This is the final leg, as this was a reverse sprint. I'm very pleased with my performance in the swim. I've been struggling with continual swimming every since I started this journey, but today I managed to swim all 8 lengths with zero rests! And, add in that this is a 50m pool, not a 25 like I'm used to and I feel even better about it. I took my time getting in the pool, just trying to get my bearings a little still. Once in, I just motored along and actually managed to pass a small handful of swimmers, while only getting passed by one. And honestly, she shouldn't have been back there with us BOPers. I heard her say she got 2-3 flats while on the bike course, so that slowed her WAY down.

On the last lap I actually thought to myself "damn! You're actually about to finish this!". That made me laugh underwater for a second and caused me to choke on some water. Good times.

I just need more time in the pool. I'm progressing every day. I put "good" for my overall swim, since for me, it WAS good!

This transition is from RUN to BIKE for our reverse. I took my time. I still wasn't feeling great from the run (stomach), so drank some water and a few sips of gatorade. Then got my stuff and walked/jogged my bike to the mounting point and took off.

I felt surprisingly good getting on the bike after the run. Yeah, my legs were a little sore (quads mostly), but I felt fine. And the breeze was a nice bonus! The course was more rolling hills than Google Earth led me to believe, but I feel like I did alright on them. I took advantage of the flats and downhills as much as possible and would spin up the inclines. I passed maybe a dozen or so bikers and none passed me. That made me feel pretty good. Plus seeing my friends ahead of me on their way back in shouting encouragements is wonderful! I did begin to cramp up in my left calf about a mile or two from the end. I tried to stretch it out on the bike, but it didn't really work. So I just sucked it up and powered through.

More hill work I suppose.

This is our transition from BIKE to SWIM. I cramped up the last mile or so of the bike in my left calf. I tried to stretch it out on the bike but it wasn't helping much. Because of this, I had to hobble down to the pool area. I don't know the total distance, but it's a bit of a hike to get there. You go away from the pool in transition to the opposite end, then circle back along the outside of transition to the hill we ran up in the run segment, down that and in to the pool.

Not cramp up?

I started out near the back with a friend of mine. He runs about a 10 minute mile and I'm much slower. For some reason, I stayed ahead of him through most of the first mile...big mistake. I obviously went out way too fast (under a 9 1/2 min mile!). I grabbed a little water at the water station, but by around the mid-way point, I felt like crap. I really thought I was going to puke, so I slowed down to a walk. I ended up walking about a half mile of the course. During my walk it I got some great encouragement from a girl that we had been leap-frogging back and forth for quite a bit. She would run past me, then switch to a quick walk where I was jog past her, and so on. When I went to a walk, she was running along side and by me and shouted "keep it up, you've got a good pace going, nice job". Made me feel a little better, but I still had to walk a bit. I ran in the last mile or so and felt alright. There's a brutal finishing hill to get to transition, though. No fun there at all.

Nutrition. This was leg one and I had nothing to eat pre-race.

Crossed the finish line, got my finishers ribbon, then saw my friends. Got a big hug and congrats from Jay, the guy that talked me in to this! I went over to the food tent and got some watermelon and a banana. Oddly they were out of fluids though. No water or anything. That sucked. I ended up going up to my bag in transition and getting another bottle of water and a gatorade.


I had a blast! Everyone was very nice and supportive of each other.