Just before the swim start my stomach started up, uh oh!! This will go away as soon as I get into "race mode", it has to! The swim started off pretty rough. I got beat up more in this race than I ever have I think. I took a couple elbows to the ribs and a good kick to the thigh (whew!) before I finally just put my head down and pushed hard to get out in front. I was leaving the arms and legs behind me and just getting ready to set the cruise control when I hit a mooring buoy square in the middle of my forehead. Who the heck put that there?!!! Thank God it was foam and not the hard plastic one. At this point I am thinking that this is really going to be an interesting day. My goggles are so fogged up that I can't see a thing when I sight, I guess my spit wasn't gooey enough today. I see a set of feet go by me and I swam for them figuring if I can keep the feet in front of me I won't have to clear my goggles. I held on for a 100 yds or so then took a nice swallow of water that caused me to breathe each stroke to catch a breath and lost the feet. Bummer! I rounded the first buoy and I was already seeing the caps from some of the previous wave. I still couldn't see anything so I finally stopped to clear my goggles and with 1 breastroke kick managed to kick the guy drafting me! I set the cruise control at a 1:15 pace and every few minutes I looked behind me just to see if my passenger was still there. He was and I know he must have enjoyed the 6 beat draft I was throwing. I think I lost him when we turned into the headwind for the final 300 yds. Overall I had a good swim and didn't push it too hard at all.

Look for any obstacles before the race start and defog my goggles better.

Horrendous T1! No excuses, I NEED TO WORK ON TRANSITIONS!!!! I SUCK AT TRANSITIONS!! There, I feel better already! :)

Get organized and work on transitions. It took me 4 or 5 tries to snap my race belt. Ugh!!

When I finally got out of T1 I felt good on the bike. Got into a good rhythm and started to pass people. (It's nice starting in the second wave!) I passed a Jason Chlopecki (jchlopecki) after a few miles, we're both coached by the all-mighty Kevin Crossman (t3coach1) of T3 Coaching. The roads were terrible, filled with potholes and debris. The first section was on a 55 mph road into a headwind. Some riders were taking a line on the road because of the condition of the shoulder. I found a pretty smooth line on the far right side of the shoulder and ended up passing a couple riders on the right. Being gravity challenged, I was getting passed on the uphills by a few guys but I got them back with my gravity advantage going downhill. Wheeeeeee!!!! I don't know where my mind was for this race but a few times I looked down at my HR and saw 130's, WTF!! HTFU and start racing dude!!! There is a 3 to 4 mile hill that leads to the turn around and I just got into a comfy gear and started to sing "What goes up, must come down ....... spinning wheels......." Made the turn at the top and started to pick off the people that passed me on the uphill. The Oly group met up with the Sprint group with a few miles to go. This was another place where some of the sprinters were riding in the middle of the road. I was approaching them at around 26 mph and they were going a lot slower so I passed them on the right. I turned in to the road that led back to the transition area and passed a few more riders, took my feet out of my shoes and rode with my feet on top of my shoes for the last block. Had a good dismount, racked my bike and got ready to run. I ended up getting a 2:00 penalty for Overtaking. I don't know if it was from passing on the right or not dropping back far enough before re passing someone. That could have been an issue with the looong hill.

Stay focused, and pay attention to my position when approaching slower riders.

I had a little trouble racking my bike as there was a bag in my spot. To speed up the transition I decided to forego the socks. BIG MISTAKE!!! Grabbed my hat, took a swig of gel and headed out.

GET ORGANIZED AND PRACTICE!!!! Always put my socks on, never forget the socks again!

I headed out of T2 and tried to get into a 6:30 pace. After a very short time my legs were telling me that this gear is broken, cruise control won't work at this effort. So I told my legs "Okay, let's try the Musselman gear!" I was very comfortable at a 7:30 pace and was going to cruise home at this pace until I saw Tim Andrus pass me just before the turnaround. He said "I know you're 5 minutes ahead Bob, but you are DOGGIN' IT!" I went through the turn and after about a few strides I saw Jason Chlopecki and thought I really need to pick it up a notch and "RACE"! The next 2 miles were at a 7:00 pace and my legs felt good but my stomach wasn't and I was actually looking for a tossed out napkin and a patch of trees. I wasn't sure if I was going to make it to the finish line. My legs felt good and was still at a comfortable pace but man the stomach was gurglin'! I finally had to make the choice of having a brown streak going down my leg for the finish picture or hitting the john 200 yds from the finish. I chose the porta john, in hindsight it was the wrong choice and cost me 1st place in AG. The only good thing was that I looked at my a$$ before I left the john and noticed a 2 ft piece of toilet paper caught on my tri shorts! That would have been a pic for the BT banner!

ALWAYS WEAR SOCKS!! The blisters on my feet are killing me!! Either figure out my nutrition or go 6 times before a race!

Walked around a bit with Matt. Went back up to the car for my recovery drink. YUM!!! GHot Matt ready for his kids tri.


Getting my head in the game better, a better warm-up with a good run to "loosen" everything up better, not run into a mooring buoy in the swim, pass people on the left and don't let ANYBODY pass me on the bike, run to the finish line like you're in a race!!


Another great race put on by Score-This and Jeff Henderson. I highly recommend any of the Finger Lakes races to anyone of any ability!!