Even though I started at the side, this was really crowded until the first turn. Tough to find a spot. The chop was pretty good too. It took me quite a while to find my pace/stroke.

Don't know why but I couldn't stick with anyone drafting until the second loop. About halfway I found some feet and stuck with him the rest of the way.

Not much. I can always use more open water experience.

This was my best event of the day.

AG: 2/7
OA: 32/92

nothing. this went well.

I was slow, but my bike fitness sucks. I think I was smart about this. I could have gone faster and was tempted to each time I got passed but I'm glad I saved something for the run.

There's one hairy spot where you make a 90º left turn at the bottom of a long steep descent. They had volunteers there, but on my second loop after the Sprint race joined the course I was cut off by a person on a fat tire bike who just veered sharply left into my path. It was very close. Didn't have time to move over much. I was doing about 44mph and remember looking at my speed and thinking "yeah, this is fast enough to die if I hit him." I just missed him. My HR was up for a bit after that.

And as I'm finishing the bike, I reach down to undo my shoe straps and realized that I forgot to wear my tri shoes. I was wearing road shoes! Decided to go for it. I managed to get both shoes unstrapped and my left foot out of the shoe. Ended up dismounting and running to T2 wearing one shoe. I'm sure it looked great.

Pay attention to which shoes I pack. Olys and Sprints get the tri shoes.

AG: 3/7
OA: 53/92

This went ok. Someone at the run out saw my trisuit and yelled "BT". I high fived him but didn't get a good look at who it was. Whoever you are Thank You! It was a big boost.

I was behind a girl from the sprint running out of the TA and just kind of blindly followed her. Which would have been fine except she was headed to the ladies room. Oops. A volunteer redirected me. A few folks got a laugh at that.

I may not be fast, but at least I can be entertaining.

Stay on course.

This was ok. Once we passed the sprint turnaround the course got very sparse. Because of the hilly bike course, we were pretty well spread out already, but with only 92 people in the race, that gives a lot of room for each person. I remember a couple of times looking a couple hundred yards ahead and only seeing 2 or 3 people. I did manage to pass a fair number and only got passed a couple of times, mostly by relayers.

About mile 4 right after passing one guy, I hear another behind me slowly catching up. I yell back "I'm going to make you work for it!" to psyche myself up. He catches up and we ran together for a while. Chatted a bit. After a mile or so I realize that the pace is just a bit too high for me and I need to back off if I want anything left for the finish. I tell him this, point out a guy about 75 yards up and say "your job is to pass the guy with the black shirt". "White hat?". "Yeah". So I slow down, and he takes off for black shirt guy.

I catch up with black shirt guy myself after a few minutes and as I'm passing he says "that guy up there says you cant' beat him." Heh. I say "He's Right!".

At the next water stop I ask for water and get lemon-lime Heed. Realized it too late, drank some and spent the rest of the race vaguely nauseous. I just can't take that stuff. The new subtle strawberry is ok, but the lemon-lime is just awful.

So, with about 1/4 mile left to go, I realize I'm reeling him back in. Catch up to him near the entrance to the park which is a short steep downhill and as I pull up to him I say something like "Let's Go!" or "It's On!", I forget. We both take off racing like hell and the crowd and announcer pick up on it. At the bottom of the hill is a 90º right turn onto grass with a short way to the finish line. I'm on the inside and have to slow way down for the turn, we're neck and neck on the grass and we're both literally screaming with the effort. About 15 yards to go and my body just says "Sorry, that's all we have at the top end right now" and he pulls ahead. Definitely a good finish. As he said after we got our breath "Well, we gave them quite a show!".

He beat me fair and square. So, if you know Robert Ackerman, buy him a beer for me.

Not much, paced this one pretty well.

Chatted with cusetri and his mom, got a bagel, wandered around.

I needed this mentally. Even though my AG standings are a bit low, I think that's because it was a small field of relatively fast people. I definitely felt like I'm back to my normal MOP racing with this. The swim and run were ok. My bike still needs lots of improvement though.


Lack of ability to go fast.




A good smallish local race. It's put on by the CNY Triathlon club so it's not trying to be a huge production with a lot of frills. They do a good job, provide a challenging course, good basic amenities. I think I'll be back next year.

Timing etc. is done by Score-This so there are no worries there. You don't get a better timing/race production company than those guys.

One thing to keep in mind: with a Syracuse 70.3 rumored to be coming in September 2010, this would be an ideal tuneup race for it. Even though there was race day registration for this race, if the 70.3 gets announced, sign up early for Cazenovia because I'd bet on this filling up no later than July 1.