This was a great swim for me. Interestingly, I didn't feel as much bouyancy from my suit as I did last year - because I'm swimming better without it! (ie, there's less of me to lift) First lap was chaos, so I switched to breathing every left stroke. That worked ok. Went back to BL3 for 2nd lap, which let me get into a groove. Started drifting right after 2 mi or so. Forgot to sight after 2nd last bouy, so took a hard right turn, which wasted 200 yds or so. Oops.

Continue working on swimming straight. This was much better, bu could still save 3-5 minutes just by swimming straight.

100 yard run up steep hill to tents. Yuck. Took my time, as this is a long race. As opposed to GFT, when I bolted a PB&J, which shut me down for the day, I just took a few sips of Perpetuem. Worked fine. Still find myself light-headed getting out of the water, but I guess that's just me.

Maybe try to be a bit quicker, but not much.

No two ways about it, the bike course was brutal. Steep climb (1/4 mile?) out of T1, then 2 miles of road before the twisty, winding connecting trail. I actually skidded out on one turn going around 10mph, but no damage. Course description was "some rolling hills, but the route is mainly flat and fast". Um... not really. It wasn't hilly per se, but not flat. Lots of little rollers - gain and lose 10-15 feet, etc, which impacted speed. Very few true flats. The wind was brutal - about 20 mph (plus gusts) from the Southwest. The hard part about the wind, though, was that we got very little tailwind, due to the direction. Heading west on White Rock, for instance, the wind was maybe halfway between headwind and crosswind. It felt like a pretty strong headwind going out, but more like a crosswind coming back. (Is that normal?) So, we got the pain, but not the gain. The hardest stretch was Grant Line road - 10 miles of gradual uphill (2-3% grade?) directly into the wind. It was nice to get the wind on the way back, but man was it a killer going out. Got some tailwind effect for a few miles eastbound on White Rock, then headwinds on Scott Road. This was a TERRIBLE road surface - bumps and potholes everywhere. Impossible to go aero, which was a killer into the wind. And the bumps made the tailwind back pretty useless. From there, we did an out-and-back east on White Rock, where we hit a pretty good hill - I hit 35 mph downhill with the wind (and 9mph uphill into the wind). For this section, we had a tailwind out, and then a head/cross-wind all the way back past T2 for the second lap.

Second lap was more of the same, only hotter, and windier. They added an extra out-and-back into the wind for the second loop, I guess to account for not doing the 10-mile start again. Someone must've mis-added, because the final course was about 5 miles long. Nothing worse than hitting 112 on the odometer, only to turn uphill and into the wind for another 5 miles. Yuck.

Overall, the bike course was ok. A pretty fair test without the wind, but quite tough on this race day. I clocked 6:58 biking time (plus 9 min for special needs and potty breaks) instead of the 6:20 (plus 10 for breaks) I was hoping for. And I passed a lot of people out there (134 out of 300).

Heading into the wind was tough. Especially the 2nd lap. Roads were closed, so I literally kept my eyes straight down for a mile or more at a time, took an easy gear, and spun as best I could. I think I averaged 13 mph into the wind, and was passing a lot of riders. Considering I clocked 6:42 pedal-time at mi 112, instead of 6:20 as I'd planned, I felt like I did pretty well.

Nutrition was great, until the end. On all long training rides, I tend to get lazy about eating/drinking during the last 15 minutes or so. Then I don't eat for the first 10 min of the run. Worked great every time. For the race, though, I was feeling a bit whipped at the end of the ride, especailly that last 5 miles, so I chowed down a bit on the Perpetuem (4 oz for 200 cal) and drank a bunch (8 oz) of water. That was way too much, as my stomach shut down for the run. Oops.

Learn how to ride in the wind! Seriously. In some of my training, I would do windy rides, and just get bogged down in the wind. One time, a guy whizzed right by (into the wind) like I was standing still. He had a high cadence, and tried that. Worked pretty well. If I held it, I could also cruise into the wind, but it was tough to keep it going. I guess I need to get used to it better.

Also, I need more long-distance rides. I did 4 rides over 4:30 in training, and never felt right. Sore back, sore butt, sore neck, etc. Hard to find the time, though...

Also, messed up nitrition during last 5 miles. Need to fix that! Basically, just need to stop eating/drinking for the last 15 minutes.

Alas, here's my downfall. As noted above, for all long training rides, I tended to stop eating for the last 10 minutes, then slap on the running shoes and go. Here, in addition to eating/drinking at the end of the bike, I grabbed some pretzels, half a gel, and another 8 oz water.

DON'T EAT IN TRANSITION!!!! It just shuts my stomach down. Best plan is to run the first mile (8-9 minutes), and then see how I'm doing.

What can I say? I have a weak stomach. I did better than GFT, but mostly because that was so bad. Kept trying to eat/drink (one pretzel, 2 oz water) at aid stations when that was clearly not working. Stopped eating at mi 15, and started feeling pretty good by mi 18. By the time I ran 24-26, I could've kept going pretty easily for another 5-7 miles. Legs felt fresh, though, which means my pacing on the bike was good.

One thing - once I decided that it was ok to walk, I pretty much doomed the 4:30 marathon. What if I had just kept going, and tried to run through the nasuea? Might've puked, but then I'd feel better, right? Each time I walked, though, it was easier to walk for longer stretches - need to avoid that "defeated" walk mentality.

Nutrition, again. No eating for last 15 min of bike and fist 10 min of run. Then see how I feel. Try ginger ale in special needs. If nutrition plan isn't working (ie, grazing at every station), try changing it! Once I cut back (had a little broth and a few sips of water after mi 14), I felt much better. Ideally, I'd keep my stomach fresh enough for a few gels, but probably easier for me to do without than to force anything down.

Walked a bit.


Stomach - no surprise there. This was MUCH better than my first race, though, where my stomach shut down at mile 10 of the bike. This time, I had a plan - sip Perpetuem at T1, then use Perpetuem and supplement with race water on the bike. That worked great.

But, I didn't really have a plan for the run - just have gels as needed on the run. Plus, didn't figure out the transition. Had too much food for last 15 min of bike and start of run, which isexactly opposite from all my training.

First race, stomach lasted 3 hours; this race, it lasted 9, so there's some major progress. Next race, I'l make sure I have a plan not just to get me to T2, but to get me to the Finish Line.


Had some first-year kinks to work out, but should be better next year. Pre-race organization was a mess due to split transition zones (this was the first time they tried that). Conflictin info on when/where to drop special needs bags.

Bike course was completely closed to traffic, which was great for biking. However, the liquid (water and Amino Vital) on the course was warm. Uggh! Something cold on the second lap would've been real nice.

Post race - medical care was EXCELLENT. Every finisher was greeded by a med-staffer who checked us out. I mentioned I was a bit nauseous, and my handler dragged me to the med tent for evaluation. Much better that GFT, where I puked in front of them and they told me to get some fluids. Turns out I was fine, but nice that they checked.

Post-race bummer, though, was that they packed up the food tent at 10. Granted, I didn't realy need any, as I couldn't keep down the single cookie I tried eating, but it was still quite annoying. There were a lot of people still out on the course - lots of people finish between 15 and 17 hours in an IM. I dreamed of one bite of pizza for the last 10 miles of the run, and there was none to be had. Ack.

Overall, a good race, which should be great in the future. For 05, they are moving it to October, which will let them move the swim back to Lake Natoma, allowing them to combine T1 and T2, which they do for all their other events. Also, they are supposedly ditching the abysmal Scott Raod.