Swim started out good. I felt comfortable and the wetsuit makes the swim seem so much easier. The sighting was difficult for me because of the overcast conditions and my goggles are shaded blue (supposed to be for low light) and they didn't help much. Other than that, I felt really good until about the midway point. My left shoulder started aching, I guess from the suit, and I found myself wandering all over the course. At one point I was pretty far of track and had to stop point myself in the right direction and get back on track. I hit the final buoy yo turn home and used the big paddle boat to guide me in. Prerace they talked about the oyster beds, so I swam in further than needed and finally stood up when my hand hit the sand. Stood up, ran out to the wetsuit strippers (greatness) and heard Robin yell my name.

Get a different color lens in the goggles for low light. Maybe should have swam further in the full wetsuit to feel the pull on my shoulders. for the most part I was please with the swim, I just need to work on sighting and open water technique.

got into t1 and saw hogan running down our rack toward his bike, then heard Tom Greggor (Paynes buddy from Houston who started in the first wave) say "Murphy, you want a bite of clif bar". He was standing there smiling (he trained for this probably a total of 1 hour), made me laugh. Anyway Hogan took off and I was putting my helmut on, stuffed GU's in my pocket and ran out with my bike. Jumped on right at the line and took off.

nothing really.

The bike was the best part of this race and it's usually the part I like the best. My plan was to use the first leg (14 miles) as a recovery period to get my HR down, drink and eat, and settle in to see how I would feel. I caught up with Hogan at about mile 2 and paced off him for the until the first turn around. First 14 miles took 39:05 min, 21.5 MPH, AVG watts 234, AVG HR was 155. At the turn I decided to push it a little and see how I responded. I passed Hogan and gave him a smile because I knew it was on when I went past. Next 14 miles heading back took 38:40, 21.7 MPH, AVG watts 224, AVG HR 154 , I thought it would be into a head wind, but I didn't really notice it much. I felt as though I pushed harder, but my stats tell a different story. I did go a little faster though. 3rd 14 mile stretch took 38:45, 21.7 MPH, AVG watts 228, AVG HR 157. I passed Patrick Valentz at the beginning of this stretch and scared the crap out of him as I rode by. There were a lot of people on the course at this point and there was a lot of passing. I made it to the final turn around, felt good, my HR had stayed under control so I decided to go hard until about 2 miles out. Final 14 took 38:20, 22 MPH, AVG watts 237, AVG HR 157. I felt like I had kept the bike under control and was ready to get off and hit the run.

I might should have pushed the middle stretch a little harder, but in the end I was happy with the bike.

Ran into T2 and couldn't get my bike on the rack at first, once I did, sat down and rolled my socks on and slipped on my shoes. Stuffed 4 GU's in my pocket, put my hat on and slid my race belt up. Ran out feeling pretty good and hit the run course.

Nothing

Run was interesting. I started the run trying to run slow and see how my HR would come down. Goal was to get it under 160, but that wasn't going to happen. I saw Robin and the kids right at the start and that was cool. I felt like I was running slow and quite a few people passed me, I was thinking I was about 8:30 pace, turns out I was at 8:04, so I tried to run the next slower, 7:49, slower on the next, 7:38, then 8:04. My HR hadn't really moved much, but on mile 5 my pace slowed. My HR started climbing and I was 8:40ish, I pretty much leveled off at this pace and HR. I saw hogan at mile 2, then valentz, followed by payne, everyone looked pretty good. I was wondering how they felt and whether they would catch me or not. About mile 6, I saw Robin and Hogan crew, and I was starting to feel the tiredness. I took a GU about every 4 miles and drank at every water station. The last 3 miles were tough and the final mile I just gutted it out to get done. Crossed the finish line and my legs were cramping like crazy. Went and hugged Robin and the kids and headed to the med tent to get gatorade.

Get in better shape.

Legs were done. Cramping and standing around were not mixing well. I had to wander around to keep them from cramping. Finally started to feel better. Went to the tent and got pizza a drinks.


The unknown about this race distance.


Overall the race and the weekend were great.