The current was pretty quick, so the swim to the turnaround point took forever. I took a big kick to the ear pretty soon after the start, so I had to stop briefly to let the water out of my goggles. My ear was pretty sore for a while.

Finally got to the turnaround, and as I was rounding it this guy was basically trying to mug me. Got free, then he did it again. It pissed me off, so I said to him, "What the h@ll, @sshole??" Probably not the most congenially thing I've ever said, but it did get him away from me!!

Swim downstream was awesome! Just flying by the buildings! Was able to draft somewhat with the faster women passing me who were in the next wave.

Then out of nowhere I swam right into the Sprinters! I completely misjudged their start time and thought I would be out of the water before they took off. So it got kind of congested towards the end.

Finally made the right turn to cut across to the finish, and fought hard to keep a straight line across the current by basically trying to swim right. I was very happy with this, and had to chuckle as I saw everybody - I mean everybody - way downstream past the finish.

Train more!

As I came out of the water and was running along, saw my family, so I looked over and smiled for the cameras! Then I looked ahead and felt dizzy and like I was about to tumble over on my head. So I eased back a bit on the run, and took my time in transition more than normal. Had an extra drink there and made sure I was alright.

Practice getting the wetsuit off more. Probably my best yet, but can still do better.

Got going on the bike pretty good, but I was getting passed by a few folks going uphill, and not really passing too many.

Got some drizzle heading up the hill the first time, then coming back down that turned into an all out hard shower with some decent head wind. The rain stung pretty hard on my arms since I was going about 35 through this. And it was as loud as could be on my aero helmet!

I know the course and that it's just a straight shot, so I was passing a lot of folks who were either upright on their road bikes and getting blown good or were nervous in the rain.

The rain let up, and then I came up on a group of 7 bunched up, and clearly drafting, and going in a pack of 2, 3, and 2 wide. I saw the problem was a woman was riding beside another woman up front and wouldn't pass her. I had to hit my brakes which really irritated me because I was in top gear at this point.

There were bikes coming up the other side, but finally when there was a break, I just went out around the cones and passed the whole group. Didn't really have a choice and didn't care either at this point.

Came around through the transition area and was feeling really good and headed out again. No rain this time and actually felt better going up the hill the 2nd time. Still not great though, and I really need to work on them more.

Had a gel up near the top. A little early, but I wanted to have it then at slow speed rather than slow down the return journey.

Came back with no issues other than getting hit pretty hard by the wind again.

Train on the hills more.

Not too bad other than sometime during the race I realized I didn't have a gel on me for the run. I meant to grab one during T2, but forgot all about it, and didn't remember until a quarter mile into the run.

Rack spot was bad with a long run on the bike both before and after the bike segment. I wasn't real pleased with it, but not much I could do about that!

Remember my gel.

Got out on the run pretty good. My running speed has not been good at all this year and sure enough all those people I passed throughout bike were getting their revenge!

So I was plodding along at about a 9:00/mi pace, then out of nowhere just after 4 miles, the IT band on my left knee started killing me! I slowed down some, but by 5 miles I had a noticeable limp. I was pretty annoyed at this because I haven't had anything like that for two years.

Kept going though at about 9:30 pace for the last couple miles. Got some good advice from a girl who was watching with 1/4 to go to start swinging my arms. I was like, "Oh yeah". So kicked it up a notch and I was at least happy that I broke 2:50.

It all comes back to training and weight. I'm 9 lbs heavier this year than when I ran this race last year, so that is definitely taking its toll.

Walked around with a bottle of water, stretched and talked. Met a guy before the race with my identical bike. Saw him afterwards and talked for a while. He finished around 2:37, and don't you know, it was all on the bike - my swim was slightly faster, and his run was a couple minutes faster. But he was 30th fastest on the bike vs. my 131st, so that showed me I can do a lot better.

Saw my friend from work finish. He was about 25 minutes back, but not in good shape and saw the medics. It was sprinkling during the last part of his run, but he was dehydrated. I have to work with him more on the nutrition - and get him on this site!


Training & Weight


Before my friend finished, I went up for some food.

THERE WAS NONE!

By far the absolute worst post race layout of all time. There were some cartons of gross orange drink, and some boxes behind the tent with bags of some kind of baked cheddar and sour cream chips, which I threw right back in. Nobody there to help at all.

There was a line of well over 30 people for a Chipotle's burrito that you could order. I wasn't interested in waiting for that, especially with the rain starting to come down.

Totally disgusted about that. Maybe there was more food there earlier, and the Sprint finishers had it all, but not having enough for all racers (if there was any) was terrible.