I set out to beat my time from last year (39 min). To do that, I knew I needed a steady and straight swim. No resting and no wandering around the lake like last year. Emily and I were chatting before the wave start, so I ended up starting in the middle/back of the wave. That just meant I had a bit of traffic at the beginning, but it smoothed out pretty soon. With only 34 females and a handful of team swimmers, it was a small wave. I caught my first blue cap (the wave ahead of me) before the turn, so I knew the swim was going well. Around the turn and more blue caps. I had a bit of trouble going straight on the way back because we were going at an angle to the beach, no parallel. I had to keep correcting until I convinced my brain which way I was supposed to go. I hit my watch out of the water (36:44), so the official time includes the run to T1.

Nutrition- 3 Shotblocks before going to the beach.

Not much. This was a decent effort and I think I paced it pretty well.

Kind of slow for some reason. I'm still not super-fast getting into my aero helmet. I saw Kelly O leave transition ahead of me. I told him I'd see him soon.

Whoo-hoo! I really like this course! I passed Kelly at mile 2 and told him I was sure to see him again on the run. He's a better runner than I am and I knew I'd have to put in a great ride to stay ahead of him. I started reeling in one rider after another and tried to keep my pace above 19mph. We had a tailwind for the first hour and I was making a big effort to bank as much speed as possible. Somewhere after the turn at the church, something stung me under the saddle. I guess a bee (?) was hichhiking and got tired of me sweating on him. I was a bit worried since I can be a little allergic, but decided to keep going. Not anything I could do out there on the road anyway. After a while I forgot about it, so it wasn't a problem. There was one section of fresh asphalt- super sweet! At mile 22, we turned back into the wind and there was about a 4 mile section that was tough. I was still passing people, just not as quickly. I didn't count, but I think only about 5 people got by me and all of those were in the last 8 miles. Why wasn't I able to stay ahead of them? Not sure. Anyway, the ride was over way too quick.

Nutrition- half pack of Shotrocks, 1 salt cap, 1 gel, 1/4 bottle Perform and not enough water.

Drink up. I think I paid for that later on the run. Could I have gone harder in the last 8 miles? Would I have paid for it more on the run? The eternal question. I beat my goal time by about 7 min, so it was worth it.

First flying dismount with the new shoes. No problems, except my feet were kind of stumpy feeling.

I was really hoping that this run wouldn't kick my azz, but I kind of knew it would. Both times I've ran 13.1 miles, at mile 9 I've wanted to sit down and cry. As I came in on the bike, Mario yelled at me, "Remember, no mile 9!" Yay! I started off at my usual pace and the first mile went well. After that, I started feeling kind of dizzy. Popped a salt tab at the first water stop and drank some water. I didn't want to drink so much I had to pee, but knew I needed to hydrate. Things weren't getting much better, so I tried a gel around mile 3.5. I think that helped some. As the second lap began I ran a bit with two others that were having a tough run. They both dropped off to walk and I was still trotting along, although slowly. At mile 5.5 I took my last salt even though I still felt kind of wonky. I figured that I'd walk it in if I felt worse. Somehow I kept going, walking a bit when I started feeling truly wretched. A few sips of Heed at mile 7. Before the mile 8 marker, I took one last walk break to muster the strength to run (my version of) fast to the finish line. I knew I was close to my goal time and that was incentive to push a little harder.

Really, I don't think there's anything I could have done differently. I was in a tough spot on the edge of a bonk and somehow came back to finish strong. I'll call that a win.

After crossing the line and getting some water, I spread my towel on the ground and laid down. I was beat! This is really the first time that I've been completely cooked at the end of a race. Usually I wonder if I should have gone harder. Not today. I gave all I had. After a few minutes, I hoisted myself up and walked a bit. The sprint folks were on their way out after collecting awards, so I said goodbyes and found some food.


The usual.


Another aid station on the run would be nice. It was pretty hot out there. Props to them for having cool water! Even that late in the race, the water was cool.

One complaint... On a two lap run course, it would be a great idea to have a timing mat to catch the cheaters who don't run both laps. Looking at the results, it's obvious that some folks only ran around the lake once. There's no excuse for not knowing the course; it was in the email and Mark went over it before the race started. There were signs and lots of volunteers too. In short, those people suck. Those are the people that need to get stung on the azz by a bee, not me.