The first five minutes was the usual bumping and shoving. I actually don't mind it much anymore, although I had a major collision with another guy that stopped me and caused me to stop swimming for a moment.

I felt good, but not great on the swim. I drafted when I had the opportunity. The water was so much warmer than last year, I started roasting in my wetsuit. A sleeveless one would have been much better.

Swim more in the months leading up to the race!

I had a little trouble getting one leg out of the wetsuit. I wasn't lightning fast, but didn't sit around either.

I subtracted the bike time from my watch from the combined bike/T1 time in the results. I'm not sure that I was really this fast.

One of these days I need to learn to start with my shoes attached to the pedals.

A few minutes into the bike it started pouring rain. I got a little cold and started thinking that I made a mistake not wearing something with sleeves. But then I warmed up and it wasn't bad at all.

The rain lasted 15-20 minutes and then stopped. It misted on and off. For a few miles we were in a pretty decent headwind that made me feel sluggish. I kept checking my back tire thinking that it was flat. Then a guy pulls up and says 'it feels like my tires are flat.' I got a good chuckle out of that.

Another guy then pulls alongside and starts bitching about the wind and the rain. I said screw this and took off. I felt better and better as the bike progressed. Bombing down the hills on the wet pavement was nerve racking. I did slow up a couple of times after my front tire slipped once, that wigged me out a little.

I felt good on the bike for a change.

I'm sure that I could have pushed much harder.

I'm glad that I covered my shoes with a plastic bag. They were reasonably dry.

I ran by feel, trying to keep a pace that I could maintain. I didn't look at my watch at all on the bike or the run. I walked a little on 4 of the bigger hills. This run course is tough.

I saw Lauren heading into the neighborhood as I was leaving it and then Traci a few minutes later.

On the last mile, this 16 year old kid came running by all of us like we were standing still. Punk.

Push much harder.

Got some food, saw a bunch of BT'ers and then realized that I was freezing in the wind. I packed up my stuff and dug some warm clothes out of the car.


I have not been training consistently and this is about where I expected to be, a few minutes slower than last year.

Oh, also Ernie and I were dressed alike and I'm sure this threw off our fans and they were not sure who to root for.