Apparently my subconscious goal was to swim twice as far as I needed to..After the race I was talking to a bunch of the awesome Greyhounds and mentioned what I'd done..."Oh, so you're the one that was so far off course! Even the announcer was commenting on it." Ya, that'd be me!

This was absolutely abysmal. To set the stage, the out and back buoys really weren't far from each other - the course was like a pretty narrow rectangle, maybe about 150 yds wide. Was doing great up past the sprint turn buoy, actually passed a bunch of people and then my goggles starting fogging. The next buoy was pretty far out, not close together like the first ones and stupid me I ended up sighting on the wrong buoy - the one on the other side of the course. I was going along real good and saw a jet skiier next to me waving - I was thinking "how ya doing" and kept going, then all of a sudden it dawned on me...I stopped and looked and about died- I was a probably a good 100yds off course. So I took a diagonal line to get back on track and then started going far right. Finally made it around the island and my navigation abilities kicked in again and I veered to the right. I didn't go very far off course this time, but I was weaving a lot - not sure if maybe there was a current there helping (or not helping).

In any case, this was my worst performance of the season. All of my previous avg times, including Steelhead, were around the 2 min mark. Based on this avg I figure I swam a good 200yds further that I needed to.

Swim straight!!! I remember back in high school when I played sports, prior to each play I'd go over the different things that could happen and have a plan ready for each one. I really need to do that here. In this case, I should have really studied the layout of the buoys - if I'd done that I would have realized that that last buoy before the island was long distance from the other and I'd likely have a hard time sighting it. I should have disregarded the buoy and focused on the island itself. Not sure how I can fix my sighting - I always have a hard time getting my vision focused in the split second I have to see and if my goggles are a little fogged its even harder. I see a splash of color and go for it. Next time I'll have to make damn sure what I'm swimming towards.

This time included a fairly long run up the beach and into T1. I was actually only 3 seconds behind the guy who was the AG winner, so I think I did pretty good. I also took time to put on socks and throw on a Northface pull-over. I figured since it was cold out that I'd need it.

Nothing

This was a good ride for me. I decided my goal was to try to end up with an avg of 18mph, so I met that. I started out easy and didn't push it much for the first 13 miles and was averaging about 17mph. For most of the first half the course was pretty much uphill, a lot of small rollers, but enough to burn me out if I didn't watch it. The last 12 miles I started picking up the pace and hitting the remaining hills harder. Plus the return was mostly downhill, which helped, so I pushed it there.

I was actually only passed by 2 other people and I passed a whole bunch...think a lot of this had to do with the fact that practically everyone in the race was already on their bikes while I was still floundering around out in the lake :)

My Garmin had the course as just under 24 miles, so not sure whether its off or the course was just short. Also, my Garmin had me at 1:18.

Nutrition was good. I took a GU as soon as I got on the bike, had about half my water and half of the GEF on the entire ride and then took another GU when I was about 2 miles from the finish.

Not much - felt pretty good. I just need a lot more time in the saddle for conditioning. Having only started riding this year though, I'm pretty happy with what I've been able to do.

Violated the first rule of racing and that's to not try something that you haven't practiced for. I wasn't really thinking and before I knew it, I was dismounting like I used to as a kid. As I was coming up to the dismount line, I unclipped my right foot, swung it over the saddle and rode to the line standing on my left foot. Twisted my left foot out of the clip, hopped off and ran. Worked beautifully! While I was a lot slower than the AG winner (he was 0:47) I was second out of T2- the next guy was at 2:13. Also, I had to take time to take off the Northface shirt, and then my hands were fairly numb, so tying my shoes wasn't the easiest. I also decided to take a few slugs of GEF before heading out.

Nothing

Decent run for me. I didn't really have any goal here other than to try to keep a good pace so that when I came to the finish I'd have nothing left. In that, I think I did well. Everytime I started feeling comfortable in my pace, I'd try to pick it up. I figured if I was comfortable then I was running too slow.

Saw Trish on the run which was cool!!!

Nothing

Saw Sue and Sarah at the finish and introduced her to the Greyhounds. Then headed over to Trish's for some great food and beer!!!


Inability to swim in anything resembling a straight line.


Aside from the swim this was a pretty good race for me. My goal on the bike was to pace myself better than I had at Steelhead and I accomplished that.