Worst swim in my triathlon career. Got my a$$ handed to me in the first 100 yards. I got run over by a few guys which normally never happens and then I swam into about 5 guys on the way to the first buoy. By the second buoy the entire lead back went way right. I was swimming dead on the buoy line so I was not going to follow those guys. Aside from the line I swam everything else was terrible. When we hit the first turn the entire lead back mins one guys merged back in with me. They must have swum an extra 12-25 yards out of their way. Then we started catching the wave in front of us and it was a mess. It was like a shotgun blast of swimmers. None swimming a straight line. Again I was all over guys.

Breathing was a mess and I think that is what caused me to fall apart. I could never catch my breath during the entire swim. So I just backed off and cruised the last half. I was trying to stay as controlled as possible with out overextending so early in the race. From there I made it up the boat ramp and was glad to get the wetsuit off. I was totally overheating in that thing. Way too warm for a wetsuit swim....


Nothing.

Fast transition. Just needed to get the wetsuit off and I was out of there.

Nothing

The idea here was to take 5 mins and get my body settled down and then drop the hammer. I have not been training much on the run this year due to some health issues so I was relying on a huge bike lead with a decent swim and some solid transition to get me in the top of the pack. Bike fitness is better when compared to last year at this time so I thought for sure I would ride under 2:15.

Right away my legs felt good but not great like last weekend. But I was ok with it because I was not fatigued and I certainly could work with what I felt like. At 5 mins in I stood up and took off. Pulled away from the small pack I was in and took off. As I did this the winner of my age group decided to chase after me. I passed Bill from my Tri club and gave him a quick hello. He was looking good.

The first 40K was pretty blistering. We were holding 26-28 for most of the sections. The guy who was up my a$$ in my age group really didn't take too many legal pulls which pissed me off a lot. But I was not going to say too much. I was trying to stay focused on my race and how I was feeling. At mile 40 I pretty much hit the wall. My back seized up and I started to overheat. I grabbed water at one exchange and dumped it on my head but it was pretty much too late...

The last 15 was a real test. My back was killing me, me head was way hot in the aero helmet and I just plain and simply wanted off the bike. I was done with the ride. Tough part was, I was averaging 25.9 when I feel off the pace. The guy in my age group lost me and that was that.


Nothing.

Nothing much here. Realized I was 2nd in my age group at this point and decided to stay with it for as long as I could. The heat an my body were not working well together at this point.

Nothing

With no run training it’s a minor miracle that I even decided to do this considering the heat. But I was not going to DNF unless I was medically unable to finish.

So I started off and in the 1st qtr mile my quads and calf’s both locked up to the point that I could not move. This was not the normal chally horse either. This was the rigamortis is setting in and I feel like I would rather have my legs amputated pain.

Anyway...I bend over and stretched out for a bit and noticed I was not the only one in the same situation. Top guys in the 25-29 were right there with me. Mile 1 was a 10 min mile...

At about mile 3-4 I saw Chris Leigh walking in no mans land, (he was in 2nd place at the time). Terenzo Bozzone was running up on him and trying to get him to run with him but he was not looking well. If they were walking on the way back I was starting to get really concerned for myself.

After that I held up pretty good until the turn around. When the turn around came and went I realized I had dropped about 2 positions and was running in 4th in my age group. I kept making deals with myself. Just keep running until you get passed or you get to an aid station. I walked pretty much every aid station and so did everyone else out there. At about mile 9 I just simply had a meltdown. I was way overheated and my pace was about 8:10-8:20s... I just decided that at this point if I finish standing up I would be happy. I ran with someone in 25-29 who was walking because of stomach issues and blisters. We kind of picked each other up and kept taking for the last few miles. He had a garmin and was telling me how far we had to go. We were running like 8s at that point and honestly it felt more like 10 min miles. It was dreadful. The last 5k seemed like it would last forever. Finally we got within distance to hear the finish line and we started to talk about if I should drop back and let him get a good photo finish. I honestly didn't care at that point. Until, one of my new buddies Kevin Farly decided to run by me at like 6 min mile pace and sprint to the line. I look down and saw he was 30-34 and I looked over at the guy I was running with and asked if he though I should go get him. He told me to give chase and I took off after him. I matched his pace but there was just not enough ground to catch him. I crossed the line and took a seat next to him and had a great laugh as they hosed us off with cold water for about 10 minutes. What a mess!


Train more....

Went back into the Chop Tank to let legs unwind. When that didn't work I went to the massage tent.. That helped.


Heat and run training.


Race is great. I will sign up for it again next year as well. It's a tough course. All day hammering leaves you a mess.