Really good swim conditions, the directions we had to swim in never faced directly at or away from the sun so sighting was pretty spot on for me. I could feel the current pushing me this way and that so I sighted often to make sure I was staying on course.

It was good starting with so many people, the mad rush at the beginning was awesome and got the adrenaline pumping pretty fiercely.

I couldn't really tell at the time, but the thin air from being at ~6000 feet elevation was making it hard for me to get enough O2. I wasn't used to that and when I got out of the water, I was lightheaded and dizzy. A little disoriented. Oh and wetsuit strippers completely rock. I saw some people run right by them with their wetsuits still on and I was mystified. Taking off a wetsuit solo is a chore.

I would go the day before (or possibly 2 days) to get some practice swimming at high altitude so that I know what to expect, and how long the dizziness would last afterwards.

I was very wobbly coming out of the water, and I told myself that If I can get out on the course on my bike that the blood flow will balance my head out. Look back if I had spent maybe an extra minute in T1 to let my dizziness go away the rest of my race would have been much better.

When I left T1 and tried to get on my bike, I was off balance and wobbled and fell. At this point I feel it prudent to mention that I am recovering from a really bad pinched nerve in my neck from the previous weekend. It felt good enough to race today so I went with it, but when I fell coming out of T1, I nailed my right elbow which jarred my neck again and it started hurting almost instantly. No time to waste feeling sorry for myself, I got back on my bike and went for it.

Not leave transition until my head was back on straight. Sometimes the rush of the race gets the better of me and I make bad judgement calls.

I hate making excuses for failures, but I can't help but regret rushing out of T1 to get on my bike. Once I fell and my neck started hurting, the rest of the race went downhill. Three things are worth noting for my bike ride.
1) It was when I got thirsty that I remembered I had left my water bottles full of half frozen, refreshing water in the freezer at home. At the first aid station I got a gatorade and water bottle from the volunteers and that was perfect. Both were ice cold and really hit the spot.

2) I was able to identify what, precisely sucks about my seat. As I lean forward either in the Aero position or just sitting up, my perineum pushes hard against the front portion of the seat, no matter how I adjust by about the 5th mile in my "extremities" in that area are completely numb to the touch and that is extremely uncomfortable. I'm going to see what tribe has in the way of seats and get a new one soon, well before Mountain Man so that I don't have that discomfort.

3) Riding a bike for 40km with your head pointing forward and your body leaning down while your neck is throbbing and hurting is one of the most agonizing experiences I can think of.

See T1
Also, more training at high altitudes, I think I just need to adjust to the thinner air, for Mountain Man I plan on going up 3 or 4 days early to get some light training done up in flagstaff. That should help a ton.

My T2 was actually much better than the time indicates. I was ready to run in probably 1:30 or so. But I sat for a few minutes seriously asking myself if I should even attempt the run. My neck (and now upper back and right shoulder (trapezius) were in pain now too) throbbing as it was, was running for 6 miles a good choice or not. But I told myself that racing isn't about being comfortable, it's about facing your weaknesses head on. So pain or not I was going to finish even if I had to walk the 6 miles.

Nothing really, I probably would have taken off my riding gloves it was about mile 2 before I realized I still had them on. I was so preoccupied with my discomfort.

Longest run of my life, and a new PR. If you can count "Longest run of my life" as a PR. I literally had the longest run of every other racer. But I'm okay with that. I didn't quit, I didn't give up, and despite the pain, I finished. I'm proud of that.

I stopped at every aid station and got a slice of orange or gatorade. I made sure to say something nice to the volunteers (who did an outstanding job). I shouted words of encouragement to every racer who passed me, and many of them did the same.

I noticed one thing though that confused me. I see some racers who get water from the aid station take a quick sip, and for some reason would toss the rest of their water right on a volunteer. I saw this at Tempe International as well and thought it was just because it was hot and they were cooling the volunteers off, but here heat was not a factor at all, it just seemed terribly rude to me.

As I passed mile marker 5 I started jogging steadily, nothing much, just as much as I could handle without stopping. As I passed mile marker 6 I knew I was almost there so I set a mini-goal. The girl that was speed walking in front of me, I would beat her to the finish line. So I took off in what felt like a flat-out sprint (though I'm sure to the casual observer it looked like a pained jog) and passed her probably 100m from the finish line and as I passed the finish line and a young kid handed me my finisher's medal, I had to sit down because at that point my neck felt like a knife jabbing right between my vertebrae.

If I were in the exact same situation, I would do it exactly the same. I finished despite my body pleading for me to give up.

I walked around for a bit, I had the most delicious bomb-pop I'd ever had (seriously that's a great idea for a finish-line snack, it's cold, it's sweet, it's got sugar for some energy, brilliantly simple). I snagged a banana, some watermelon and some grapes and proceeded to mow them down.


Hurt neck. Honestly that's about it, and the slow rolling catalyst of not staying in T1 maybe a minute longer.


I know I said that the Tempe International was a great race. But I honestly think that if I had the opportunity to do this particular race again next year I would definitely do it. It's nice and cool, it's in beautiful country, there were tons of very encouraging/helpful volunteers, the course itself was challenging, and the finisher's medal is pretty cool.

To anyone looking for an awesome Tri (whether you want to do a sprint, olympic, half-iron, or a Relay), definitely give this one a go. Decent schwag bag too (a TYR bag, a nice long-sleeved shirt, a sweatband, some sample products, and the bib stub doubled as free food later on)

NOTE: For Age Group rankings I used the clydesdale rankings instead since for some reason I show up in overall, but not when sorted by age group. ~shrug~