Fast swim. Hard to say just how good it was since it was downstream. I felt mostly relaxed and just drafted most of the way. Sighting was super easy since you could just look at the shore when you took a breath. I expected the swim to be fast, but couldn't believe my watch when I ran up the boat ramp.

Maybe push a little harder...but I'm satisfied with the swim.

By the time I realized there were wetsuit strippers I was already by them. Just ran to my rack and got the wetsuit off there. Pretty decent T1.

Use the strippers.

^^ Heh...funny sentence. ^^

Wow, didn't expect a ride this fast. I was thinking to myself that I was riding too fast but it felt soo easy. I just kept up the pace and I'm glad I did.

Within the first mile my front brake started rubbing. My brake was loose and slowly went from left to right until the pad was rubbing. I probably had to "fix" this 50 time during the race. I'd just reach down and move it...then eventually I'd hear it rubbing again. Any time I used the brakes or hit a decent bump it would slide over. Annoying, but I doubt it cost me too much time.

Backstory: A week before the race I was out for an 80-miler and my aerobars snapped. Had to order new ASAP. They came and I installed them. Don't really like them (yet) but had no choice for this race. Another thing this meant was that both gear cables and both brake cables only had about 10 miles of riding. Not ideal.

I was really freaking out about my bike before this race, but everything went ok. I stayed in the big chain ring the entire race because I was afraid my chain would come off.

Despite these issues though, I'm super happy with my ride...way faster than my previous HIM.

Have my bike tuned up better.

Socks. Any race over a sprint I wear socks (to avoid a bloody mess) and every time they piss me off. Today was no exception. God, it seemed like it took an entire minute to put on socks. Whatever.

Invent shoes I could run without socks in.

Off the bike and felt amazing! Which was a nice surprise considering that I had such a fast ride. Glanced at my watch and knew that sub-5 was a real possibility. My run goal of 1:45 would get the job done.

When I made my way out to the two loop course, a female pro was starting her second loop. I didn't want to throw off her race so I didn't run "with" her, but I stayed about 10 paces behind her. I just felt so good. I looked at my Garmin and realized I was running 6:45 pace. WTF??? Way too fast. But it felt so easy I just went with it. At this point I had to pee really bad. I kept looking for an empty port-a-john but they were full for the first couple miles. So on I went with my pro... :) I really wish I could have ran with her longer, but around mile 4 I (thankfully) found an empty one and pee'd. One of the best urinations of my life. Ahhhh. Back on the run. My pace slowed a bit but I was still clocking off 7:15's. The crowd on Broad St. was amazing! At mile 9, I hit a wall. Kind of disappointing since I felt so strong until this point. It really went from good to bad fast. My pace dropped to around 8:30ish and I had nothing left to give. I just wanted to be done. At mile 12 my right calf cramped and was a rock... I thought I might have to walk but I kept a pathetic jog while favoring the left leg. My last mile was probably close to 10 minutes.

Not sure. Maybe not start out so fast? Not sure if that would've helped out not. Also wish I knew what that cramp was all about. The same thing happened at mile 12 in my last HIM. Weird.

Massage, pizza, coke, beer.

Then I walked a couple miles down Broad Street back to transition. Fun to watch the race go by.


I dunno. I think for my training level, this was almost as fast as I could've gone. Aside from the final 30 minutes, everything was better than expected.


Really happy with my race. Sub-5 never even crossed my mind prior to race day.

Great course, great volunteers. Glad I wore my BT tri top; thanks to all the BTers that showed me love on the streets.