We started from a wade and it turns out I positioned myself perfectly. When we got swimming I wasn't passing many people and many people weren't passing me. Best I could hope for. The sun was in my eyes so I couldn't see the far buoy so I just followed. After a few hundred yards I took a look around and I was solidly MOP. Cool!

Then I started to feel bad. I couldn't figure out what it was right away. Seasick? Maybe I'm just not cut out for long swims?

I was overheating in my wetsuit. Sigh.

Before the swim I kept hearing people describing the water as the perfect temperature for wetsuits. That should have been my first warning sign. I'm a warm guy and perfect pool water for others is too warm for me. I had actually been wondering how the water temperature was going to be, given that a month had passed since my last race in the lake and THAT seemed like it had the perfect temperature (though, in hindsight, I realize that I was starting to overheat in the last 150 yards of that).

Ugh. I kept pulling off to the side and tugging at the wetsuit neck to get some cool water in the suit. Finally at about 1000 yards I stopped and unzipped the back. I kept the suit on my shoulders because I didn't want to deal with the drag, of course, but I swam with the back unzipped. It helped but not much.

Oddly enough, even with spending about five minutes floating or breaststroking, I had my best placing in my age group on the swim compared to the bike and run. Double sigh.

Did I mention that my wetsuit is sleeveless? I'm a warm guy.

No wetsuit or maybe a thinner one.

Still feeling bad from overheating during the swim, I walked most of the way into transition. When I got to my bike it was business as usual. I even tried the wetsuit off/helmet on thing. One leg came off great and another got stuck. Oh well. Ran the bike out, did a flying mount, pedaled away, and was in my shoes before I hit the hill. I passed people up to the mount and nobody passed me until we were climbing up the first hill.

Run all the way from the swim to my bike instead of walk most of the way.

I really need to get some tri shoes for the bike. I am tired of the tongue getting mushed when I put my foot in and having to fish it back out again. It's starting to really annoy me.

The word of the day here was "spin". I knew the run would be tough so I wanted to spin up hills in lower gears rather than try muscling up them. That made me a bit slower than last month's race on the same course but I knew I'd be better prepared for the run.

On the nutrition side, I wanted to take all of my race nutrition on the bike. I took my first gel after the first hill leveled off, then drank a sugar water/Endurolyte mix every fifteen minutes. When that water ran out, I had a plain water/Endurolyte mix bottle. I took my second gel about ten minutes before the end of the last lap.

Same old story: lose weight, get faster on the hills. I'd also throw in get stronger on the run so I don't have to save so much for it.

After last month's experience with rubbing, I brought socks this time. I got them on reasonably quickly and had a fairly respectable time here. I decided to take the Garmin with me just to get some feedback. I had no intention of letting it dictate my run.

Should have just grabbed the Garmin off the bike and put it on while I was running. I don't know what I was thinking.

I saw a neat trick on TV yesterday where Hunter Kemper, I believe, had his race belt already connected and he just slipped the whole thing over his head and down to his waist while running. I wanna try that.

Run started off okay. I felt better than last month but I still felt tired. Kept my cadence high and motored along. After a mile I was into a good rhythm. I felt much better on the flats this month than last month. I only walked three steep hills. I wanted to walk more but somehow I talked myself into keeping going, much to my surprise. I ended up doing this run 30 seconds/mile faster than last month. That three minutes saved on the run means that the two minutes slower on the bike netted me a whole minute of faster. Woo hoo (I need all the help I can get ;-)!

Not even a hint of cramps this time so my nutrition plan on the bike seems to have paid off. I also poured water on my head at every water station, which helped keep me cool. By the halfway point I could feel the water coming off my head was warm so I did need the cooling. It was nearly 80 degrees when I finished the race yet, ironically, I only felt too warm in the water.

Wish I didn't have to walk any of the hills. Maybe next year.

The last two races I had a bit of a dizzy spell right after the finish so this time I went straight from getting my timing chip taken off to grabbing some oranges and from there, back into transition to grab a gel and some water. It seems to have helped.


Today's big story was overheating on the swim. I figure that if the water isn't cold enough to take my breath away when I get in up to my neck, it's not cold enough. Maybe I just need to get a thinner suit. DeSoto talks about their suits being good for people who overheat. I need to do some more research.


Definitely a challenging course. I'm not planning on doing all three again next year. Right now the plan is to do this Oly-distance race again but maybe I'll do one of the sprints, too.

I do wish they had some Gatorade at the finish line. The oranges really hit the spot, though.