75°? wetsuit legal? BWA HA HA HA!!!! time to try out my birthday present! since i'm in the first heat with my pretty pink cap, i could be first out of the...oh, wait, there's eagleman champ and 2nd place finisher at IMAZ tj tollakson. oh, and he brought a friend too. stewart? where are you from? oh, wait, it says that on your suit, great britian, huh? thanks for bringing friends tj ;) (no really, tj is a great guy)
oh well, let's do this. gun went off and i started swimming. first half felt pretty good, the second was a little rough. could be that i'm only training a mile at a time, but that's all i have time for these days.
just kept on keeping on and soon i was hitting the beach. didn't hit the watch so i had no idea as to the split.
last year = 7:02, thanks wetsuit!

swim a little more into the beach. save a little for the end.

wetsuit added some time here, about 13 seconds from last year. meh.

did okay, i'm happy with it.

hey, rubber bands worked alright this year! woot woot!
i was a little nervous about the bike. there was a killer headwind on the way back (which meant a good tail on the way out!) and i haven't had as much saddle time as i did last year. i just didn't want to collapse at the side of the road.
went around the lake and did the mother hill out of the saddle. remarked "i'm going to pay for that later" as i went over the top. tried to take it nice and easy on the way out so i could have something at the end.
tj had trouble with his bike and i passed him as he pulled over to fix it. a small bit of satisfaction because i was "beating him" but mile 5 he passed me like i was standing still.
came into town feeling good and started heading back where the wind was slowing me to a crawl. after a couple bikes passed me i started checking calves. those 35 year olds can really motor! with about three miles to go, i saw a 25 year old calf. let's keep and eye on him.
rolled back into the park and got out of the shoes with little trouble.
last year = 38:55
really, the wind could have explained the 1:30 gain.

i felt pretty good after the bike, perhaps a little too good. maybe next time i will go a little faster.

and so i thought, why not just grab the hat and belt and put them on as i go?
last year = 0:57

nothing, that worked like a charm.

okay, so we saved a little somethin' somethin' for the run and we...yes, we just passed mr. #25 as he was chillin' in transistion. all we need to do now is just run your race and whatever happens will happen.
took the first mile easy which included the hill. yikes, that was long. passed one guy and that made me feel good vs the 5 30-40 year olds that passed me.
started to cramp up and thoughts turned from destroying the run to surviving the run. i just got to lock in that mind set before the race and not count on being able to jump in once i'm there.
i could hear mr. #25 coming for me. heard people cheering for him too. the last half mile i started to pick it up but it didn't last for long. just before the last turn i heard a lady yell, "way to go, you guys are right together." so, i'm going to let you sit back there the whole way and run past me right at the end? no, no thank you. and i threw my body across the finish.
last year = 22:19 (sweet!)

focus mentally on the run before the race and have the plan to nail it.

lookie lookie! only gained about 20 seconds and almost all of that was because the bike! went faster in the swim and the run!
swam the lake course and then rode the run course to check the mile markers. yeah, they were off.


lack of training time, but the main goal was to not lose everything this summer. i think this race went pretty well and if it wasn't so windy, perhaps it would have been a new pr.


i like this race. good orgainization, helpful people, great post race food, and the course isn't a walk in the park.