I was sssssssssslllllllllllloooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Really disappointed here. I tried to draft where I could, but I never found a solid draft. Had some contact, but nothing bad until the backside when i got kicked in the eye for the first time. Didn't hurt or anything, just surprising and let some water in, so I eventually stopped for a second to drain. Got lost on the way in...I passed the group of 2 or 3 I had been following. I can't see anything with my foggy goggles...maybe it's time for a new pair.

Swim more. Been a little off the ole swim training since the Half iron. Been off everthing, but swim especially. It seemed to make a difference.

Includes a nice long run from the water. It may be time for me to start practicing T1. Fumbled with my shoe...took like 5 tries to get my left shoe on. Got to the mount line and decided not to do a running mount (even though I've done them before without practicing). Just wasn't feeling confident, so i stopped and swung a leg over, missed my clip once but eventually made it

This course would have been good for a first try at shoes on bike. Long flat road to/from transition. I should start to practice this.

Wow, high cadence...97 counting zeros at corners etc. I think at least, my Garmin dropped a ton of data on the bike and run, so not sure I can trust it.

I went with my Oly bike plan from Black Bear (which seemed to work well on that really hilly bike, so it should be good for this rolling course too), which was to hit the bike hard and make the run real painful. I knew my HR would be high coming out of the swim, so started off at mid 160s (LT is mid 160's) and let it rise to 170 on the hills. It slowly dropped to about 160 avg towards the end (5 mile splits were 166, 165, 160, 160 then 158 for the last 3-ish). I guess I say that's "hard" because I've heard LT-10 bpm guidelines for HR on an Oly bike. So either that's hard, or my LT needs to be retested (both probable). Note to self...do that sometime.

I knew the first part of the course from a practice ride and that it wasn't bad, just some rollers. Felt good, passed a bunch of people, but mostly the tail end of the sprinters. Saw the some Oly's on their way back from the bike turnaround at about 5 miles in. I've got some work to do...this demoralized me a little. There were way too many of them. I knew there were some elites in there I didn't need to worry about, but there weren't THAT many elites. It was also tough too, because I was passing lots, but i didn't notice many Oly-ers.

Finally, Oly and sprint courses split, and it got loooonely. I had a pretty good rhythm going though...catch a bike, pass him, the next comes into view ahead. Catch him, pass him, then the next would pop into view. I leapfrogged my way ahead one at a time. My toughest pass was my last, a female (turned out to be the female race winner). She did not appreciate being passed by anyone. I had the last guy I passed tailing me, and got behind her. Made a move after a quick rest no less than 15 meters behind her, then made my move on a hill. Got by, then promised I wouldn't be that guy who passes only to run out of gas and slow down. Kept it up, finally looked back and they were both falling back. Dropped them both soon. The last guy came up after rejoining the sprint course (passed the same people twice) but I tailed him into T2. He turned out to be important.

Not much.

Got feet out of shoe on bike, jumped off, ran in, quick change, about as good as I can hope to do.

A few bikes on the racks already...which is a few too many.

nada

I was exactly 5 sec behind that guy coming into T2 on the bike, and I was exactly 5 sec behind coming out on the run (looked up in the results...came in 5 sec after and we both had 49 sec T2s). he seemed farther ahead...5 sec in distance seems farther. Anyway, I saw the "29" on his calf and thought we might be duking it out for a podium spot (at least I was hoping we would, still not confident after seeing all those bikes ahead of me and not passing enough).

I caught him, and decided to hang with him for a bit, and get under control. Did for a minute, maybe two, then realized that I was slacking...pick it up! As I was with him, I debated asking if he knew what it looked like ahead, but then I thought that would be real douchy, kind of like saying "have fun running slow, I'm gonna go see if I can catch anyone". So I kept quiet.

I fell into what seemed like a good first half effort, from RPE and HR. Passed the sprint turnaround and the course cleared up so i could see exactly who was in front of me. One guy seemed close enough, but fast, and another way ahead (Blue guy and boy shorts). To my surprise I worked my way up to blue guy (22...damn) as the race leaders were coming back from the turnaround. I said something like "dammit, they're fast' when i passed, mostly cause I didn't want to pass silently since we were alone and it seemed awkward. Boy shorts seemed too far ahead and passed me coming back from the turnaround. made the turnaround and decided I had enough int the tank to try a negative split. It didn't hurt that we'd gone mostly up to this point. Anyway, on the down, I let loose and closed the gap on boy shorts. Damn, there is no way this guy wearing no shirt and really short (I mean upper thigh short) shorts (hence the boy shorts designation) was gonna beat me. I passed him going back up the hill and by the top he was falling back. Oh, and also a 22...thanks for nothing boy shorts! Dammit! Where are all the 25-29s!!!! maybe a mile from the finsih a 32 passed me, I thought about chasing him down and making it a race, but the 30's started 4 minutes after me, so it wouldn't affect the overalls, I just tailed him in. 2:13 on the clock...I wanted closer to 2:10, but after that swim, I was happy under 2:15.

I'm scared to pushing the run too hard and blowing up. I haven't hit that point yet though...not sure this was my closest, as I did have something in the bag for the second half (i didn't at black bear). I was 30 sec slower here, but it was also rolling hills vs very flat.

Talked to the 32 who passed me, turns out he was in the elites...so it did affect the overalls (he started in my wave). Oh well, 1 place OA isn't a big deal to me.

Lindsay said there were 2 in my AG ahead, so I could hope for third. Turns out at the awards (which were the worse run I've ever seen) they must have been elites, cause I got first. They hadn't posted results yet, so I had no idea. After getting the full results, I figured out that the 29 I passed early in the run had been in first. Not only that, but he had been leading the M25-29 out of the water. I feel a little bad that he lead for so long, only to get passed on the run, but I didn't feel THAT bad :) My friend from the 4K was doing her first tri that day, and ended up 2nd in the F25-29. She was shocked and pretty happy I think.


The run. I dropped places from T2 to the finish for the first time. I came out of T2 in 9th and ended 11th. I passed three people and was passed by one for real, but was "passed" by 4 people who started in later waves (so they didn't actually pass me since they were 4 minutes back, but they passed me in chip time). I think I could have run faster...I probably slacked given that I didn't have anyone passing me or anyone to catch. those things will motivate me more. Need to work on motivation absent external factors...(also running faster in general).


Really good race until the end. The awards were the worse run i've ever seen...they didn't really announce it and seemed to just randomly start yelling names. They didn't give the winners time to get them either, they just announced rapid fire, then you gathered around a table to pick it up with all the other winners.

Also food was pretty bad and located way back across transition, where you couldn't see it. Most people had no idea it was even there. Selection was pretty bad too.