The first 200m was great. I was long and strong; smooth and in a groove. (Sorry for the bad rhyme.) I hit the wall after that...well, not literally. I struggled the last 300 and just had to focus on a good rhythm with a decent pull and good form...and a few breaths at each wall. I was also able to count my own laps.

After all was said and done, I bettered my TT by almost 30 seconds and it didn't feel as bad as my TT did.

While I started fast, it helped me in the end becasue I was just trying to hold on. The biggest thing I need to do is get more consistent with my swimming and gain some more endurance with it. I should probably learn to do flip turns, too.

I didn't think my transition was this bad. I couldn't believe it was 2 minutes but it was. I had thought through the order that I was going to put things on but didn't rehearse. Therefore, it took a little longer than I had planned.

Not set up in such a high-traffic area. Practice, practice, practice

I came out of the locker room right behind a Lt. Cdr. that I recognized. He was wearing a Navy T-shirt and it taunted me. (For the rest of the RR, he'll just be called "Navy.") Navy was about 20m ahead of me and two females were 50m ahead of me. I struck out on what I thought was a strong pace and waited to reel them in.

But it didn't happen. Navy was on a strong pace and the two females held their lead. Still, by the first mile, I had gained 5m on Navy. One of the females was falling off so that Navy passed her at about the half-way point. I had closed to 10m as we headed for 2 laps around the track.

I over took the fading female on the track. Being the ever-supportive guy that I am, I called to her, "C'mon. Come with me. I'll break the wind for you." She giggled and then I thought how that might be mis-construed. "Not in a bad way," I continued, "you can draft off of me and we'll catch some people." She broke into laughter and pulled in behind me.

I was glad to help her but I unwittingly slowed down to let her stay behind me. Navy had pulled out to 20m by the end of the second lap. I was back were I had started and I was running out of time. I picked up my pace and redoubled my efforts.

I slowly chipped away at his lead for the next 3/4 of a mile or so. He was moving strong and I wasn't gaining; I may even have been losing ground. With a half mile left, he did the unthinkable: he stopped to tie his shoe. I was able to gain a lot of distance on him in the brief stop but I didn't overtake him.

We were 400m from the end, so I recalled my quarter-mile speed from my high school track days. The only drawback is that I'm 60 lbs. heavier than high school. Still, I broke into a sprint, striving to put that Navy T-shirt behind me once and for all. Digging, sprinting, panting, I passed him 5m from the tape, thereby showing the supremecy of the Army! HOOAH!

GO ARMY! BEAT NAVY!

I feel like I could have pushed a bit harder. My legs were whining but not screaming. Part of me says I shouldn't have slowed to help that female on the track but another part wonders if I was able to gather myself at that point so that I could push through the last part of the run. Also, I'm still base-building so a little speed work would have helped.

After sprinting past Navy, I all but collapsed at the finish line. Still panting, Navy congratulated me on a great race and I did the same. A little while later, the female I had pulled through the track came in and I congratulated her. I never did catch her friend; she steadily pulled away the whole run. After that, I just wandered to the food table, drank some Gatorade, collected my T-shirt and went to watch P swim; his heat hadn't even started yet.


This race showed me more than anything that my weight is slowing me down. My times are GREAT for a 240 lbs. guy but, in relation to everyone else, their only okay. Yeah, yeah, I know I can't always compare myself to everyone else but I know that I'm putting in more work than most everyone else. I want my times to reflect that.

Training wise, I need to swim more and, if I did more speedwork, my run time would lower. The first I will definitely work on; the second is going to be a limiter for most of this 5k "season" as I train for my half-mary in the fall.