Awesome swim, boy do I love TT starts vs wave, in the whole 1500, never ran into anyone. First turn buoy is about 600 meters, the yellow marking bouys are guides so no worries making sure they are on your right.
Got into a 3 stroke rythm quickly and never felt out of breath or panicky. I did not go out fast or hard, good to remember. Best in a while.

Wide open T-area with big lanes. First couple hundred yards after mount line is a no-passing zone, so I did a flying mount following 2 guys out of T-1, passed them at the line and was off without being bottlenecked.
Still doing socks and shoes. Adds a 10 secs or so but with SPD mtn bike pedals, clipping in is a snap. Not bad though considering was 13/66 AG and 58 OA given that I put on socks & shoes + remove wetsuit
T-1 felt faster than Tanner.

practice suit off/helmet on at same time but only have 3 races a year with wetsuit, so no worries.

Just cranking along, enjoying the ride, pass a few people and feeling pretty good. Not overdoing it because I learned last year to not go at a sprint speed but still working hard and per garmin, avg around 22+. Then the circus begins. Around mile 12, start to hear a loud squeak (uh oh), then mile 16 left pedal starts to wobble. I look down and can tell the crank arm is starting to back off the BB. So I start soft pedalling on the left to hope that it will hang on just for 8 more miles. Come on, hang on there, please hang on... well no dice, at mile 17 after the turn, bam, crank arm falls off (still attached to my shoe). I stop, get my multitool and the hex head is too big so not possible to reattach . Zip ties won't work so bang it back on, jump on and start pedaling, within 15 seconds, falls off again ARGHHHHHH! So dang, I have 7 ish miles to go. Without thinking, I grab the crank arm, carry it in the left hand, hang left foot off the rear wheel skewer and proceed to pedal 1 legged. Fun drill that is.
Flats, can maintain around 17, downhills, up to 28, uphills were riduculous (try it sometime). Also the cassette is a 12/21 so I didn't help myself with a big gear. Push/pull/push/pull, blah, right butt muscle is burning, can't even stand to stretch out (guess I could have stopped). Plus all the remaining turns were right handers, hard to do with only a right pedal to push off for balance.
But I told myself, no DNF, what's the big deal, just push hard, and still compete, you will finish, it may be ugly, but who cares. Unfortunately got passed by a BUNCH of dudes. So thinking my day is done, now the focus is to just finish as fast as I can and not worry about a PR but I will finish dammit.

Umm, not think I am smart enough to maintain my own bike.

Awesome! Finally off bike, get to the dismount line and go sprinting into T-2, toss crank arm onto wetsuit, rack bike, swap shoes (thanks yankz) and head out.
Felt really speedy and I was happy with it. 3AG / 7 OA - not bad!!!
Thanks to Marvnett for the clinic a few weeks back, limit options, keep it simple.

So #1 Goal for this year = Oly distance, not walk the run while sacrificing bike speed. Although my whole right leg is tight, sore and tired from 30 minutes of one legged drills, I embark.
I never looked at the garmin, just ran and ran. Picked off about 9 guys on the run and only got passed by 1 lady. The mental demons started in on me around mile 5 saying "you have a great excuse to walk, just walk, come on, do it". But fighting back and remembering the recent podcast post from the Captain about physical vs mental, my mind wanders about how to fix the bike, that darn crank arm, I thought I got it tight, the previous 100 miles were fine. Low and behold, I am on the dam and can hear the finish line. So pushing on, finish up and it ends up being a PR 10K for me!!! and a 5:45 faster split than last year Woohoo! What a deal - no walking, finally. Left leg is fine, right leg, ooohhhhh/ouch

Hung out, chatted with 15step (he crushed his PR by 15 minutes) and Captain about the race.


Wished I didn't have the bike issue but overall. Put forth a strong effort both physically and mentally so happy about that. Hit the finish line and within the next minute, felt content with my race and felt like it was a 100% day. Had a blast. What a fun time! Low and behold, time is posted and I beat last year by 51 seconds. Double woohoo!!!!