I always do well in the swim, obviously. 5th out of 21 in my AG, top 50 overall. I wasn't feeling as warmed up as I would have liked and as much of a baby as I am about the cold pool we train in, warm water is like swimming through pudding. But I got better as I went along - didn't get passed, passed a young girl and caught up with the girl ahead of me towards the end. Time also includes hauling myself out of the pool, probably took a few seconds for that.

I was bad and have skipped a couple of practices lately. Might have made a difference, but I still improved my time from last year.

Executed fairly well - kind of a long run from the pool to transition. 3rd in my AG for T1. And that's with regular road bike shoes with 2 straps and a ratchet each. Had no problems mounting my bike.

Not much.

Knocked a little over a minute off of my time from last year. :-P Still not fantastic on the bike, but I'm moving up in the world! Beat my time from last year by a smidge, and would have beaten it by more if I hadn't ended up behind a GIANT SEMI TRUCK! The stupid thing caught up to a long string of us, and didn't have room to pass (2 lane roads), so I figured, good, it will just stay there and we can lose it at the next turn. Then the road widened up in a spot and it passed about half of us. But it was going slow so it wouldn't hit the front of the string. So I held back a bit trying not to catch up with it, should it slam on its breaks. Eventually, we hit a turn and it went straight - phew!

Nothing really - I felt pretty great on the bike, aside from the stupid truck.

Dismounted without crashing - yahoo! Felt good coming out of T2. 5th in my AG in this one.

Nothing.

Didn't do as well as I'd hoped on this one. Started out strong, but forgot that parts of it are very gently rolling. So after awhile, my legs started to get heavy. Heart rate was up a bit high too and I was getting a side stitch, so slowed down to control them. Not as solid as I'd wanted.

Not have taken 3 of the last 7 weeks off from running due to various injuries :( The ankle felt good during the run, though a little tweaked afterwards due to not having the orthotic in. There is definitely something wrong with my left shin - and it's not shin splints. As long as I kept good form (quick cadence, high knees, solid kick in the back), it didn't bother me, but the dull ache was noticeable...:(

Judi, who was volunteering, removed my chip. Went and got some cookies and water, then waited in line to get a complimentary massage from the ART tent - holy cow, I need to get that done more often! She poked and prodded me in places I didn't even know I could feel before and it helped. Then got my complimentary Chipotle taco, watched the other couple Team Z'ers come in, listened to some of the awards. Went back to Judi's, showered and then drove home in lovely I-95 traffic.


Mostly my run suffered - having to take 2 weeks off mid-June, and this whole past week from land-running did not help. Plus, because of marathon training, I haven't been doing any speedwork - don't need it for 26.2, but I do for 3.1!!


Fun race, as always. Low-key, lots of locals (many from RTC and this group called Endorphin Fitness), not an uber-competitive field, but still some talented folks. Including an 81 year old guy, and the 84 year old woman I saw at my first race ever, back at Luray in 2007! Freakin' crazy. Aside from my less-than-awesome run, I had a good race, it was fun. This is a good "tradition" race. Maybe next year, I'll actually ride my bike some more and do better!