This swim was just ok for me. I was really hoping for a sub-34, and all the swimming I've done suggested that I was capable of it. The announcer said that my wave was the largest wave with nearly 300 participants so I was expecting a rough swim. There was the usual bumping, but it wasn't bad at all. Had some guy on my feet for a few hundred meters that was smacking my legs on every pull. It was mildly annoying but not a big deal. Swam hard left, quit kicking, and got inside the bouey line and he was gone. Stayed on course pretty well. Only veered off once, but quickly corrected.

I really need to do a serious swim focus. Looking into working with Meg's coach and possibly Masters. I feel like it's my weak link right now.

Ran right by my bike twice. What is it about racing that make you lose your mind in transition? T1 was pretty long so I left my shoes clipped in and ran barefoot.

Run straight to my bike. I saw a bike with a giant fake flower taped to the rack. Maybe I'll do that next time. Seriously, with transitions this big I will sacrifice "cool" for intelligent any day.

The plan was to ride at exactly 85% of FTP. After downloading my data my normalized power was 2.25 watts above that. So I'm pretty happy with the pacing. I also ran 7 minutes faster than my previous best in the run so I think that's my "magic" pacing number. The course was definitely a tough one so I had a rough idea of what I wanted for a time, but I wasn't going to glue myself to it. A few crowded spots and a couple of what seemed to be organized draft packs. Normally that pisses me off, but I just raced my own race and chose to ignore it. Overall I feel like rode a well executed bike in relation to my current fitness level, so I'm happy with the bike.

Not stop to pee!!!

Once again I missed my spot, but not a big deal.

Another large fake flower

Left T2 and quickly got into a comfortably hard pace. Took in a gel every 3 miles and chased with water. Started to heat up so went to dumping water on the head and stuffing sponges in clothes. Going into the second lap I stopped to pee again. Think I may have taken in too much liquid throughout the race. My shoes got waterlogged and squished water with every step. Got some cramping in the calves around mile 11 and tried really hard to push through them. The wheels fell off shortly thereafter and was pretty happy that it happened late in the race. I'm super happy about this run. Prior to this race my fastest half-iron run was 1:37 and the one before that was like mid-1:40's. Dime had it right when he said we've finally figured out this "running off the bike" thing :)

Maybe more salt on the bike, but I wasn't anticipating it getting so hot on the run. Woops! I wish I would've gone sub 1:30, but it's something to shoot for!

Pretty dizzy right after the finish line. So Meg grabbed me and I sat down. After I got sorted out the feeding frenzy began. Everything I deprived myself of over the previous 12 weeks was consumed within a 3 hour period. Probably one of my favorite parts of racing.


I would say I "almost" raced to my ability. I know I can go faster than this. Dime told me after the race that if I got what I wanted everytime I raced there would be nothing to chase. Makes alot of sense.


A really good buddy of mine (Linford) sent me a text message prior to the race. It basically said "Your body knows what to do, now get your head out of it's way". Very good advise from a great friend! This course was awesome and I'm super psyched to be going to the World Championships at Clearwater.