This was a beach start. I walked up and down the line trying to find the best line to the first bouy. Finally decided on starting on the right about 2 'rows' back. At the gun I ran until the water was thigh deep then dove in. Swam hard the first 100. Looked up and tried to find a draft. It was a very messy start and I couldn't find any decent draft. Just continued to swim to the first bouy. Made the bouy turn wide, about 10' out to avoid the crowd at the bouy. From here there was a long straight away to the next turn bouy without any bouys in between. The water was very choppy at this point. Lots of wind blown chop and boat wakes. Continued to try drafting. But everyone I drafted on would not keep swimming. To sight they all started breast stroking. Gave up on the drafting and concentrated on the next bouy and finishing the swim. Good turn at the next bouy. Now had the wind and waves at our feet. Concentrated on long smooth strokes. I got confused on where the next bouy was. There was a long line of orange bouys. I ended up swimming to these and was off course about 20 yards. Cost me a minute or so getting back on course. Good swim into the beach.

Start further up front. I missed drafting the good swimmers at the start.

Need more OW swim practice.

5/29
Everything was great - good run to T1, helmet on, glasses on, run with the bike. Then, tried to get into my shoes. Missed my left foot on the shoe, pedal spun around and the shoe caught the ground. Had to stop and re-start. Meanwhile, Aaron caught it all on camera. Also had to stop up the road to fix the insole; missing my shoe I bunched up the insole in the shoe.

I've practiced this a 100 times. More practice I guess.

Headed out of the park and onto the course. Started looking for the legal draft. In the first few miles, like most races, some athletes were flying down the road. I picked up a couple of guys for legal draft but they all slowed down too much on the hills. At one point, Jeff Bennett passed me. He's a local guy I swim with and is extremely fast on the bike and run. I practiced staying aero on the down hills; really crouched down, knees tucked. I actually passed people coasting the down hills. After the turn around and the right turn, I found my ox. Todd and another guy passed me at a good clip. I latched on at a legal distance and watched them trade off. I stayed there for several miles cruising at 23-25mph in z2. Eventually I lost them on a hill. But, I looked at my computer and we were at ~20 miles and almost back to the park. Once in the park I started spinning it out and preparing for the run.

Nothing. Good ride.

7/29
Good dismount, good run with the bike. A little too long getting my shoes on.

More powder in my shoes to make them slip on easier.

The goal was to negative split the run. Started out relatively easy and just increased the intensity as the run continued. At one point I was running behind a guy in a rainbow colored speedo. "Uh, I can't take this anymore." Passed him and didn't care how high my HR went to get passed him. Hit the turn around and picked up the pace. Saw lots of BT'ers on the run. Once in the park, picked up the pace again. Started picking off runners ahead of me. Saw Aaron taking pictures. Saw my wife, taking pictures. Hit the finish line in a 10k PR time. Woo hoo.

Not much. Had a good run.

Walked around. Talked to BT folks. Ate pizza, Michele's cookie bars. For some reason I was starving after this race. Thirsty too.


No taper.


Good race. This was my first DSU race. Nice venue. Good course. I'll be back to race Texas Man in September.

My only complaint would be the distances - why not make it standard Olympic distances - 1500m, 40k, 10k. I think the bike course was longer than the 23 miles they said it was. And why 1500 yards?