I was in the first wave (Men under 40) and seeded myelf on the far right in the second row back. The gun went and just followed feet the first 50 yards before sighting. I ended up jostling with the same guy for the first 250 yards until I finally got away from him. He ended up giving me a right hook and knocking my goggles loose which I quickly got back in place. After that it was pretty much smooth sailing. I sighted extremely well and was never off course or zig zagging. I only seem to veer when I breathe to my right which I will have to work on in the future. I never really had a draft only becuase nobody was really near me - especially on the back stretch. The wind kicked up some chop and was in our face on the way out but helping on the way home.
I ended up getting out of the water in 26:30 and had a 30 second run up the sand to transition. I was pretty happy with my swim time and felt good coming out of the water.

nothing - keep working in the pool and building muscular endurance on the swim to improve my time.

Transition was good - a little slower than normal for some reason. I was 3rd in my AG here.

nothing - it was ok.

The wind was blowing probably 15 mph from the west and was very noticeable on the first out and back section. I actually had to go to the small chain ring and was probably only going 16 mph for portions because it was blowing so hard. The way back though I was flying and got my HR back into a descent spot. There were alot of rolling hills and a couple descent climbs but nothing that got me out of the saddle. There was alot of gravel and limbs and washed out areas due to the storms last night but they did a good job getting most of it cleared. I passed quite a few people and only got passed by 3 or 4 people. The womens leader and one other guy caught me at the 2nd turnaround and we flip flopped the entire way home. I would pass her on the climbs and she would pass me on the downhills and repeat. I got my feet out of my shoes and went smoothly into transition if you dont count losing my shoe at the dismount line (I got that later).
My bike legs just did not seem to show up today and not sure why. I had this race at the end of a recovery week and most of my bikes this week were easy spins so not sure here. I wanted to average around 22mph here but came up well short of that. This is where sub 2:20:00 went out the window.
Nutrition: 1.5 servings Gu2O (210 calories)

Nothing - I feel like I set myself up well for a good run but legs just did not have the jump today (oh well).

This was a quick transition - racked the bike and it slid off so had to do it again - got my helmet off and slipped into my shoes. I put on the visor and grabbed my race belt and off I went. I was having some trouble latching the race belt and one of the volunteers was screaming at me to get my number to the front. Easy lady, I have not even got it latched yet (the volunteers were great by the way).
I was the first one of that bike group out of transition and the womens leader was right behind me.

Just need to tighten my race belt and get it latched quicker. This was a pretty standard transition.

I got out of transition and the womens leader was right behind me. I knew that she went 2:16:xx last year and she started 3 minutes behind me so if I could stay in front of her or with her I might be able to go sub 2:20:00 so that was the plan.
There was water over the road in the first half mile that we slogged through and that added a couple pounds to the feet until it dried out. My calves were a little tight for the first couple miles but loosened up and I was able to get my HR in a comfortable spot by the first aid station. I took water at every aid station (no additional calories on the run). The womens leader was right on my shoulder for the next 2 miles and then she started to pull away a bit. I kept her in my sights for the rest of the run however. I was feeling pretty good on the run and about mile 3 pondered picking it up a bit but thought i would wait till the last 1.5 and see how I felt. It got noticeably hot and humid as we went along. I got passed by a couple people in the park and passed 2 or 3 other people. The residents in the park were awesome and offered lots of encouragement which was good. I was pushing pretty good the last couple miles and began to hurt from the effort (the why the hell do i do this phase) but wanted to finish strong and leave it all out there. The finish line was packed with people and felt great to run up the last straightway. I saw the clock from a distance and 2:21:xxx danm it!! I really hoped I could get that goal but I was happy with the run and knew I put together a good split. Sub 7 minute miles on an Olympic 10K was kind of another goal that I wanted to achieve and was happy that I was able to put it together.

I probably needed some more water as I was losing fluids pretty quickly during the run. I gave it all I had and was the best I could do today.

I had some water and gatorade, yogurt, bagel and just hung out until awards. They posted results and had me 3rd in 25-29 which was good. The first 2 were 2:15 and 2:16 so kinda smoked me. I asked the womens winner if she was getting sick of me out there and she laughed and said she like having somebody to pace off of.


Bike split was not great...this is usually my best area and today it was not.


This is a very good race and the volunteers and park residents were great. They did a good job getting that course ready after the storms. I will defintely come back again.