Got a great starting spot right along the pier in the front. Dolphined out past three or four people and off we go. First 200 was strong and I was pulling away with some clean water so I was just gliding. Then bang, I swam head first into the swim zone buoy...stopped me cold. Recovered quickly and back to stroke, breath, glide, etc.

Caught the slow swimmers in the wave in front by about 500 yards. Was in traffic for the rest of the swim. Never really pushed but really found a great rhythm. Could of swam all day. Very hard to know who was in which race so I think I would have pushed a little harder if I knew there were 9 people in my AG that were faster than me at that point.

Keep my head about the weather and just race. Not be lazy because you out swam your wave, the waves behind you might be faster!

Decent T2, I was #35 overall out of this T zone. Trying to get my stuff out of the water proof garbage bag was a new experience for me but I was fairly organized and had no real issues.

No Socks when it is this wet....why bother?

Rain....Rain....more Rain. Made some of the turns really tough and hard to hammer the way I am used to. Saw at least 4 crashes on my way out which made me more cautious because if these people were already on thier bikes they were good swimmers, not Rookies! Passed a few people.

Garmin was all jazzed up because of the heavy cloud cover and the number meant nothing except HR and the PT was really hard to read in the rain. So no electronics for the day, all about RPE.

Bike started groaning every time I got the wattage up after mile 5, and I was waiting for the chain to break or something? Still have not had the time to look at my drive-train but I think I have an issue there....maybe just really wet?

No jacket, and I was ok temp wise except my feet were freezing and dripping water out of my shoes. All those cold feet as a kid playing Hockey came back to bite me. Finally my right foot went numb. I just keep riding.

Nothing...you cannot control the weather and I am not going to put on booties in T1 or John would have my A$$!

Decent T2, I was 34 overall through here. I could not feel my right foot at all and my socks were dripping wet so I it was very hard to get my running shoes on quickly, my right foot just would not go in that damn shoe. Spent a little bit of time trying to cover as much of my stuff before I left T2.

Have better circulation in my feet? Maybe no zip laces in the race because of the weather?

Guess what, it was still raining! Glad I am off the bike.

Hard to run with no feeling in your right foot. Up the hill out of Transition and then up "Killer Hill" dragging my leg behind me. I had to look like I was doing the Marathon mile 23 death march. I didn't stop running though. I knew my run plans for the day were shot when my foot went numb on the bike, but I am dumb enough to just keep pushing. Who needs a right foot to run anyway? Just drag the leg, it will come around.

Finally, about mile 2.5 my foot comes back. I start to feel pretty good and have always loved running in the rain so I picked up the pace a little bit and started passing some people. No issues with the hills going or coming, never walked and was moving going up and coming down.

Felt great coming into the shoot, but had no idea on my times because of the electronic issues of the day.

Wear a Frankenstein costume so I fully look the part as I drag a leg!

Walked a little, met with the Donks and got some food. I was starving! It finally started to stop raining and I was freezing so I went and packed up and changed into some dry clothes and rain gear.

Cam back and hung with the Donks and watched them pick up their hardware for the sprint race. A new flashdrive? WOW!

Then off to Madison to work and watch IM MOO. It is just a triathlon weekend.


The weather, my circulation, my mental state, that damn buoy, whatever other excuses I can come up with after I publish this RR.


On-time and course was much better marked this year. RD cannot control the weather!