The swim started out much better than at the Buffman & Squeaky Oly. I started about mid pack and to the outside. This was a good position. I didn't get swum over like at Buffman. I didn't have the breathing problems that I had at the Buffman. My navigation was not good. I kept pulling to the right. At times I was way off the bouy line and had to turn back towards the bouy. About midway through I noticed some of the white Jazz caps from the speedy young ladies in the wave behind my wave. This was kind of a bummer. When I saw those caps I thought maybe I was swimming much slower than I was actually swimming. Overall the swim was pretty uneventfull. My goal time was 39 minutes. I beat my goal by a few seconds. This is also the fastest pace I've swum in a race.

Learn to swim straight. I know I swam some extra yardage just because of pulling to the right.

In my race plan I put in 2 minutes for each transition. I didn't realize how far we would have to run back to our bikes. My wetsuit got stuck around my ankles. I tried to do the step-on-the-wetsuit-pull-the-foot-out thing, but that didn't work. I think it's better to just sit down and slide my feet out.

Sit to take the wetsuit off. I tried to take it off standing up. Why? I don't know. Open up the bike shoes. Once again I forgot to undo the shoe straps.

I had been doing a lot of reading about triathlons. In Gordo's book "Going Long" he says long course strategy is about 'not slowing down'. In other words, find a pace you can maintain in all 3 sports for the duration. Ride the bike too fast and the run suffers.

So, I planned to ride the first half hour in z1-2, the next hour in z2 and the last hour and a half in z2-3. Well it didn't quite work out that way. As it turned out, I rode most of the race in z2-3. Anyway, I planned not to ride the bike as hard as at the Buffman. At the Buffman my HR averaged 157 and my run suffered. Here my HR averaged 148 and I ran better. I also changed my bike to a 12x27 (instead of 12x23). That helped also.

I love this course. I loved the hills. The Spiral Staircase was fun. The whole bike course was a blast to ride.

On big rides like this, riders tend to group together based on speed. I played 'cat and mouse' with a group of riders. There were two Clydesdales that would pass me on the flats and then I would pass them on the hills. We went back and forth like this for just about the whole race. Finally, on the last climb I passed them and didn't see them again. There was also a woman that I passed on the hills and she would pass me on the flats. With about 10 miles to the finish she passed me. I looked at her calf and she had a 52 written on it! That's what's so amazing about this sport; pro's, elites, men, women, all ages competing on the same course. And you never know who will kick your butt on any given day.

At the half way point I was feeling great - relaxed, hydrated, strong. So, I decided to kick it up an notch and went to the top of z3 and lower z4. With about 10 miles to go I went to z4 (and still got passed by a 52 year old woman!).

My hydration went well. Drank two bottles of Cytomax and ate 3 Gu. Also, drank half a bottle of plain water. I planned to eat 4 Gu but couldn't get the last dose of Gu out of my Gu flask. I think Bento box would work better than a flask.

I rolled into T2 and beat my goal time of 3:07:00. And my pace was the same as Buffman - 18.5 mph. That made me happy to ride the same pace, on more hills, at a longer distance and with a lower average HR!

Not much. I'm pretty happy with this ride. I could say ride harder, but then my run would suffer.

This was a long transition. I had to pee really bad during the last 10 miles of the bike. I considered stopping on the bike to pee but decide to wait until T2. It felt like I was in the porta potty for an hour.

Undo the shoe laces.

The run is my limiter. I had two goals for the run - a time of 2:10:00 and not to walk any of the run.

The bike to run transition was easy. I got right into the run. This might have been due to the long T2. After the first mile split I thought this is too fast. I slowed my pace and kept a steady pace for the first 9 miles.

I ran up the hills. There were lots of people walking up the hills and I began to wonder if I was using the wrong strategy of running up the hills. I mean everyone was walking up the hills. I stuck to my plan and didn't walk. I hate running down the hills. I would rather run up a hill than down.

I ran pretty easily to the half way point and turned for the finish. At this point I started looking at my watch closely. My goal was to go sub 6 hours. When I got to the half way point it appeared I might be able to go sub 6. With about 4 miles to go my watch said 5:20. That meant I needed to run less than 10 min/mile. I thought I would give it a try. I still had one hill to run up before the down hill to the 10 mile mark and only 3 miles to the finish. I was pretty tired by this time and my legs were acheing. About half way up the hill I had to stop and walk. I walked for about a minute and then started running again. One run goal missed. I hit the 3 mile to go mark with about at about 5:30:00. Still had to run sub 10 min miles to go sub 6. Tried to run faster but there wasn't much left in my legs. At two miles to go I realized I couldn't make the sub 6 and walked through an aid station. And walked through the final aid station. I ran the final mile to the finish.

All in all it was a good run for me. Even though it was a long, hard, hot run I still felt more comfortable running than I ever have.

Start slower and stick to the plan.

Crossed the finish line and was kind of delerious. I was looking for my wife and walking around and turning around and couldn't find her. She was standing not 20 feet away taking pictures of me! Drank a bottle of Endurox. Met up with the rest of the BT gang. Drank more. Ate some watermelon. Drank a Coke. Then almost puked.


My running needs improvement. Run lots!


This is a tough course. But I enjoyed it. The race is well organized.

My overall goal time was 6:00:00. I missed it by 3:49. I could have saved that amount of time by better transitions. Oh well, I was still happy with my performance.

It was great meeting the BT'ers - Cavu9, jldicarlo, kaenolani, christy, joe_m, alpine87, grvfrog. Thanks guys for a great time.