Was in a good position on the swim. Started right next to MJ, in the front, and left of the mass of people. The first turn is left, so this was key to getting out in front of the melee. Was at the back of the first group for all of the first lap, then it started stringing out. I had feet to follow for a lot of the race, but lost them the last 1/2 of the 2nd lap. Saw MJ go past me, and thought I was having an awesome swim. ( I was, but she had also had to stop, and re-tie her goggles during the race, so I wasn't quite *that* awesome ).

I didn't have a watch on, so I didn't know my swim time, just knew that it was pretty solid. I felt really good this swim, and just focused on staying calm and holding good form. I'm definitely in better swim shape this year than I was last year.

Not much, my swim bumped up about 4 minutes faster than last years time, on the same course. I got a good position at the start and was thus able to draft off the large lead pack instead of chasing from no-man's land with no feet to follow.

T1 was a little slower, as I took time to put on arm warmers, since it was raining at this point. I didn't get them all the way on, just onto my forearm, planning to get the rest of the job done on the bike. Since it was raining, I also shoved my cycling gloves into my shorts, since I wanted the extra grip on the wet bars. Again, the plan was to get these on out on the bike course.

Also put my Garmin 305 on my wrist at this point ( I wore the HRM strap during the swim ).

You weren't allowed to put bike shoes on the bike. Of course, everyone still tried to mount their bikes just outside T2, at the bottom of a very small hill ( but hill nonetheless ). *sigh* I passed 3 people simply by running with the bike to the top of the hill before trying to mount. Oh well for them. :)

Different arm warmers that are easier to get on? If such a thing exists, not sure

Get a Garmin 310, so I don't have to put on the 305 in T1. :)

Decided to push the bike a little bit, and see what happened. Rode it a little bit under the RPE that I'd put into a olympic distance. Kept it rolling on the flat parts, backed off a little bit on the hills, trying not to burn too many matches.

Had a few people pass me early in the bike ( first 10 miles ), only 1 person passed me after that, and he rode about a 2:20 split. I slowly picked off people up the road from me, reeling them in one by one. I'm glad I had the arm warmers, as it was getting a little cool once I got settled into bike mode.

Nutrition on the bike: Roctane at 15 min, 1 bottle of Infinit over the next hour, finishing it by about 1:15 ( turnaround aid station ). Ditched the bottle there. Took another Roctane at that time. Finished the remaining bottle of Infinit from 1:30 until the end of the bike. Grabbed one water handup, to get a sip and douse myself with cold water.

Spent most of the 2nd half of the bike riding alone. Nobody really around me for a good distance in either direction.

Not much, I rode this pretty solidly and consistently. The work on the bike is paying off, as I didn't feel like I was fading, and had to remind myself to keep it reeled in, since there was this little run coming up at the end of the ride.

Fast T2.

Had running shoes and towel in a plastic bag, so they stayed dry in the rain. Took a few seconds to get everything out of the bag.

Socks on, shoes on, pulled the laces tight, grabbed visor and race number and was off.

This was tough. I know the course, and know that it's hilly from the start. Legs were hurting from the start, so I spent a lot of mental effort keeping pushing forward.

A couple people passed me on the run, and I passed a few people ( including re-passing a couple who passed me early on in the run ).

I just wasn't able to bring my run legs to fire on the race.

I faked it for the first 2-3 miles, then reality set in, and I was just struggling to hold as close to 8:00 pace as I could muster. I resolved not to walk the hills, no matter how appealing it seemed. Just shortened my stride, and increased my turnover and made my way up them. Held off a few people on the hills who I could hear closing on me, and then fading back.

The funniest part of the race was about mile 4'ish. We were running through the forest, on the path and it's kind of winding, so you can't see too far in front and behind. I had just passed a guy and had pulled ahead to where I could just barely hear his footsteps. I had to fart, so I let it rip. I hear a female voice from behind me "Hey! There's people back here!". BUSTED! She was moving pretty good, so I said "There's your motivation to get past me." She laughed as she went by, so it was kind of funny. I tried to hang with her, but she was really flying ( ended up 2nd woman, with a 1:34 run, so no way I was going to hang at that pace ).

Seemed like there was an aid station missing somewhere, as there was a long gap where I wanted water, but there didn't seem to be an aid station. It may have just seemed long, as this was nearing the end of the race.

I walked/jogged the aid stations to get down fluids. Took two full cups of something at each aid station. Sometimes 3. They had heed, water, and throwback pepsi ( the kind with real sugar! ). Took two more Roctanes, one about mile 3, the other at about mile 8.5

Miles were:

 

Lap Data 

Lap	Time	Distance	Pace/Speed	AHR	MHR 

1	07m 45s	1.00 miles	07m 45s /mile	146	152 

2	07m 31s	0.96 miles	07m 51s /mile	146	153 

3	07m 26s	1.00 miles	07m 26s /mile	143	147 

4	07m 59s	1.00 miles	07m 59s /mile	145	150 

5	08m 29s	1.00 miles	08m 29s /mile	146	152 

6	08m 25s	1.00 miles	08m 25s /mile	149	153 

7	08m 18s	1.00 miles	08m 18s /mile	147	152 

8	08m 09s	1.00 miles	08m 09s /mile	149	154 

9	08m 14s	1.00 miles	08m 14s /mile	148	151 

10	08m 45s	1.00 miles	08m 45s /mile	146	150 

11	08m 42s	1.00 miles	08m 44s /mile	144	149 

12	08m 00s	1.00 miles	08m /mile	145	150 

13	07m 59s	1.00 miles	07m 59s /mile	151	162 

14	00m 52s	0.09 miles	09m 46s /mile	155	157 

Last lap seems slow as I didn't hit stop until after I crossed the line. Trust me, I was kicking pretty hard. :)

Taper? Heh. I came into the race not tapered, and off a big block of hard training. This was on purpose though, as I wanted to do the race, but it wasn't an A priority for me this year.

Not fart in front of pace booty. Whoops! ;)

After I crossed the line, and collected myself for a minute I realized I felt pretty good. I grabbed two ice cold water bottles and downed them both. Ate some orange slices. Got another bottle of water, and two quiznos flat bread sammiches that were on had for post race feeding.

I walked back to about mile 12.8 where Jessica from the tri club was cheering and taking pictures. She raced the sprint earlier, and stuck around to cheer in the rest of the club. Waited with her for MJ, Gary Geiger to come into the finish. Wandered back by the finish area to talk to them after they came in, then waited for Steve to finish and cheered him home. Solid showing by the Salt Creek Tri Club today. Only downside was Griz pulling out after the bike, but he has been having knee issues and made the call not to court additional injury on the run, since he's training for IMWI, and getting to that healthy is definitely a higher priority.


Not tapering, racing tired, but that was expected.

I still managed to PR at this distance, on a tough course, and improve last years time on this course by 10 minutes!


The weather played a bit of havoc with volunteer turnout. Since it was raining, some of the vols did not show up on race day for their positions. To the RD's credit he was able to scramble pretty well and cover any gaps in volunteers by moving people around on the fly.

There were a couple intersections on the bike that didn't have vols this year that had them last 2 years, and 1 of the run aid stations was unmanned when I came through ( admittedly pretty close to the front ), though about 1 minute later the RD passed me in his car going the other way to deliver volunteers to the aid location, so it was manned after that. There were cups and heed and gels out, just nobody to hand them to you. Not the end of the world by any stretch.

All the busy/trafficked intersections had a police presence directing/stopping the cars, so that was solid again.

Overall, this is a great race. It's small enough that it's not packed wall to wall with people, but large enough that there's some solid competition and people to push/pace off of.