Not having gasoline and brown stuff made all the difference in me not being anxious for the salt water, whew. The race was supposed to start at 6:30, but then the announcer said 6:15, but then it actually started at 6:30? 15 minutes was a lot of wasted time just standing around when it could have been warm-up!
The swim started out pretty good. I ran into the water and tried to dolphin kick it (? I had just learned about this while waiting in the wave start) as best I could. Apparently some people ran along the shore to get even further! Well, anyways, the swim to the first buoy was great. Drafted well and was going at a fairly high pace to keep up with the group. After I turned left, the problem started. I must have been sighting every 4-6 strokes, but I kept going to the left REALLY bad. Every time I looked up I was swimming towards the shoreline. It was so bad that by the time I got to the 2nd buoy several yellow cappers had passed me. Swimming back to the last buoy, I felt good and was swimming straight. Then again, from the last buoy to the finish, I was swimming off course extremely bad. 4th wave people were passing me! I was swimming towards the jetty rather than the shore 80% of the time. Finish was ok though as I swam quite a bit onto shore to gain some time on fellow swimmers. Definitely not enough to make up for all the navigation craziness though.

Sight better? This hasn't really been a problem until this race though. Havasu was awesome. Rio Salado was ok. This was bad. I need to learn to navigate no matter the environment. I think this may have cost me several minutes.

Wetsuit got caught around the ankles.

Pull the wetsuit down further.

I need to get my Torpedo mount tightened somehow. Coming over the 2nd bridge, my water/Gatorade bottle popped off again (happened at Rio Salado last week)! "What the heck?!" Kept on pedaling hoping that there would be a bike aid station. Climbing up towards Nautilus wasn't too bad. There were 2 other cyclists that were about the same level as me so we kind of kept each other in check (one is better at cornering, one is better at descending, ascending, etc.). The road up was plenty wide too so we could pace one another without drafting.
At the top of the hill, thank goodness, there was a bike aid station. I grabbed a Gatorade and plopped it into my Torpedo mount. Make the left towards the descent and 'ka-chunk', I almost lose this bottle too. Barely grab onto it and make my descent. The series of turns afterwards were pretty technical with some uphill elements to them. Nothing too bad though. The potholes to the turnaround were bad though. Made sitting rather uncomfortable since you could hurt yourself... Turnaround was a full 180 in a 5 foot wide cone U-turn lane. It was well organized though.
Went back up the hill. There were a ton of people going up now along with a couple of people walking their bikes. This was almost as technical as dodging all the potholes. Make it to the aid station and toss out my Gatorade bottle for a water. Take one sip and go towards the descent and 'ka-chunk', there goes all my hydration until the run. I take it a tiny bit easier just for the sake of the possibility of running myself dry.

Fit the Fuselage onto the SHIV and just forget about the Torpedo Mount. This could have seriously messed up my bike if there wasn't an aid station.

Oh, and I forgot to eat anything on the bike since I was so focused on grasping onto my bottles. Good thing this was an Oly!

Hum de dum.

Put some urgency into this.

Just set my own pace and ran. I went with the same strategy as Havasu and went without my watch. Dumped 1/2 the water onto myself to keep cool and kept 1/2 to drink. 2nd lap, my legs started to fatigue a bit and I was getting really hungry. Picked up a energy chew from the aid station and slowed down to a walk to gulp it down. Picked up the pace a bit and ended with a sprint finish.

Run more.

Walked around, ate, drank and chatted it up with other racers.


Run/swim fitness and nutrition.


Well, the post race activity was watching an ITU Men's race with some of the best triathletes in the world in San Diego so... Not bad. :)