Alright, I don't work the swim very hard, I admit, so I take what I can get here. I used to be a 10-minute guy, but recent events have those times down in the 8's. That's all I was looking for. Started off, and felt solid and strong through the first bouy. Struggle to find feet in the frenzy. Sorta lost all feet I'd been tracking around the corner, and started to panic a tad that I'd been left behind. Had to come up and breast-stroke for maybe 5 or 6 strokes to calm, and see that I was in my normal position...which is "main" swimmers pulling away, but still plenty around me and not being dropped completely as was the case in the old days. Put my head down and swam as hard as I could until the end. Fairly confident throughout.

If I'd have just kept stroking along and not worried so much about feet, I might not have panic'ed, and perhaps saved 15-seconds or so. Not waste so much mental energy worrying about water temp. Once underway, it wasn't an issue.

Work harder on the swim in general. But, I wanted 8's and got it, so overall fine with this swim.

Man, this was a tough transition. Got the wetsuit off "ok". Felt dizzy from cold water (I think). I'm a sock-guy, and have never really had an issue getting socks on. Wet or dirty feet have never been a problem either. I don't know why, but this time I couldn't get my socks on to save my life. Very wet, very dirty, and balling up all over the place. Finally said fock it and just shoved feet in bike shoes anyway. Had some trouble there with the straps and stuff, and again said fock it and just headed out of transition sorta discombobulated. Got on the bike and started hammering. Feet were wet and cold right away, socks still messed up, strap on left shoe off and loose...just not RIGHT. Tried to fix, then just ignored it and kept riding up the initial hill.

I gotta work on sockless at least on the bike. A practice OWS might have helped with the dizzyness, not sure there.

Going out on the bike, I was feeling "ok". Not a lot of bike training in the winter or spring, but early rides had been solid. So, I expected to approach my time from last year. Wanted to get to the turnaround in 20-minutes, and be around 40-minutes for the ride. Also, wanted to "try" not to kill myself and end up in T2 with a calf cramp like last year.

Well, what you want and what your training allows are 2 different things.

I was feeling alright, not great. Passing a lot of people, and rarely being passed. I was monitoring my speed though, and could tell I was not north of 22, which is what is required to make my goal. Well north of 20 though, so not a total loss. I'd advertised this course as flat and fast...well, this year anyway the minor rollers on the course were burning me up a tad. Not flying over the stuff with my normal gusto. And, trying to manage the course a slight bit as well in anticipation of the run. The bottom line is...I'm not thrilled but I got what my minimal traning rides would predict. No magic here today.

When I was hitting 39:00 and I knew I was too far out to finish with the time I wanted. Started funking a bit until a guy with a disk wheel from the wave behind me passed by. Had to hammer then and catch/re-pass him. We jockeyed back and forth to the finish, which increased the fun factor of the ride for me.

Go to the DTC like I should have all winter.

Came into T2 feeling alright, and ready to be done biking. Gotta work on taking shoes off on pedals and running in feet. Another thing rearing it's ugly head that never has been a problem before. Felt very slippery and had to really baby-step run my bike to my t-spot. Didn't feel very swift.

Get to my area, off with the bike shoes, and attempt to fix my socks. They're still all wet and hard to maneuver. FOCK. Again after a few efforts skip it and start putting on shoes. That also feels like it's taking EONS, so I do it as fast as I can, and just bail outta transition. In the blurr I can hear people yelling "HELMET, HELMET" and realize in the hubub I forgot to take my helmet off. What a total rookie mistake. Unclip that and have to run back to my spot. Start off a second time. Appears based on average T-times that mistake cost about 45-seconds.

Take off my helmet. Not wear socks on the bike. My feet would be hamburger if I ran sockless, but biking sockless should keep everything dry and clean, which would help a ton.

Alright, finally head outta T2. Not a lot of bricks under my belt and my legs are feeling rough. The first bit is up this steep, sharp, short incline to get onto a dead-flat trail. That incline, as usual, had my HR through the roof.

Once out there I was pleasantly surprised that I'm feeling pretty solid. Not being passed. I'm used to GPS but the timex system is not condusive to racing with. So, all I've got is total race time clipping away. I can see that I've gotta have a pretty nice run to make it to 1:16. I wanted 1:15 or below, so a tad disappointed but not epic. Without pace data, I just decide to manage my RPE in the hard but not epic area. I feel like I'm moving pretty fast. Catching people and rarely being passed.

At the turnaround I'm labored but strong. Decide at a bridge which is 3/4 I'll assess my situation and see if I can speed up. When I get there, I'm sorta EH, so just kept "pressing" without over-doing it. At the final mile mark I can see I still need a solid finishing mile to make 1:16. Try to speed up a tad, but still conservative. Finish strong but no idea of my split. Passed quite a few people in the epic finishing sprint!

Also, out and back course allowed for lot's of donkey sightings. Each one gave me a little pick-me-up, so thank you. Schmize, sgoehner, and jszat were alarmingly close to each other, making me figure an epic battle was in store. Apparently schmize held them off. On the return I was becoming more focused, and just made random noises when I saw peeps. Called jmwebs joe instead of jim, and then corrected myself, which thankfully he heard.

Have some data. I worked the run and saw results. This is a solid 5K PR. I don't have a ton of 5K experience, so I don't want to overstate it. With data I might have pushed the pace more and broken 22:00. Emphasis on "might". I was a "tad" conservative, but certainly labored hard at the finish. Happy with this. Very happy.

Walked, talked, and ate. Got some group donkey shots.


Year Swim T1 Bike T2 Run Total
2002 11:00 1:57 47:59 1:09 24:28 1:26:30
2003 11:09 2:10 44:25 1:09 23:28 1:22:18
2004 10:13 2:14 41:06 1:05 23:28 1:18:04
2005 10:52 2:45 44:01 1:02 23:56 1:22:35
2006 9:43 1:50 40:53 1:15 22:45 1:16:23
2007 8:54 1:39 40:31 2:02 23:04 1:16:07
2008 8:34 2:04 42:17 1:50 22:09 1:16:52

First of all, great job by all donkeys. I realized at this race that donkeys are bling happy (I'm guessing 80% of aero-helmets present were worn by donks) and serious, fast focking racers. Many faster than me take the sport much more seriously than I do. I've gotta ramp-up a tad in things like yanks, transition practice, biking in general, swim attitude, etc.

I am mixed on this race. It's interesting how I used to want 8-ish swim and 20-ish bike, and 7-ish run. I've got that but now everyone I know is 7-ish and 22+ on bike, and 6-ish on run. Just keeping up with you playahs is getting tough.

Take a look at my historical graph. It seems I just need to put the bike, run, and swim together to squeeze more outta the turnip. Also, the free speed of transitions. I "would be" (I hate that talk, but there, I said it) 1:15-ish if I don't mess up my helmet and gain a few seconds somewhere else, easily. I'm cool with this.

Great to see/meet all donks as well!