The damn water was so cold. If I even mention doing this race a third time without a wetsuit, I give you all permission to bitch-slap me. Once was an adventure, twice was ill-advised. Three times would be down-right moronic. My Half IM swim time last year was faster than my an oly this year, I'm sure, as I was so cold and hyperventelating I am still amazed I was not close to last out of the water - I just could not keep my head under water. I even tried breast stroking with my head under water to aclimate and eventaull do the crawl, but I couldn't do it. Breast stroke the WHOLE way. Again.

Get a damn wetsuit! Problem is, this is the only race all year where I could possibly need/use one. Stupid fudge packing wet suit.

Felt awesome to be out of the water. Kristen, who started 6 minutes behind me came out of the water about a minute after me. Chatted for a moment and off I went.

Moved Kristens bike to another place in T1 and watched from the bushes.

As usual, I was fine on the bike, passed many people and got up to 46mph on the monster downhill, which makes the whole race worthwhile. I love that downhill. Came into transition feeling fine.

Spend more time one the bike.

fast and fine here.

Walked the hill both times. Didn't even attempt it. I was having cramps just above my knees, but they were tolerable, so I didn't want to screw with the hill and make the cramps worse. I came around the first loop and Kristen's bike was there. Huh... Where is she? Could be just behind me (I turn and look about every 5 minutes so) if I see her I can turn on the jets which would give me a whole other .01 miles an hour... Still, I looked. Not knowing where she was made me push a tad harder, but not much. Frankly, I just wanted to get the damn thing over with.

I don't know. Train more intensively?

Beer. Beer. 2 breakfast tacos and another beer. Bottle of water accompianied by a stomach ache that I still have, damn it all.


Copious amounts of fat.


I don't know exactly what my time was, but was told 3:30 - again.
I really took my ability at the end of last season for granted. I thought I was better prepared than that. After doing a half at the end of last season, my time in this race didn't improve. I felt sluggish on the run and my legs were tired when I pushed on the bike. The swim was just about the same, so nothing new to report abou the damn cold assed water. Anyway, I thought I would do much better than I did. Last years race was with less than 30 days training and I weighed 15 lbs more. WTF? I guess the winter did affect me or I didn't go about off season training as I should have. Oh, well. It was my first off-season. Next summer I will push harder.
Promise one: I will not DO the race if it is 1 day removed from St. Patricks day.
Promise two: If promise one turns out to be a bald-faced lie, I will at least forbid myself that amount of booze.
Promise three: If both of those promises turn out to be more flapdoodle, I will not go out until after three in the morning 1 day before the race.
Promise four: In no was will I attempt another race without a wet suit where the water is 60 or below. No way. I am still fucking cold. Piss assed monkey shit water.
Promise five:I will lose 20 lbs by this race next year and I will break 3 hours or I am done with the sport.
Promise 6: Taper and not think I'm such hot shit next time I do a little ol' Olympic. Dumb ass.

I beat Kristen, but she did wonderfully finishing in under 4 hours (Possibly more, but we need to see the official race results). There was no gloating as she called off the bet a few weeks ago and I am proud of her.

Still, I did completly dust her candied-ass, and a fact is a fact, so I quess I should just go ahead and say it: I am better than you, nanananananananana....

Gina Vandiver came in for the race. She finished first in her age group for 24-29 woman and I am totally impressed. She talked about where she could imporove and how her swim wasn't fast enough and her run needs to get better, but I gotta say, som-bitch, Gina. You won your very competitive age group, you freak. Good for you. And I have to say thank you for wheeling my bike to my car leaving one of my hands free to drink my beer. What a trooper. I spent half the walk trying to figure out how to get you to carry my transition bag, but the beer was having an effect and I gave up. Good race, Gina.

Ulitimately, I had a good time, but I am really pretty pissed my time from last year didn't improve. At this weight, I'm like a deisel: I can go pretty much any distance, but shortening the distance does not increase my ability to move faster. Monkey shit-tossing greasy fat. Damn tired of it, really.