whaaaa??????? UNDER 40 minutes for this swim?? maybe it was a little short... Had a really good swim for me.. had a couple times with water starting to seep into the goggles.. navigation was horrible, but I really didn't do much sighting at all - pretty much watched others around me, figuring if I was around other people, I was generally heading in the right direction... a few times when I saw no one around me, I actually stood up to see where I was... and nearly got clipped (later found out it was new daddy djdavey himself..) I could touch there, but he was too short to touch bottom...

When I finished the swim, I even saw people with the same color cap as I had on -- and wasn't even last in my age group!!!

Only problem was that when I was coming back into shore, I saw a few people that were 'aqua-jogging around me, so I thought I'd do the same thing, since I'm tall, and can probably do better 'running' than swimming... so I stood up and took off my goggles and started running to shore -- just long enough for the bottom to get deeper so I couldn't touch anymore... that sucked..... had to swim a little bit without goggles on... til I knew I was in close enough to touch for the rest of the way in..

keep swimming a little closer into the shore, try to do at least a little sighting (I actually veered too far --- to the RIGHT!! -- and then the left -- back to the right -- but not horribly) There were a bunch of people that had to go back out 'cause they were coming in too close and trying to go around the wrong bouy... I chuckled a little to myself 'cause I didn't get THAT far off course....

can't complain a whole lot, though, since this cut off OVER 30 minutes from my last 1/2 IM swim....

couldn't get wet-suit off (again).. stuck on heels, so I sat down to try get it off.. that didn't work, so I stood up and tried to step on it, which took a couple of tries... calves tried to cramp up, but I said it wasn't gonna happen, so they mostly stayed away...

had to hit the port-o-potty in transition - that slowed things down even more..

actually saw sandi, jszat, scoobysdad, and went out at the same time as ajotto.. weird seeing so many people I know in transition -- sorry I didn't offer breakfast to anyone...

I guess still be faster.... this isn't very fast....

first off, forgot my HammerGel bottle in my transition bag.. not so good..

Well, first problem on the bike is that it was basically the first time on the new saddle (would come back to haunt me later...)

Second problem was that my HammerGel flask was still in my tranistion bag after I left... oops..

Other than that, the ride was good for me - had 20 mph over first 53 miles, then fell apart.. Saddle started bothering me after about mile 20, and just got painful after mile 40... I DID stick relatively close to my nutrition plan for the first 40 miles on the bike, (except for keeping up with the gels).. took a little more water than expected (LOVE the aero-drink thing), and a little less HEED, and pretty much right on for endurolytes, but overall happy with the first 2/3 of the bike.. then the pain pretty much took over and I was miserable coming back in.

It WAS awesome to see other BT'ers and Donkeys on the bike.. left AND came back in with ajotto, but really didn't see him at any other point except for there.. also

Most importantly -- not have the initial ride on a new saddle (completely different type at that - from traditional to Adamo) be a 56 mile ride.. secondly - remember to put my gel-flask onto the bike... and thirdly - stick with nutrition for the entire bike. Overall happy, though -- big improvement on previous rides of this distance..

yeah, I'm still slow in transition -- even WITH the new yanks I put in my shoes...

have a faster transition.

I think this is where losing out on the nutrition on the final 1/3 of the bike course came back to haunt me... just got fatigued, heart rate average was only 143.. so I KNOW I wasn't pushing, and a lot of time I looked down and saw 120's for the heart rate. I was just tired. Forgot endurolytes on the bike, took a few on the run, but not as many as I would have otherwise. Also forgot to take out the new shoe inserts that I just got a couple of nights ago (I've never run with inserts in before - got some Superfeet for free, and thought I'd try them for a short run.. forgot to put back in the original insoles) - that came back to haunt me a little..

Was able to run with scooby for a while, and then with another friend for a while (non-BT) - and with all the support on the course with spectators, as well as seeing all the other Donkey's on the run, he told me "man, you seem to know EVERYONE on this course", which was pretty cool..

On the first lap, I was able to see jszat, mutri, and davey coming back pretty close to the end of their first loop, so my 1 goal was not to get lapped by them (i.e. get to the second lap before they finish).. well, made it, but not by much.. Left IT band started to flare up, I think because of the new inserts - felt like I was sliding a little on my left foot, changed my running pattern a little, which is probably what caused the IT band issue.

The last 3 1/2 miles, I caught up to a tri-wisconsin guy, and we started talking as we were walking -- we started to run together for short distances and then walk, then repeat... he left me with about 1 1/4 mile to go, 'cause I was just spent.. he came up to sandi and I after the race with his wife, asking if I was the donkey guy he was running with... his wife then said "aren't you Travis Vande Berg?" which pretty much floored me -- turns out she is related to a very close friend of the family, and they had talked about training stuff and that Sandi and I also did triathlons.

not bonk on the run... still better than the last one, though.. and I didn't feel as crappy after this one than the last..

not use new inserts for a 13.1 mile 'break-in' run..

Sandi was waiting for me at the finish line (she beat me by 13 minutes), which was cool. We got our picture taken, and walked around a little bit - went to the med tent for some ice for my IT-band. Hung out with the donkey nation for a while, went back into the lake to cool off a little..


I think nutrition on the back end of this race, new saddle, and new inserts weren't such a smart idea... what is it they say, 'nothing new on race day..' ummm... yeah..... I don't listen to that too much..


overall fun day -- had a great time with the donkey's and BT group...

I was hoping to finish in 6:30, and finishing at 5:57 was a great surprise. THIS WAS A PR BY OVER 1 HOUR AND 15 MINUTES, so I'm cool with that - but I am thinking it may be a little while before I am able to match this one..

A little upsetting is that I thought that a 6 hour for a 1/2 IM was a pretty good race, only to find out that I STILL finished 144/166 in my age group... just destined to be a BOP I guess.... though I'm o.k. with that.. I had a lot of fun. Great support from racers as well as spectators from BT, donkey nation, and others (the donkey jersey tends to get a lot of comments - which is nice and motivating)