We had a big wave with M20-24 and M25-29 together. I lined up about three rows back. The gun went off and so did we. I took off and after about 100m or so people were all over the place. The one time I don't put my straps under my swim cap some dude almost takes my goggles off. I drafted the best I could but then some bad sighting put me off course, then back on, then off again, etc. I sighted like crap and probably added on a lot of extra distance. Overall I thought I swam decently and drafted well when I did. Just need to sight better and probably more often.

Sight better and swim straighter.

Got into T1 and to my bike. Ripped off my wetsuit, fumbled with my shoes n helmet a bit and ran out. The transition area was long and skinny with skinny aisles. I got about 1/3 of the way from the Bike Out when it got backed up and I got stuck behind a line of people. I was literally walking slow out of the transition until it opened up. Probably wasted a good 15-20" slow walking out of there.

9th in AG.

Pick a different aisle to run down?

Fastest bike in AG by 1:07

I got on the bike and my HR was super high - lower 160s. With the course being uphill right away for the first mile or so that didn't help much either. Thankfully we had a tail wind that pushed us up that pretty easily. I took it really easy on the first few downhills to let everything adjust and get my body in check.

Shortly after two guys surged ahead and I kept them in my sights. I was in a wave that was back pretty far back (like 10th wave or something) so I had lots of people to pass.

The course was really nice. Lots of rollers, little flats and nice country roads. It was overcast to start and shortly into the race it started to sprinkle. That was on and off for the rest of the ride. The first 30 or so miles were kinda congested and we were flying. I avg'd 24.5 up until the first turnaround. Then we made the turn and the wind was there to welcome us. It wasn't all that bad but enough to slow you down and those two guys that I kept with in the beginning were yo-yo'ing back and forth with me the whole ride. Eventually we dropped one of the guys but me and the other rode the whole course together. Back and forth, back and forth. I'm not sure what he did when he was behind me, but I kept it legal when I was passed by him.

I used the same strategy for this course as I did for IMWI - which worked out very well in both cases. Spun up the hills nice-n-easy and soft pedal the down hills. I didn't feel like I worked all that hard and my Avg watts shows that as well.

Around mi 45 it really thinned out and we were nearing the front of the pack. The course also flattened out here which made it really easy to settle into a pace around 24-25mph and knock em out. I took the last 5-7 miles fairly easy to give the legs a rest for the run. I was pretty pumped coming into T2 knowing that I pulled off a 2:19 bike split.

Stats from Computer
Calories: 2673
Avg/Max Watts: 274,259/786
Avg/Max Cadence: 94/115
Avg/Max Speed: 24.1/44.09
Ascent: 2265ft

Hydration/Nutrition: ~100 oz water. Calorie bottle w/ 9 srv Gu20 w/ 5 S-Caps. 3 Roctane. 900 Cal total. 391 Cal / hr.

Nothing!

I had a straight shot to my area so I ran there and right into a mud puddle on the way over. Nice. Racked my bike, ducked under the rack and got my gear on. The Zoot Ultra TT's went on super quick and I was geared for the run in no time. As I was going out I fumbled with my number belt a little but I don't think it cost me any time.

17th in AG.

Not step in a mud puddle.

Coming out of T2 I felt pretty damn good. ust as I was heading out of T2 the clouds thinned out and out came the hot sun. I knocked out a couple low 6 pace miles with everything feeling pretty good. Though, shortly after the quads started to cramp up a bit. I downed a couple of S-Caps and some water which took care of those cramps pretty quickly.

I have a tendency to run to fast coming off the bike, but it just feels good so I do it. Shortly after I settled into a 6:20-ish pace and clipped em off. The run course was flat, running through the camp sites with one hill on each loop.

Sometime in the middle of the run my entire guts (upper abs) cramped up...hard. It hurt like an SOB and I started some damage control to ease them a bit. Breathing hurt like hell for those 3-4 miles when they were knotted up. I knew another guy was about 1' behind me on the run so I sucked it up and kept going. I downed some more S-Caps, extra water, etc and soon enough they more or less went away with a little bit still lingering around.

With all the turn-arounds I knew exactly where the AG spot ahead of me was. I was slowly reeling him in but not sure if I was able to catch him. After the last turn around I put down what I had. At this point I was low on energy and running off pure guts as well as over-heating a little. Actually, I faded a bit over the last 3 miles with RPE increasing. What I put out wasn't enough to catch him, but held my place just fine. Overall happy with this run...just needed to fuel a bit better for that last kick at the end.

Stats from computer
Calories: 1804
Running Index: 65
Avg/Max Pace: 6:24/5:43
Avg/Max Cadence: 90/96
Avg Stride Length: 4ft 5in
Ascent: 240ft

Hydration/Nutrition: Water at each aid station and from my Fuel Belt. 4 S-Caps total. 2 Roctane. 200 Cal total. 153 Cal / hr.

Not sure I would change much on this run. Maybe take in a bit more Cal.? Maybe more ice in my hat earlier in the race?

I crossed the finish line and got my medal from Chrissy. I was feeling a little dizzy so I had some volunteers help me around a bit. After a while it wouldn't go away so I went and found out my temp was 101-point-something. Nice. They covered me with ice n stuff and eventually gave me an ice bath which felt AWESOME! I sat in that for a while and found Brian and chatted for a bit. Joanna Lawn was in the other ice bath and we chatted with her for a while as well. After being done there I did some stretching, found everybody else and got some BBQ, which was awesome but it gave me total gut-rot for the next 5 hrs.


The gut cramps might have slowed me down a bit but I don't think they affected me too much. I think I just need to take in a bit more Cal overall. Swimming straight usually helps too.


As far as how the race was ran I thought it was ran very well. The whole two separate transitions were confusing at first, but was fine in the end. Everything was on time. Lots of volunteers to help out and the aid stations were placed as marked. The bike course was really nice. Nice country riding. It was fun to run through the campgrounds as well. If I wanted to drive 10.5 hours to a race again I'd probably make the trip back.