Wave start was hectic (standard) and I was swum over by A LOT of guys. I finally slowed down, let the first big pack get in front of me and then found a rhythm. I did really well with the navigation and was able to beat my goal time by a couple of seconds

Start the swim a little slower so I didn't have to slow down so much to get into some clear water. Maybe start outside the turn a little more and try to catch a draft rather than just be content with swimming on my own

Wow, did I go slow here. I was just concentrating on not spiking my HR knowing that I had a long bike ride ahead. I planned for 10 minutes for both transitions, so, this was actually ahead of the power curve, but I still could've gone a lot faster.

Push it a little more.

I got a lot of laughs from other competitors and from the race officials because I had 10 GUs taped by the tear away tab to my top tube. I had my entire double PD aero bottle filled with Gatorade and another H2O bottle. Drank all the Gatorade, went through two more H2O bottles at the aid stations and ate 9 of the gels. This came back to haunt me later as I don't think I digested that stuff very well. Should've cut out some of the gels and used a stronger Gatorade mix.
The hills (9 really tough grades) were killer, but I got through them ok. I was planning on a 17 mph pace, so I was doing a little better than planned. My back was hurting a little when I finally got off the bike, but overall, it wasn't too bad

Push a little harder on the downhills and not eat so much. Need to find some solid food I can digest while exercising or a drink that gives more calories. My nutrition was off as I felt really sloshy getting off the bike.

Again, took it really slow. Changed socks so I wouldn't get as many blisters.

Speed up a little

Ouch. I ran/walked the first lap, running to the first aid station, walking for 3 minutes and then running to the next one. It turned out to be about a 9 minute run, 3 minute walk as the aid stations were a little more than a mile apart. One the second lap, I tried to start runningn after the tree minutes past the aid station, and it just wasn't happening. I started to get the chills and I was a little dizzy, so I decided that it was time to reverse the run/walk and walk most of the second lap. I had rained a good bit on the first lap and my shoes were heavy with water and I was starting to hurt. No way was I going to quit on the second lap of the run, though. So I just HTFU and did what I had to do to finish. I didn't take in any gels as I was still sloshy from the bike. Ran the last half mile and was just overjoyed to be finished.

Missed my 6.5 hour goal by 12 minutes and it was all because it fell apart on the second lap of the run. I'm pretty sure it was my nutrition plan coming apart/not being thought out well enough. Definitely need to work on that for the next time. Yep, there's absolutely going to be a next time!!

Got a bannana, a massage and stretched a BUNCH. Cleaned out transition and went home.


Nutrition. Need to start thinking about it and training to it more and earlier in the program. Find a solid food I can digest on the bike so I'm not so water logged. Also, could stand to do a few more long bricks.


Two of the aid stations ran out of water toward the end and one went unmanned for quite a while - racers ended up using discarded cups and having to tilt the water buckets to get some fluids. Other than that, though, it was a very well run race