When the Pro's hopped in the water at 2, the water was nice and calm and there was a hint of sunshine coming through. But by the time I got in at 2:55, there were whitecaps inn the water and I felt like I was body surfing for the first half of the race. I got a spot up front on the outside of the course and when they blew the horn I sprinted until I got some free space around me, then I backed off a bit and just started cruising. It was incredibly hard to swim because of the waves and my stroke just plain felt bad. I was doing okay however and started passing trailers from the previous waves. I was staying on the outside for most of the course and even when I would try and swim more towards the inside where everyone was I kept ending up a good 10 yards to the outside of everyone. By the end the waves had settled down a bit and I started felling a little bit better about the race and I made it into the transition area.

I have a 2 piece desoto so I unzipped that, pulled my top off and rolled my bibjohn down to my waist in a relatively short distance. The T1, was pretty long and a decent uphill climb as well but I managed to run all the way up the hill to the strippers who pulled my wetsuit off with no problems. I thanked the guy and ran to my bike and put all my swim stuff into my T1 bag for transport to the finish. Put my shoes, race belt, and helmet on and ran my bike to the bike mount.

This was hands down the worst part of the race. Starting at the top of the dam is nice cause it's a good sized downhill after that and I managed to pass a few people. I felt really tired already so I ate some shot blocks and chugged some of my water. I felt okay climbing up the other side of the hill on Highway 21 and then once we hit the top of the hill it started sprinkling. By the time I made it down 21 to pleasant valley it was raining steadily. Turning down pleasant valley road and the onto the birds of prey section is right where it started down pouring on me. I could barely see in front of me and most of the section up to birds of prey is hills so riding up the big hill and then down the big hill with a huge downpour was very treacherous. I did pretty well on the uphill part and managed to pass a few people. The down pour let up by the time I got off the birds of prey section. Turning back onto pleasant valley involves another large hill climb and I must have dominated this because I passed about 40 people going up the hill. I'm not normally a good hill climber but apparently I was on that. Turning down ten mile creek road is nice and I was doing quite well down that as well. The rain started up again and was ridiculous to ride in. My wheels were basically shooting water straight into my shoes. I was doing good all the way down until we turned off cloverdale onto Kuna Mora and then my speed promptly went from ~22 to 12mph. There was a large headwind down kuna mora and it just sucked. I ditched one of my water bottles at the aid station on cole and grabbed a gatorade since I had gone through more water than I thought I would. My knee was starting to act up a bit and I was really uncomfortable on my bike after that. I had to keep standing up and stretching while riding. It rained off and on for the rest of the course and I just felt really shitty. I missed my goal time of 3 hours by a fair margin.

Didn't run here because I felt crappy. Got to my T2 bag and was looking forward to a fresh pair of socks and then I opened the bag and the only thing that got wet in my bag was the socks. I sighed and wrung them out because they were still dryer than the ones I was wearing. Put the socks on, slipped my shoes on and started jogging out of T2.

Started the run and felt surprisingly good. I was trying to hold back the first few miles because I didn't want to blow all my energy and I wasn't sure how much I had left. The Boise Aeros', my tri-club had a big cheering section set up at the beginning/end of the course so I got a little motivation from their cheering me on to start. I made the first mile in 9:15 and was like wow I wasn't trying too hard. On the second mile I ran into A friend of mine from the pool and I started running with her. Hit mile 2 in 9:49. Christine stopped to walk an aid station and I didn't so I left her behind. I did an excellent job on the aid stations for the run. Every station I grabbed a water and a gatorade and every other station I grabbed a powerbar/gel/banana. Mile 3 came in 9:45. I was feeling fine and I had to pee but I decided I'd see if I could put it off until the end of the race. Mile 4 in 9:29. I was amazed at how well I was running, because I felt so bad on the bike. Forgot to take my mile 5 split so the 2 miles between 4 and 6 were 9:52 average. I made it to the end of the first lap in 1:03:40. I looked down and saw the clock and if I could have gone a 1:03 again I would finish in 6 hours, which was my goal. Manged mile 7 in 9:44. I was seriously amazed I had been able to run this far with no problems. Mile 8 was 9:54 and mile 9 was 9:42. I thought I had it. Then coming over the ann morrison bridge I felt something in my knee and it started screaming. I had to walk. Gone were my hopes of a 6 hour race and now I just needed to finish. I don't know what happened to my knee but it was excruciating. I alternated running and walking with a 2:00 running 3:00 walking pace for the rest of the race. I had managed to hold 9:42 pace for the first 9 miles and then the last 4 I managed 12:35 miles. That sucked a lot because I really thought that after the terrible swim and the terrible bike I still had a shot at my goal time. I limped down the cute and finally saw my wife. I ran over to her and gave her a big kiss. I heard them call my name and it gave me the chills. I crossed the line and got my finisher hat and medal and was done finally.

I think the inconsistency of my training was really evident here. The only thing I have trained relatively consistently is my run and that was holding up awesome until my knee gave out. The swimming was okay for me but I feel like I should have been able to break 30 minutes. The bike was just plain bad and I'm sure it's due to my lack of miles I've put in this year. Overall I am extremely happy I finished and even though the weather made it a very difficult race, I am glad I did it.