I put down a time of 4:40 and was in 46th place in line. That means 45 people ahead of me thought they could break 4:40, or 45 people were lying. Either way I didn't care, I had my race to run and wasn't going to worry about anybody else. I started off with the traditional Rockwall Cannonball, then got to swimming. The whole race was supposed to be at top effort, and I definitely started out that way on the swim. I bet my first 50 was in under 40 seconds, I was hauling *ss. I slowed down as things went on, but a 5:05 which includes getting out of the pool and running across the mat means I was hitting my max effort(or very close). I was passed by 1 guy, but that's the only contact I had with anyone throughout the swim.

Nothing.

Strap, shirt, sunglasses, garmin, helmet, shoes, gone.

Nothing.

The blowout continued on the ride where my HR was sitting in the 160s & 170s pretty much the whole time. I had to pull back just a little on the bike because I could tell I'd be toast on the run; I miscalculated how many hills there were on this ride. It was definitely hillier than I recalled, so I had to dial it down a bit for a few minutes on the back stretch. Craig passed me about halfway through the bike; I was hoping I could hold him off until the run, but no dice. That bastard is fast these days.

18.3 is solid, no real complaints.

Not sure, maybe lay off a little on the uphills so I could keep pushing on the flats.

I put down the best flying dismount yet. I didn't even break stride running into T2, and I passed a guy at the red line in the process(later b*tch!). I was very happy about that dismount.

The peanut gallery - and by gallery, I mean Jen, Gary, & a couple other BTers - had a field day with me putting on socks for a run shorter than a 5k. These feet are prima-donnas, they need things a certain way or they protest with a vengeance. Regardless, a 1 minute T2 is blazing for me so I'm happy.

Suplex a few spectators off the top of the porta-potty.

I decided to keep pouring it on as I felt pretty good going out. I walked at the aid station to get a little gatorade, but other than that I was pushing hard. I was hoping to keep my run at or under a 9:20 pace, and early on I could tell that was going to be achievable. I felt strong coming out on the run, it was a good feeling. I saw Karen about 1.3 miles in as she was doing her workout out there. She asked if I'd take longer than her 20 minutes she had left to run, to which I emphatically replied 'NO'. I was 15 minutes from the end, tops, and I felt like I had more in me. She went running off to make it to the finish line before I did(I was maybe 3 minutes out from the turnaround) and I picked up the pace even more. The last mile, I was averaging about an 8:30 pace. It was a good run.

I would have slapped Karen on the butt and seen if she could catch me.

The swim is fine(it's about what you'd expect from a pool start), the bike was fine, but the run had issues. For starters, it wasn't marked well. Several of the top guys lost some time because they couldn't tell which way to go on the run back into the finish(this was fixed prior to me getting back there) due to a lack of signage. That, and there was a 90 degree turn right before the finish from pavement to grass that quite a few people ate it on. Those are the only things that kept this race from being great; otherwise it was your standard well-stocked, well-assisted Ironhead race. Jack delivers a consistent product, and that consistency is appreciated.