The reason I was keeping my head down pre-race was because, after 6 years of races, I must have completely screwed up the registration process. I managed, apparently, to give myself a great projected swim time, resulting in me being seeded to be the first swimmer. Idiot. Fortunately, it was a matt timed system, so they let me move back in the pack. But I still had to explain myself to about a dozen people who kept trying to get me to move to the front of the line.

I ended up moving to about 35 or so in the line, which turned out to be about right.

The swim started with a dive off the dock. I managed to do that pretty well and even kept the goggles on. Then the shock of the cold hit and it was tough to keep my breath. After about 100 yards the wetsuit had warmed the layer of water and it was bearable. I tried drafting off the guy who went ahead of me, but decided to go ahead and go around him. Then, I caught the girl ahead of him and decided to swim easy and draft off her. That worked for a while. We passed several people who were bobbing along, probably having made the same mistake I made.

Eventually, the girl I was drafting off got closer than I would like to a guy who was doing breast stroke. I've been in enough of these races to avoid those guys like the plague. Nothing like getting a breast stroke kick in the face or gut. Anyway, once I swam wide of that, the girl got ahead of me and I never did re-build the draft. Oh well, nothing hurt. I just plodded along to the finish of the swim.

Set my time appropriately. Not be an idiot.

T1 stunk. This is only my 3rd wetsuit race, and one of the others had wetsuit strippers. First, I couldn't get the dang thing off me. Don't know how long I struggled. Then, the sole of my bike shoes kept bunching up. All the while I'm feeling dizzy so I had to sit down.

The dizziness happens in the first few races every year. Not sure why. I might just go without wetsuit next time. The time it saves in the water is not worth the agony of getting it off. Or, I could practice getting the wetsuit off...

The total of 40 miles of bike training this year produced the expected results. I managed a faster speed last year when doing centuries than I did today on a 10.5 mile course. And my legs were burning the whole time.

The course itself was pretty good. The pavement was great except for about a mile or so on Avent Ferry.

Train? That's an idea.

This went a little better, but I had to move somebody's bag because it was in my slot. And somebody else left their mountain bike in the middle of the lane.

Not much.

I actually thought I would do better during the run than I did. I've actually done a fair amount of training in this area. Unfortunately, the lack of bike training led me to burn my legs there. It took my almost a mile before my legs felt good, and then it was time to hit the big hill.

In most races, I pass a lot of people during the run, but in this one I only passed a few and probably got passed by just as many. I think I'm getting old.

Water, gatorade, and a pancake.

I felt bad for the wife, since she was constantly hearing, "Where's number 1?" and didn't feel like explaining to everyone why I shouldn't have that number in the first place. Ah well, lesson learned.


Training. Or, lack of training.