I was very pleased with my swim. The last open water swim race was 1000 yards and I was 4th to last. I was very proud of my speed, sighting, and calmness during the swim. I was able to start out very slow and get into my groove fairly quickly.

Not too much. I might push it a little harder, but my main goal was to complete the distance and remain fresh.

I sat down to put on socks and bike shoes. I also took a few seconds to drink from my water bottle. The run from the Cumberland River to T1 is fairly long. I felt I did everything correctly except for the socks/shoes I talked about.

One day I would like to get comfortable biking without socks and be able to get on the bike with my shoes already clipped in. I have not worked on this so I can't expect anything to change until I do.

I knew going into this race that I had focused too much on my swim and not enough on my bike. Normally I am stronger at the bike than the swim so I too this approach. The first loop wasn't too bad, but the 2nd loop absolutely killed me. I wore myself out and the rising heat index did not help. By the time I finished the bike my legs were toast, which did not bode well for the run.

Train on the bike more.

It was hot!!! When I say I did a good job keeping cool, I mean I did a good job avoiding a heat stroke. The heat index now was somewhere 105. My legs were toast from the bike. On the first loop I was running/walking (mainly walking) with other, who I realized later were on their 2nd loop. On my 2nd loop, I saw hardly anyone. It was a lonely feeling. My friend Joseph did join me for a mile or so, but it was a bad feeling knowing there were very few racers out there.

I feel my run training was adequate. I think it was my bike that caused me to suffer on the run.

Drank a beer.


The bike, the bike, the bike.


The race was fine, as are most of Team Magic's races. I wished they would have let the Olympic distance racers go first instead of them having to wait an hour for the sprint racers to start, especially on a day where the heat index was going to be so high. I certainly don't blame my bad performance on the heat, but it would have been nice to be done an hour earlier in the morning. Also, there were a couple of drink stations that ran out of water for us BOPers. They did go get more ice and water, but it was so very hot that missing any drink station made it a little tougher.

It may sound like I am down about my performance. This was my first Oly and the longest race I have ever completed. I am super-stoked about my swim and I know that I am approaching being a MOP on the swim, which is something I thought I would never say. I am disappointed in my biking, but I knew my training on the bike was low this year, so I was not surprised. There are good things and bad things I learned and experience during this race. This entire race was supposed to be a learning experience to help me in my 1/2 Ironman in 9 weeks. It confirmed what I thought about my training. I think my swim will be adequate (but I would like to get faster), I need to train a lot harder on the bike (I knew this), and the jury is still out on my run.