I felt good in the swim, passing the person in front of me after 250 meters. Got passed at 300 meters by the person who started after me. Overall it was a slowest pool swim I have ever had.

My ankle injury in June hampered my swimming all season. It felt pretty good during this swim so I believe it is healing. The doctor said it should heal fully by the end of the year if I stay off it.

T1 was about 24 sec slower than last year. There is a long run from the pool and I went slower than usual. Forgot to dry my feet and put them in the socks wet. This mistake made my feet go numb during the first half of the bike ride. It was cold but the sun was up and I new I would warm up during the bike.

Run faster.

It is a good course for a sprint. A little bit of everything with a 1.25 mile hill climb in the middle. I was feeling pretty good. I had passed quite a few others and only got passed by 2 when I came upon a 9 or 10 year old girl. I offered a word up encouragement to her and when I noticed that we were passing a house that was decorated for Halloween and had all these ghosts hanging from the trees by the road, I yelled back "don't let these ghosts scare you". When I looked up I was leaving the road surface and going into the grass. I started braking and tried to get back on the road but the shoulder was too steep for my speed and skinny tires and I went down on the road on my left side. When I got up I found no broken bones but I could tell that my left side was scraped up some. Four or so people passed me and asked if I was hurt. I remember saying to one of them that all that was hurt was my ego. I picked up my bike and everything looked good so I got on an went to take off but the chain had come off. Got the chain on and took off. My left hand was sore and bleeding so I had to steer with one hand for a while. Passed one person before I got back to ACAC.

Pay attention and keep my eyes on the road.

Believe it or not I was 8 seconds faster in T2 this year, must have been the pain.

Nothing.

My legs did not feel good. Very slow pace, my turnover was slow and my stride short. Didn't feel good until the last mile. One of my slowest 5K's ever. The good news is I did aggravate my calf or ankle injury.

Not get injured. Train harder.

Has some powerade/water mix and fruit with a couple of oreos. Later on when the pizza came I was all over it.
Went to the locker room to clean my road rash. The soap and water wasn't too bad but the alcohol really burned. The deepest scrapes were on my hip. I am lucky my shorts didn't get ripped up. Might have gotten a DQ for nudity.


Injuries from earlier races and training. Falling on the bike course did not help but it could have been worse.


I went out to watch the race and talk to some of my RTC buddies. We ended up staying to the end for the awards. 2 of them got awards for the Aqua-Bike category. We got to watch and cheer for the last few people to finish. It was great to be there.