and he gave no indication of allowing me to pass, so, after making sure nobody was coming back down the lane, I overtook him on the side.

After the turn around he hit my feet a little forecfuly I thought, so I turned it up a notch to put some distance between us. In the end I was half 10-15 yards ahead of him, but more out of breath than I wanted to be after the swim.

Give a guy in front of me a little more time to speed up before passing and stay within myself instead of getting paced by someone else.

Short of pre-clipping my shoes into the pedals, nothing.

A couple of miles into the bike the effects of the pool wore off and I was starting to feel pretty good. I carried the speed over the hills well and did not forget to drink. About 3/4 into the race I had to back off slightly from the effort and change my breathing pattern because the stitch in my right side was starting to develop and I felt a little sluggish going up the hardest hill at mile 14. But I must've been making good time nevertheless because 20+ MPH average was completely unexpected.

Stay in aero position more. Need to start thinking about aero bars.

Dismount from the bike was awesome. When my feet hit the ground I had to lock up the front break in order not to miss the dismount zone, which made the rear wheel come off the ground for an exciting bounce.

On the run to T2 both of my calfs cramped pretty badly, so my run with the bike was actually more of a hobble. I noticed that my calfs cramp more the more I stay in aero position (no aero bars) on the bike.

Nothing.

7:35 min/miles. Wow! I would never have expected that.

The plan was to push on the bike and suffer through the run. I guess I could have pushed more on the bike.

Not that I didn't suffer. Cramps made their way through my body. The start was up a hill, so my calfs were really letting themselves be known. Luckily coming back down the hill they let go.

Eight minutes into the run thighs started cramping. I looked at my watch to realize I still had 16 whole minutes to go. That meant 16 more minutes of suffering, and that seemed like a long time. But then I thought about what it must feel like to do an Ironman and how much pain those people have to deal with and I was able to push the thought out of my head. A quick swig of water later, the thighs let go a bit.

After two miles side stitches were in full swing on both sides, but even those seemed to have gotten better by the time the finish line was in sight. Once the finish line was in sight I gave it one final push and strode off to find Meredith and drink of cold water.

Nothing.