Worst OWS start of my life! I porpoised for the first few yards then started swimming. The first 5 breathes I took I swallowed mouth fulls of water. I thought it was a matter of time before I aspirated one of them so I stopped, caught my breath swam some breast stroke, backstroke to regain my senses then looked back and saw the CROWD of people coming and thought that NOW is a good time to start swimming. After that I was fine, I made up most of the ground by the time I made the first turn. About 1/2 way through the 2nd leg I caught up to a local HS swimmer who I was talking some smack to before the race started. He's a :22.0 50 freestyler and I was saying that he couldn't last more than 300 yds. :-) I got on his feet and was drafting for a bit until he started swimming waaaaay off course. I was going to tell him but I thought it would be more fun to bust him after the race. (It was!) The speed suit felt great and my stroke felt good after I got going, I hope I used up my bad swim for the season and I won't have any issues at Placid, disappointing swim overall though.


Not drown in the beginning of the swim

A little slow on the transition, suit was stuck a bit and I didn't want to rip it. I almost didn't remember to take my cap off, guess my mind wasn't really focused on speed.

Practice transitions. This seems to be my normal response here. :-)

Hilly bike course!!! Felt pretty good on the bike. HR stayed in the high 150's for most of the ride. I spun up the hills and flew down the hills. Caught the leader around 3 1/2 miles into the ride and had a police escort the rest of the way. I kept trying to get the motorcycle cop to slow down and move over a bit but he wouldn't. :-)


Push harder!

This has to be my all time fastest T2! The first couple hundred feet I kept thinking of what I forgot to do!

NADA!

Legs Felt fine coming off the bike but I didn't want to kill this 5K. I set the cruise control and fully expected one of the runners to catch me. As I started off the run the gators left to supply the water stations. I ran up beside one and the lifeguard asked me if I wanted a water. I said "No, I'm fine thanks but what I could really use is a ride! I don't like running at all and could jump in after the corner up here." :-) She wouldn't bite. I had a lot of fun on the run. (Imagine that) I pretended to pull a fishing pole out ad cast out to the Gator as it struggled to make it up the steep incline on the damn dam. As I reeled my line in I was catching the Gator. I was cracking up myself with that one. :-) One of the teams caught me after the turnaround and the second place individual was closing but with a mile left I still had him by almost a minute and he was NOT running 5:30 miles. I kept it at the same effort level and cruised home for the win!!

1st Mile - 7:12
2nd Mile - 6:56
3rd Mile - 6:47

Nothing, maybe one of these years I'll put more effort into sprinting. NAH!!!

I congratulated the second place finisher and harassed the swimmer on the team that won. Then I went back out and ran the loop again. Encouraging some of the other athletes out there. I saw the WittyCityGirl and her husband out there and Cator looked like she was having fun out there! Nice job! After the race I took the long way home and got another 2+ hrs of saddle time in.


Training


Great local race with muchos hills!!