Congested. Clusterfuck. The usual. I think two people passed me and I passed three. One guy ran into me head-on, as he was swimming down the wrong side of the lane. So strange. I slipped a little getting out of the pool.

Be faster and start earlier so that I don't have to... (FYI, this is basically a copy-and-paste from every "What would you do differently?" section of all my previous race reports)

Given the conditions this was fine. As mentioned I slipped getting up out the pool, then had to slow down because some douche was walking up the sidewalk and blocking everyone behind him. I had a great bike mount. Crossed the speedbump and bike mount line with about 4 others. They all stopped to get on, and I ran past them and did my flying leap mount. Awesome.

Just leave my sunglasses behind. I never ended up wearing them and just tucked in my back pocket. Doubt that I lost any time because of it though, so no big deal.

I've really ramped up my bike mileage since Kinetic, and have felt pretty good about it. Wanted to see if it has paid any dividends, so I decided to really push it. My heart rate was really high through the first loop, bt then it settled down along Pleasant Valley, which is the last ~1.5 miles of each loop. I figured I'd be able to continue pushing hard on the second loop and expect the same, getting my HR down a bit heading into T2. I really had fun on this ride. With the exception of two MAJOR dry heaves and a little-bit-o-vomit, it was an enjoyable tide. Only time I hit congestion was on the 2nd loop, the first turn onto Pleasant Valley, and the first turn off. If you read weds19's RR, I did the same thing and came out of my shoes too early, (although not quite as early as him) and ended up pedaling about 0.5 mile on top of shoes. I was concerned that I'd have trouble getting out of them since my feet were completely numb, but it wasn't too bad.

Nothing.

Knowing that you are going to get off the bike and have the most painful 25 yard run of your life really sucks. I had a bit of difficulty getting into my flats with numb feet and fingers. They aren't the easiest shoes to get into in the first place, and when add yankz it gets ever worse. Overall not bad though, still sub-1:00.

Nothing.

Left T2 and immediately spotted Brad in front of me. As soon as we got to the main road I said "Okay Wedemeyer, let's do this!" and then promptly ran past him. Heh. Shortly there after I passed Slake, and then Shelly. Not long after I passed Shelly I heard her yell out "Hurry, Brad is coming!" so I had a rough idea of how much distance I'd put between us. In reality, I wasn't trying to run away from him, but I wanted to beat him (he ALWAYS beats me in road races... Jingle, Cherry Blossom, etc) so it would be good for my ego if I could hold him off. Near the 1 mile mark I got big dry heave #3 for the day, and had to back off the pace a little bit. Brad caught me, and got ahead a little bit so I just ran off his pace until the turn around. After the turn I was feeling a little better, caught up to Brad (in reality, we were probably not more than 5 yards apart so I didn't do that much "catching up"). We ran side by side the rest of the way. At one point my watch started beeping and I said "Time to drink on the bike" and he responded by saying that I should probably go back to the turn-around for some water. Then we came upon the photographer, and I made a comment about us being in the pictures together. He immediately took a few fast strides to get ahead of me, which was pretty funny (I got the last laugh though ;) ) We were really flying on the way back in. I knew exactly where I wanted to make my move, and was pretty sure that I'd be able to out sprint him. As soon as we made the last right turn in the parking lot I took off. Probably beat him by one second. Great run. Really good to have someone to run with like that, and I know I'd never have held the same pace if I was running solo. No chance.

Nothing. Pretty much ran this 5k as best I could on this day.

Food. Waited for the others to finish. Got back into my warm clothes. Took a bunch of pictures of my bike with Shelly's bike. General raucous. Sat on the curb and waited for the awards. I kept talking to Shelly about the hot chicks in the race, none of whom I ended meeting or talking to. Then breakfast with Slake, Z, and Shelly at IHOP.


Cold ass weather.


I'll be back next year. I love this race. Included my awards, I ended up with the following schwag: water bottle, half-zip long sleeve pull over type shirt (try to beat that with your 100% cotton race tee), visor, TYR Transition Bag, $30 gift card to tri shop, and I think something else that I'm forgetting.