Not my best swim. Goggles fogged within the first 100m. I tried to put up with it, but it just got too annoying. I had to stop 3 times to rinse the goggles. Sucks. Not as much contact as last week and I was happy about that. I did catch some good feet. One guy had a kick like an outboard motor. Nice draft.



Swim faster. I know I can do better than this.

Kind of an average T1. First time out with the new helmet, so I have to get used to how to put it on quickly.

Meh.

Why did I sign up for this race? Oh yea, Jeremy wanted to do it. The first stretch of out and back wasn't bad. Kind of fun rollers. Then coming back into town, I was facing down my fate. The big effin hill. There was a timing mat at the bottom and the top and they split out those times. Pretty much after I crossed the first mat, it got ugly. Granny gear immediately. Excellent. My goal was to get farther up the hill than last time and not crash into the curb. I was hurting, but I made it about halfway up, past the photographer. Then I just walked along and enjoyed the break off the bike. Do you think the aero helmet made my walk faster? Maybe. I hopped back on about 50 yards from the timing mat at the top and quickly passed 3 people. Sweet!

After the hill, the course flattens out and I was able to go pretty quickly. Had lots of time to make up. The downhill was awesome and I was sad to see that road end. The rest of the ride was through neighborhoods on barely paved roads. Grrr. I'm sure you all know by now that I simply hate crappy pavement. I lost some time in this section in part due to the pavement and also because of so many turns.

Sprout wings and fly? Really, losing 15 pounds would probably do a lot. As I type this, I'm eating chocolate. Ironic?

Nice dismount and T2.

As I started out on my run (ie: death shuffle), I had a goal of keeping a nice steady pace. I did 10 miles on Thursday with no issues, so I thought that I could have a nice little medium run today. That changed at about 5 minutes in with the start of a side stitch. Then I had to pee. Really? Found a portapotty and headed for it. The guy behind me was headed for it too, but I claimed it. Sorry dude! My gut started up again about 15 min in. Nothing I did was helping. The GU brew didn't help and neither did the water. I popped an enduralyte at the turnaround, hoping for relief. It never came. Dave C. was officiating and I was offering him increasing amounts of money for the bike he was cruising down the trail. No dice. Kept shuffling along hoping for death. Finally I saw the finish line and sped up just so I could be done.

Not sure. I really need to figure out my nutrition before Racine. Going to try a few sport drink alternatives, natural instead of processed. We'll see. Actually, for all my whining and complaining, this run was less than 20 seconds off of last week's run. Sure I felt better during last week's run, but I was still able to hold on to that pace today, even with a grumpy gut.

Got some food and ate in hopes of calming the gut. As I was sitting on my bench munching, Joe R brought over a bag of beer. Good planning, man! Lots of TriRoch folks with AG or overall placings.

Mario and I walked back to the car and as we came into view of the parking lot, I saw a white SUV very close to his car. Then it became obvious that the SUV was touching his car. Actually it was smashed into his car. There were a grand total of 4 cars in the whole lot and this guy managed to hit Mario's car. Nice. At least the guy was still there and willing to do the right thing. Paperwork filled out and all that stuff.


The usual.


This race is very well-run and organized. The big hill was simply too much for me at this stage in the game. Not sure about going back next year, but we'll see.