I posted up near the shore so I was able to stand until the cannon went off. That was nice because it conserved a bit of energy and I'm all about making it easier on me! At the gun I made a point to let most everyone around me move first, then I found a good spot and tried to find a rhythm. Got bumped a couple of times, but nothing serious. I actually found a good piece of open water pretty quickly and didn't have to contend with too much static the rest of the swim. I did stay wide on the turns and even on the back stretch, but the extra distance was worth it to allow me to find a good stroke without interuption. I actually took about half a minute after the second bouy and rolled onto my back, kicked with my feet and told myself to slow down and take it easy. Worked like a charm and the rest of the swim went real smooth.

Can't say I'd do too much differently here. I didn't over swim it and got to T1 with a good amount in the tank.

Run to T1 from the water wasn't close, but it wasn't all that far either. Just about ate it trying to stop to retrive a ear plug I dropped. Thankfully my legs did not falter and I kept my feet!! Found my bike quickly, had my suit down to my waist before I got there and it was off pretty easily. Kinda cursed under my breath a bit when I found that the velcro on my shoes was not undone like I had planned. Didn't take much time to fix, and I had my socks and shoes on in no time. Gu's were taped on to the top tube of the bike and Gatorade was in the bottle holder, away I went. Little did I know I had forgotten to take the outer and inner seal off of the Gatorade in my haste to get setup!!! That made for an interesting bike moment later.

Get to T1 earlier so that I can take my time setting up my transition. I know if I wasn't rushing that I would have caught both the shoe and Gatorade mess-ups.

So the beginning of the ride went well. Got my heart rate and breathing under controll early. Tried to not push too hard in the beginning and keep a good pace. I had a bit of a harder time on the hills then I would have liked to. Need to try incoperating eating Gu's while riding! My stomach was not happy and I'm not sure if it was my morning routine or if it was the Gu, but either way it did not feel great. In the flats I really hit my stride and actually managed to pass a couple of folks, some with really fancy bikes!!! So here I am moving along and I go to take a drink only to find that the damn seals are still on my Gatorade!!! I had to fiddle fart with that for a bit and got passed by two people before fixing the issue. Good thing is I caught them again and passed them. Good strong finish into T2, felt really good on the bike overall.

Again get there earlier and make sure my gear is ready to go. I'm also gonna work a bit more on hills and see if I can pick it up a bit.

This transition felt good to me. No fancy shoe removal before getting to T2 and no fancy dismount either. Still managed a fast transition though.

Not a whole lot to improve one at my level at this time.

So here's were the wheels tried to fall off the cart!!! I left T2 feeling pretty stoked. Had a good ride and the legs and breathing felt real strong. If only my stomach hadn't decided to revolt!!! I got around the first corner and had the most outrageous pain develop in my gut!! I never wished to vomit so much before in my life and I really believe that would have fixed the problem. I slowed down and tried to breath easy, but the pain persisted. The side stitch came on next and now I really felt like I was in trouble!! I walk/ran the first half of the course until I was finally able to work through it enough to pick up the pace. The second half of the run was much better and I finish really strong!! Honestly had it not been for my stomach pain my legs could have carried me through that so much faster!!

I'm not sure exactly what it was, but I've got to work on my nutrition. My fitness was good, but my stomach let me down. Probably won't have any type of dairy in the pre-race meal and I'll stick to water on the bike to rehydrate instead of Gatorade.

Cruised around the festivities and enjoyed the booths.


My nutrition was not on point. But at least I've got some ideas as to what to do to fix it.


Only thing I didn't like is that they took forever to get to the raffle for the sweet bike!!!