8:00 the first wave went off. 8:30 was my turn (one hour late!). And so we hit the water and it's f...ing freezing! As everybody was freaking out in a mad frenzy there was not much swimming at first. For another 5 min or so it continues, I can't get the rhythm, breathing is off, I'm drinking water, goggles fog up, but I'm actually passing some people to my amazement. As I couldn't see much , just tried to stay with some swimmers, we drifted towards the beach a bit, I could see the bottom and even touched it few times. Comforting, so we won't drown, great! Did I mention it was cold? IT WAS COLD. The fog was still thick and from one buoy you couldn't see the next, on top of that the officials decided to move some of them closer to the shore... But surprisingly the last yellow ones were in sight and in spite of having to back track a bit to round the last one the time looked really good (they measured the course short for sure).
I was out of the water happy, wife took a picture, I got a kiss and ran to the bike across the sand.

Probably sight the buoys more than just trying to rely on others.

As I managed to take the wetsuit off the hands and feet were lobster red from cold and totally numb, so putting on anything was a trip and half... Since I hate being cold on the bike I put a sweater on on top of the jersey just to warm up a bit. Sometimes I wish I had more blubber on me for the swim, this was one of those times...

Probably organize the things a bit more would have helped.

Afew miles of bumpy surface on the streets in Racine and we're headed to the countryside. HR was a bit high, 130-140, speed around 29km/hr, but it all looked like fun.

At about mile 8, the road seemed bumpy again to quickly discover that it was my rear tire, not the road. Great... For a while I thought I could just ride it out, but all of a sudden the damn thing exploaded! Stopped, took the wheel off (swarms of mosquitos around) and saw the side wall of the tire partially delaminated that caused the bump. Great... Put a spare tube in, tucked the tire into the rim and pumped it up. The ride was a bit bumpy again, but at least we were going. Few minutes later it popped out again! This looked like the end of my race. Well, I decided to give it another go, just inflated it to 10-15psi to be safer. This time the tire was really half flat, but it worked!

And so for the next almost 50 miles we were riding like that, but I was prepared to pay the price as long as there was a chance to finish before the cut off. Now it felt like we were partners here, I was ready to push harder as long as the bike would hold on.

The sun came out, the birds were singing, corn fields around - life was great again! Hey, we were never planning on winning this thing anyway.
The volunteers were very helpful, cops were doing their job keeping the cars out of the way (at one point a cop told me to go ahead and if the car didn't want to stop, he'd shoot it!). It was fun!

At mile 40 or so things were getting a bit boring and I just wanted to start running. This was when I noticed, that the quads were a bit tired... But you run on different muscles, right?

So riding sort of close to 2 girls, we talked sometimes a bit and we all just wanted to basically go home...



Train harder, that's it.

This was relatively quick, helmet on, gloves off, belt on...

Nothing.

I couldn't wait to start running. I didn't feel tired at all, so let's make up some time and pass few people! Right...

After 1 minute of jogging both legs (quads just above the knees) vere beginning to cramp very painfully. Crap! I stopped in disbelief, massaged a bit and tried again. Not even a minute and I was stopped by pain again! I couldn't believe it. The legs were cooked beyond repair... I looked at the other runners passing me. How the hell do they do it? Anyway. It was a walk, stop, walk for the first 5k. A bit of jogging later. Very disapointing. And now it was really hot too with 120% humidity.

Time was ticking and I really thought they would close the race before I get to the finish. Did a quick calc and it seemed still OK even if I walked all the way. I had a cell phone on me just in case and at one point my wife called me and asked how long before I finish, 'the way things are going looks like another two hours...' I said. 'What? They're gonna close the race, you better hurry up'. What a darling... This was not funny anymore.

And why all of a sudden this park smells like shit? Tons of it!!! (well, we were running through a ZOO as I learned later).

It was brutal. To feel a bit better I tried to talk to some people, but noticed, that I was annoying some, so gave that up. Strange, most people around were really tired with good legs, me - just the opposite.
At every aid station I was popping those salt pills hoping they would help with the cramps, but I haven't noticed any difference at all. Every attempt to run ended in near total lock up of the quads. The view of the lake was fantastic though, the weather turned out great, kids were spraying us with water, volunteers were smiling.

And so I crossed the finish line, my wife was waving to me from the hill, most people were already gone...

I must say, if nothing else I have a half iron stomach! Gels, bananas, power bars, countless salt pills, heed, gatorade, water - all sloshing happily down there with no ill effects, just occasional burp.



Not have cramps in my legs!!!

A humble walk to the dear bike, picked up the bag and looked at the whole scene again.


Too much riding in easy gear on flat path with properly inflated tires.


I was really thanking my lucky stars I finished, but the fact they ran out of the finisher's medals put a dent in my feelings. I wonder, did people take more than one medal, like for the kids maybe, or they did not anticipate that many people finishing the race? Mind boggles.

Oh, apparently according to the official results I did not start (among 400 others!!!). Maybe it was all a dream?