I did better on this swim even though the time doesn't reflect it [It was a pretty long run up to T1 that added to the swim time]-- I did a lot in freestyle and mixed in a little side stroke -- It was the roughest of the three tris I've done - I guess it was where I was in the midst of the pack, but I was slapping and getting slapped and kicked all the way with only a few brief moments of clear water... But, for some sick reason, I enjoyed all the pushing, shoving and gasping for air...

Keep on working on doing everything freestyle, then get better form...

Beat my previous two T1 times by 15 seconds...

Keep getting accustomed to doing it all under the pressure of real time racing...

Being in the 6th of 7 waves, and being a slow swimmer puts me in the back of the whole pack getting on the bike - But I like it that way because you're passing people all along the way and getting passed very little. I was doing fine on the bike for me - Finally no back pain and the legs felt great. I was averaging almost 20 mph coming to the final big giant downhill (I'd been looking forward to that thing for 11 miles! Well, I maneuvered around a couple people coming up to Hwy 42 so I could swing wide and hit the highway and big hill as fast as possible - Crossing the center of the highway I hit those warning ribs pretty hard and fast and, well, that's when I saw my Garmin go flying off the bike, hit the highway once, and bounce into the weeds into the ditch across the highway -- CRAP!!! I got stopped, tunned around, and 4 or 5 people, (including one of the deputies at the intersection) were jumping in the ditch looking for the Garmin -- Thanks to the little local fella who jumped up out of the ditch with the Garmin, ran it over to me, and said, "Is this all there is to it?" - Kudos to the Garmin though - 20 mph impact on the highway and it kept right on ticking - Along with my time! Of course, when I clipped back in and started to ease back into the highway trying to avoid running out in front of someone, I realized I was in high gear - CRAP!! - I guess I lost 3 or 4 minutes at least in the Garmin episode - Oh well... Hit the downhill as hard as I could go a bit discouraged at all the people who had come by me as I looked dumbfounded at the reality of it all standing there on the side of the road - I recognized most of them because I'd passed them somewhere along the 11 miles we'd made up to that point -- CRAP!!

Uhh - Not hit the bumps so hard...

Getting better at the transition - Just need more practice to get more accustomed to doing everything the same way every time...

Keep practcing...

This is where the wheels ran off - I just wimped out on the run - I actually walked a couple of hills, and just couldn't get myself to hunker down and quicken my turnover on the hills - I let myself get beaten mentally on this run more than physically... It was nice, though, to have our very own marvarnett back out on the course cheering everybody on to the last .5 mile of the run -- ( Oh, and Dan, I just love what you've done with the hair ;) )

Get tougher mentally...

Felt like I was in an oven as I crossed the finish line - Made sure to tell everybody who would listen about the Garmin excuse for the bike :) Said CRAP! a lot, and drank some water, swapped my little-bitty medium race shirt for a large, and loaded up and headed home...


Lack of experience mostly... Oh, and the Garmin thing -- CRAP! :)