As mentioned before, I was really nervous about this. I know I can swim the distance, but after my last swim, I was scared. Who wants their race over in the first 30 minutes. I lined up toward the outside and immediately move a little more outside. This worked out perfect. I was right on the edge, but could site off everyone else. I had pretty clear water and only was bumped a couple of times on the way out. Rounded the first bouy and then stayed in the middle of things the rest of the way. Really didn't have many problems. About 2/3 of the way through, the fast swimmers from the next wave started to show up. No problem though, just kept chugging along. Rounded the final buoy and picked it up a little bit. Had someone try to swim over me, but kicked until they laid off. (Take that!!!) Finished strong and felt great. I now have a nice wetsuit hickey on my neck, but didn't mind.

Nothing this was one of my better OWS with wave starts. I just need to get a little faster.

Felt good through this transition. Put on socks and just made sure I was all set.

Nothing.

Well, this is where nothing new on race day comes into play. I decided tha for the oly, I would take a couple of Gel Packs with me. I taped them to my top tube. Sure enough, when I went to grab one, I pulled them both off. This left me with two open gels. So I ate them. Bad Idea!!!. I started cramping about 2/3 of the way up old stage. It was cramping in my lower back though, not my side where you normally get cramps. Actually had to stop and walk my bike about 30 yards while stretching out my back. As soon as I felt better, I hopped back on and took off again. Probably lost about 2 minutes. After that, I tore through the rest of the ride. My watch said 19.8. I think I would have been closer to 20 if not for my cramps.

Learn to just get one gel packet at a time. Otherwise, not much. I felt pretty good on this ride. Passed a ton of people and held my own out there. Next time I will climb Old Stage more before the race and do more climbing. Was very frustrated that I had to walk at all as those that know me know I can climb well.

This would have been faster, but some guy was very slow and got between me and my rack, so I had to slow down to get him to go by so I could get to my row. Probably only lost 2-3 seconds, but it seemed like eternity. :)

Nothing

This run was hot. I took it easy the first mile and just tried to find my stride. Got to the first mile and saw 7:30. Cool. Second mile was 8:02 Still o.k. Third mile was 8:30. I've got to hold this pace... After that I don't know what I did. I do know the last mile was 8:13. I had a gel at mile 3,and started using the ice. I drank a ton and poured water over myself to keep cool. This worked great. I did notice that as I came back around the res, my shoes were sloshing, but it didn't matter. Final 1/2 mile, my left quad cramped. Just kept thinking, "Don't tear it, it's not worth it." I got off the soft pack of the trail and back onto blacktop and the cramps subsided. Was able to sprint all the way into the finish. This was a 10k PR.

Nothing. This run was perfect for me. I just need to get faster.

Went directly to the lake and sat down. Awwwwww cool. :) Walked around and hung out with my wife, kid and in-laws. After they left, found Mel, Terry and Stacey. So good to see her there and back around the BT Crew.


I need to swim faster. I also need to ride more. It has been a balancing act to train this year. I want to spend so much time with my daughter and wife, but I also want to train. I get up early to go to work and train right after, but it is still hard. Maybe next year I'll figure it out. Or I'll just be happy with the way things are. :)


I was suprised that the food kind of stunk after this race. They usually have really good stuff. The Q-Doba burritos were awful (and I like QDoba). I did have some water melon. The soda was some nasty Safeway brand. It just wasn't as good as usual. I will probably do this race again sometime, but I'm in no rush. There are plenty of Oly distance races around. I think I'll try some of those first. :)