Got in the front row. Went off fast when the horn sounded and then dialed it back. Found some feet until the first buoy. Lots of people pulling up and breast stroking around the buoy. Sighting to the turn buoy was good. Made the turn and then got into a groove. Good sighting down the buoy line. Focused on not crossing my left arm over - that like really helps to keep a straight line. (Sorry Karen, forgot to think about the high elbows...) About halfway down the line, I got gut-kicked by a breast stroker - not nice! Blew it off and kept swimming. Made the last turn towards the boat ramp. Sighting got off a bit for about 20 yards are so, but quickly corrected and swam until my hand touched the bottom. Ran up the ramp and towards transition. I came out of the water toward the front of my wave and even passed someone from the previous wave 4 minutes earlier!

Swing a bit wider on the turn buoys to avoid the pile up. Do a few sighting strokes in a row after a turn to make sure that I am the right line.

My transition seemed faster than the time showed. I forgot how long transition was at this race. Still plenty of room for improvement!

Ask John for some tips... Somehow I should be 30 sec faster through T1! Pick up the pace coming out of the water and with the bike.

Came out in good gear. Push hard up to the dam. Struggled a little across the dam. The little uphill turnaround slowed me down - that little stretch always catches me by suprise - doh! Still had trouble pushing the pace up coming back across the dam. It started drizzling while coming across. Picked up pace after coming back off the dam and through the park. The garmin showed that I was going to be close to my goal of 33 min on the bike - so I pushed hard to get across the line!

Keep pushing through the discomfort, keep spinning the pedals - had a little trouble finding the right gear. I was spinning at 90-92rpm and 19.5mph or at 80 with a 21mph on the next gear down the sprocket. Maybe there is a middle ring combo that gets in between those two...

Once again, thought I was faster through transition. Have to pick up speed here! Went sans socks! Just as well, everything was wet anyway from the drizzle.

NO MAS Trotting through transition... run!!! Easily lost 30sec here!

It sucked. I forgot my Garmin so I had no idea what my pace was other than it started out too fast for me. I started to yo-yo: run too fast, slow down to breathe, run too fast, slow down to breathe. Too much time being slow... I really wanted to try to hit sub 10min/mi, but it wasn't there for me today. My buddy Johnny and I pretty much ran together through most of the run. He got a touch a head with about a half mile left. I tried to pick it up a bit. Another guy from the wave ahead of us passed by with about a quarter of mile to go. I tried to fall in behind him and pace off him to the finish. Ended up getting in full out sprint to the finish line from about 60 yds out. Beat him to the finish line by a step! I love a good competitive sprint to the finish!

More run training. Continue to work on pacing.

Grabbed a tree and tried to breathe... Checked the posted times and thought that I might be in line for hardware, not many old fat guys registered. Actually won first place. My first hardware!


Transitions, Running... having a fat azz... :)


Typical race by Ironhead - not a lot of frills, but well executed and you get to watch Jack - which is worth the price of admission by itself (although he was pretty calm today...)