I actually got into the water a little early and just tried to swim around to warm up. Then they were running a few minutes late so I went and stood on the shore. I learned last year that people don't realize you can cut closer to the shore, and then instead of floating out there with the masses, I'm relaxing while I stand on the shore. Wow a few minutes before the start it gets really warm where I'm standing. Very interesting. Then we're off.

I just try to stay calm and cross over on my stroke when I feel the need to protect my face. At the ~50 meter mark I'm dragging the bottom with my fingers, so I stand up and walk a few steps to get back into the water and then just go.

The swim is a mixed bag. I never really feel like my form is great, and navigating is tough with the sun. I get a little hot at one point with the neoprene cap, but nothing I can do about it. I come out feeling like I went out too hard, and I didn't go out hard enough . I would summarize my swim as "Meh."


Continue to swim more. I need better form when I'm not thinking about it. I also need to learn to swim straight.

Transition. This is my time to shine. I hit the wetsuit strippers, get
stripped and walk a little bit to transition. I can tell my HR is through the roof, so I walk until I feel it setting down, and then I break into a jog. The two guys around me start jogging as soon as stop walking. I get up to my bike. The Garmin picks up my HR as 170. That's a bit out of my normal range. Toss the wetsuit down, put on my socks and jog out to the mount line. I get on my bike and promptly screw up the feet on shoes routine. Cost me time that doesn't show up in T1 but belongs there anyway. Still, my T1 time is probably in the top third of the field.


I probably would have run with my bike shoes and just put them on after the mount line and gone. The slight uphill start makes on top of the shoes hard.

This is supposed to be where I make up a lion's share of my time over last year. I went 3:35 last year, and that was with a flat tire out of T1 and a dropped chain.

This year I went 3:14 and that was with a flat tire at mile 10 and a dropped chain. Are you kidding me? The last big hill before you have almost 30 miles of mostly downhill I smell burning rubber. I look down and my back tire is flat. Last year it was the front, not so lucky this year. I have to peel back the sticker cover on my wheel cover and get the tire changed. Turns out it's about an inch long piece of wire from a steel belted radial. As I get it changed it feels like half the field goes by me. Regardless, I pack back up and am on my way after about nine minutes. A lot of people that went by asked if I needed anything. I was good, but it was nice to hear.

This is the place that I think I exhibit the most self control. I'm mad, I'm frustrated, and it's mostly downhill. The temptation is just to hammer it. But I know I've got 47 more miles of riding and a half marathon still to go, so I work as hard as I can to keep my HR under control.

From here on out the pattern stays the same. I scream by people on the downhills, some of them catch me back on the uphills where I'm managing my HR. Some don't. Over the course of the next 2 hours I actually catch and pass a lot of people. That nine minutes of stopping just hurts the whole time. Then, on one of the last big hills, I managed to drop my chain. I'd been really careful on the downshifts, but forgot for a minute, and sure enough, there go another ten people by me. Fortunately, most of them were probably the Oly competitors.

At this time I would like to take a few moments to spew some hate. I have to call out two groups:

• Aquabike participants. Oh, how I hate you. Yes, I'm passing you, barely, but I still hate you. You get to get off the bike and then you're done. You don't have a half marathon ahead of you. I hate you because I'm so jealous.
  
• Team in Training. Ok, in the past I've thought all of the criticism leveled at you was unfair. You're doing something for a good cause. But please, I beg of you, please, can you try to have a basic level of competence? When you have ten feet of shoulder to ride on, stay to the right. If you're not comfortable there, fine, move over. But when someone says "On your left", move the heck over. Don't make me ride over a rumble strip, onto the road, and then back over because you don't want to move two feet to your right.
  

Now, back to your RR.


Can't stop flats. Could stop the dropped chain. Mental mistake.

It's my time to shine again. Dismount goes fine. Jog in with my bike and the guy next to me on the rack hasn't left enough room for my bike to rack. I push his bike over a foot and rack my bike. Guess that teaches me to be slower than him. I take off my helmet, put on my shoes and cinch them and I'm gone with my hat, glassed, and Garmin strap in hand. I put all of these on while moving and we're good to go. Again, I'm probably in the top third of the field on transitions. I'd do so much better at this sport if it were just transitions.

Nothing. As fast as I could be there.

The fastest I've run a standalone half marathon is 2:15. It was my first one a few years ago, and I think I could have gone faster but was still learning. Last year I ran this in 2:53, but that was primarily because my IT band reached out and grabbed me at mile 9 and didn't let go. I was sure this year would be different, and it was.

At mile 5 I felt my left IT band reached out and said hello. I couldn't believe it. So far I'd had a flat tire, a dropped chain, and now IT band. It was just like a repeat of last year. I knew I had more fitness and it just didn't seem to be mattering. I decided I wasn't going to let it stop me this year, and I kept going. It was a two lap run course and I just kept running. I tried to baby it, but I didn't let it stop me. The nice thing about the two lap course is I got to see a lot of people on the course. Last year had a lot of solitary running. The bad news about a two lap course is I got to see parts of that course I really hate, twice. Especially that damn out and back. I had been hoping to run 11ish miles, and most of them were. I think I had one 13 something mile because I was hurting a lot, but everything else was in the mid 11s.

I did get a brief moment of levity on the first lap. I'm running through the campground (on my way out of the first lap) when a lady in a chair by a campsite says to her friends:
"I'm tired."
Without missing a beat I reply with, "You're tired?!?!?"
They all start laughing. We get to see them in transition at the end of the race and they're still laughing about it.

On the second loop the wind really kicked up. The clouds were very ominous and an ugly headwind into a bad part of the course sucked. But I kept going. I took in mostly water at the aid stations. My stomach just didn't feel up to much in the way of food. The last few miles I was able to keep my pace nice and steady. Here is where my run fitness really payed off. Instead of fading badly I actually managed to achieve very close to a negative split. My legs felt strong, and my knee hurt a lot.

Then, I was done.


Need to try to run everyday, even if it's only 30 minutes. Need to start foam rolling the heck out of my IT all the time.

Had a popsicle. Sat in the lake for about 10 minutes. Then went back to the hotel and lay there in my compression tights with my legs up for the next few hours.


Last year was 7:20:15. For those of you following at home, you'll notice that I missed my first goal by 12:10. Nine minutes of that was the flat tire. Another couple on the dropped chain and screwing up my bike shoes out of T1. Tammy asks me if I'm happy about my performance and I'm just not sure. I missed all of my goals, but I looked at it and I don't think I could do any better. Maybe I could have squeezed a few more minutes out if I could get my IT band better, but my bike fitness is as good as it could be. My average HR for the bike was 148 with an average cadence of 86. 148 is my anaerobic threshold and I want cadence to be 90. I don't know how much better I can do that.

On the run my average HR was 146 and I had even splits between the first half and the last half. Again, I don't know how I can do much better than that. I think I can run more frequently to drop that time down, even if they're shorter runs, but there is only so much time in the day.

On the swim, I just need to swim more. It's going to take time, but realistically I can't expect to drop more than 5 minutes there, so I have to be happy.

I didn't go as fast as I wanted, but that may be as fast as I can go. Sometimes you just have to accept that. I'll let you know if I ever succeed in convincing myself of that.