long long ago in a land far away, I thought my split would be in the mid thirties. This was before I considered the course and encountered the waves. The waves were reminiscint of my first half last year, Gulf Coast. The complicating factor was that it wasn't an out and back it was like an out left u turn then straight then return to shore. Not a good description. A better one was simply "chaos"

It was really hard to see the buoys. People were swimming all over the place. Really, there was no way they could even enforce if someone actually completed the course or not. The water was very shallow all the way to the first buoy. I knew I was in trouble when I practically was practically hyperventilating just from the 200 yard dash in thigh-high water.

After that I got lost and asked directions from other swimmers twice. I also mistakenly followed a group of swimmers who were swimming off course to go hang on to a kayak. Whoops!

All in all, I didn't even want to see what my time was. I figured I had to have been in the water for 40-45 minutes. A slight silver lining: the swim affected everyone adversely by 5 plus minutes so my projection on an easy to navigate course would have been accurate.

Im not sure of my time but I know it was slow. The strippers couldn't get my wetsuit off, then I couldn't find my bike. Ouch.

With the way things had gone so far, I was relieved to get on the bike. I also felt a little apprehensive. To be honest, it just seemed like one of those everything-that-can-go-wrong-will type of days. I stopped after about a mile because I thought my brake pads were rubbing, thats how it felt riding into the wind. The roads were Very bumpy.

At 17 miles I felt like the ride was getting too bumpy. I pulled over again and sure enough, a flat. My worst nightmare. Worst considering I had just gotten new race wheels literally a few days prior to leaving for my long nj "vacation" and hadn't had a chance to practice messing with them at all.

I had three thoughts. Number one I knew that my race, insofar as going for a certain time, or any chance for a roll down spot, was over. Secondly I really wanted to try to have a good attitude about it, finish, and get a good workout. I managed to get the tire off and change the tube but I couldn't get the tire back on. I had to wait for help which took over thirty minutes.

After this is where it got really tough. I feel like for the first time, I understand what people are talking about when they talk about mental skills. Normally, I will do anything to try to reach my goal... any pain or distractions are irrelevant simply because I have an innate drive to do my best at all costs. Well when that was taken away from me I have to say that it was really hard to continue to push. I did continue to push hard but I don't think it was the same performance as the extra few percentage points that the drive to succeed, to reach your goal, would have been. It was simply a hard workout.

Silver lining: My time minus thirty- two minutes was 2 45ish which was what I projected for this race.

I have no idea what my time was. All I know is that this time I was able to find my spot.

Very sunny and hot. Again, it was a real struggle mentally to continue to push myself. My run was slower than projected. I don't think I over cooked the bike at all. I think it was just a function of not being acclimated and the whole situation. I was just ready to be Done and thats what was driving me forward. Wanting to be Done wasn't enough to really get me running as fast as I could it was just enough to keep me running at all!

Silver linings:

Pretty run course. Great crowd support. Even though my run was "slow" I actually had the third fastest run in my division. I guess no one was acclimated yet!

Got to hang out with John, Paul, Jim, and Jamal. I was glad that John had a good race although he wasn't 100 percent happy with it. It seemed like everyone really struggled ... it was a tough race!


Well I already went through all that. Bottom line was yes the situation was very disappointing. But hopefully this is just one of many races I will do this season. I will say that I am already plotting and planning on getting another 70.3 on the schedule.