Wow. This was the part I was dreading all Winter. This from the guy who taught himself to swim a few weeks before his first tri, and almost drowned in Brigantine, NJ.

It certainly took awhile to get used to the temperature, but once I did, I felt good. I wasn't pushing it, and I wasn't sighting well, so my time was terrible.

A couple of funny(ish) things happened on the swim. On the first leg of the triangle, I saw some people walking on what I thought was the shore line. Upon a better look, they were fellow competitors that were walking on the shallow banks! There wasn't enough space for all of us and the water was too shallow to swim. It was a a funny sight. I suppose I could have walked too from were I was, but I didn't want to stop and find out.

And, just before the finish, we had to swim to the right of the last buoy. I had a guy on my right who was about a body length ahead, and he was swimming too far to the left - he was going to miss the buoy. I thought I'd do the gentlemenly thing, and "guide" him. So, I picked up the pace a bit and tried to swim him over where he needed to go. He had none of it and swam RIGHT over me. I swallowed a good few ounces of Lubbock's finest and couldn't get my breath back. Luckily, we were right at the finish. I wanted to see a pic of me getting out of the water, because I'm sure I looked like hell at that point.

All in all, I was in a good rhythm and enjoyed the swim. Save for the freakishly cold water at the start.

Learn to sight better. And push harder.

I think I stopped an built a fire (not my line, but I like it). I have no idea what took so long. I was a gentle taking my suit off because of my knee's bandage.

I felt pretty good on the bike. I pushed when I could, but my crappy hill ability sunk me. I wanted 20+mph, but just missed it. Also, I was under the impression the course was 24mi (stupid me), so I didn't ration out my energy all that well. The bike is the most comfortable for me, so this leg was ok.

again, what the crap? To my defense, I should note that the transition area had this unnecessarily long line of cones you had to job around.

At this point, I needed to pee.

I started by stopping and peeing.

I wanted 7min/mi, but quickly realized that wasn't happening. My back was hurting, I think mainly from the drive the day before. I was just hanging on to my crusing speed of 8min/mi.

I eventually caught up to our school's captain at the half-way point. When I saw her, I knew something terrible had happened. She's so much faster than me at running, swimming, and biking. Sure enough, she flatted with a tubular. She spent the rest of the race treating the day as a training session. It was nice to run with a pacer.

not suck.

Ate food.


gashing my knee? probably not. I didn't do enough bricks leading up.


This was really fun. I think BSLT 70.3 is a goal now.