This was the longest 750 meters I've ever swum in my life. Getting out of the water I was thinking about how good I felt and how good my swim had been. F that. Looked at my watch and it was already on the plus side of 15. (General consensus afterward was that we swam way long, but I didn't know it at the time so felt like I was already digging myself out of a hole).

Swim was pretty uneventful.

I still have a lot lot lot lot lot lot lot of work to do on my swim. Look at my AG and my T1, Bike, T2 and Run are all ranked 1, 2, or 3. My swim was 16. I could be the duathlon poster boy.

Ok T1. This is where I did stupid thing #1, which was make the decision to take my arm warmers. I didn't try to put them on, but somehow over the course of approximately 0.5 seconds I decided I would be able to do it on the bike. Yeah, right, like that was going to happen. I struggled getting them in my jersey pocket. Probably a good 10 seconds that I wasted. Stupid, stupid.

Don't try to make decisions in T1. Set it up beforehand and go with what I have. Transition isn't a time for thinking. I was 2nd fastest in AG on this, but I seriously pride myself on my transitions and always like to be first.

Bike started with Stupid thing #2, knocking water bottle out of cage as I was mounting the bike. Another 10 seconds wasted. I step on the left shoe, get enough momentum to kick my right leg over, and as I did this I knocked the bottle out (part of the problem is shitty cages that I've yet to replace). Volunteer was kind enough to pick it up for me, but I still had to stop, back up, and remount. Pain.

I've done this race 4 times so I know the course pretty well. This race was the first time that I didn't really see many people on the bike. (ultimately it was because I was out of the water farther up in the pack than I normally am). Around mile 11 I started to have trouble on the rollers. Just felt like my legs weren't working (it was cold and wet and rainy). The only thing that kept me sane was that I had another guy behind me, probably a hundred yards or more, and he wasn't getting any closer. I figured it wasn't just me. Once I got to the final turn to head back to the park it's all downhill. I love flying back in at 25+ and still seeing all the people coming back out the other way. Love it.

Decent T2. Although it involves stupid thing #3 which was getting the arm warmers out of my pocket this time before taking off. Other than that it was pretty smooth.

I like to be under 60 seconds on these, but the water and mud took and extra few seconds to get into my flats.

Pretty good run. The first mile is tough, mostly uphill. Pushed myself to a 6:23 split. Settled in on the second mile, but probably settled in too much as I only went 6:21. The last mile+ goes all down hill with the last part on a narrow winding walking trail (and then four very sharp turns all within the last 50 meters that pretty much eliminates the ability to sprint it out). Anyway, I pushed myself as much as I could in this part, but running downhill is hard and I can really only go so hard before it hurts. I had one more guy that I was trying to run down (and turns out he was in my AG). He beat me by 5 seconds. I know that I should have caught him.

Running Cherry Blossom this year has REALLY helped my run. That one will be on the calendar for sure every year.

Catch the last mofo on the run.

Food, clearing out transition, trying to get dry and find everyone.


Weather. But everyone dealt with it, so ultimately it evens the field.


Word to big Bird. I'll be back. Gotta get on the podium eventually.