The current was strong and the buoys were drifting all over. I think I swam too far into the river and had to really cross hard left toward the end in order to not over shoot the swim out. The guys in the kayaks were very good with getting the message across to me. The water was much warmer than the air temp. I was just getting warmed up and had to finish.

I would have stayed closer to the shore.

It was quite a trot to where you actually could mount your bike.

I spent too much time trying to untie my transition bag. I need to tie a bow next time or put some kind of clamp on the strings. I had to tear the bag open. I did take my time as my goal was an IM PR. Since the swim was shortened I changed my goal to be in the upper 50% of my age group or just finish.

I am not usually a complainer and try to stay optimistic but as I stated above I already had a cold to start with. You know that tired achy feeling mixed with clogged sinuses. The conditions were tough. It was in the 40s and lower 50s with a cold slow rain the entire time on the bike. This wore me down significantly. I was shivering for the entire bike and started to think about hypothermia. Several athletes were pulled due to hypothermia. I could not wait to finish the bike and quit the race. But I did not. The hills were actually not bad. I trained on the hills and this course would have been a lot more fun if not for the weather and my poor health at the time. My nutrition consisted of Accelerade every 15 miles, Base salt every once and a while and a few honey stingers. I also had some beef jerky.

I would have done several things differently. It was hard to stay aero at least for me due to the wet roads. Several competitors were zooming down the hills 3 and 4 wide. It was scary. So if I knew about the conditions I would have brought my road bike instead of my tri bike. I should have had warmer gloves, wore my windbreaker and a long sleeve shirt. I had arm warmers and that helped a bit. I did not properly prepare for the cold. It was a great learning experience.

A volunteer grabbed my bike immediately That was very helpful. I was going to quit. I just sat there screwing around with the knot again. Totally wasted and tired. I was actually looking around to find a volunteer to hand my timing chip to. Once I got my bag open I saw that I had my wind breaker in there. I thought that maybe this will warm me up and to give it a go with the run.

I would have changed my attitude. If I was not considering DNF then I could have chopped 10 minutes off transition time which would have really boosted my age group listing. Also the knot thing again.

I started off at a decent pace but it started started getting cold again and miles from 9 to 14 were a steady fast walk. This is a 2 loop run course and again I could not wait to finish the first loop so I could quit. I talked to a volunteer at the turn around regarding how to get my bike if indeed I did finish late and the transition area was closed. it took her at least 5 minutes to find someone to make calls to find someone to help. I think this rest is just what I needed. All of a sudden I felt better than I had all day. I started running intervals mixed with very fast walking. I started talking to everyone who would listen to me and joking around at the aid stations. I did maintain my nutrition plan which probably made it possible for me to recover. Nutrition was Gu Endurance every 4 miles, Base salt every mile, Stinger honey waffles about every hour, bananas and oranges during the course. Red bull during the second half was excellent along with broth. I also thought about all my friends and family following me with the athlete tracker. I did not want to make any excuses and did not have to.

Again I would have changed my attitude. I believe I could have run a lot more instead of burning out between miles 9 and 14. I had too much in the tank when I finished. The weather really messed up my head.

I loved this finish line. The spectators were fantastic. The only issue I had was having to take a bus back to transition then walk about a half mile to a mile to get my bike and bags from transition. It was funny because the bus driver had to give me a boost to get me up the bus stairs. My legs were spent!


My attitude. I was in a funk which is normal I know. I did snap out of it but not until the second loop of the run.


The race course itself would be average but this particular race was crazy due to the weather. Just listen to the pro's on youtube talking about how tough it was. There were about 800 DNS and DNF.