My goal going into the race was to take the swim slow. I told my wife the night before I will be out between 33-38 min's. 33min's being extremely happy, 35-36 min's pleased and 38 min's worst case. That being said I am pleased with the swim. Without a wetsuit it is my first open water swim at this distance and I didn't want to burn myself up in the swim. I took the first 300 yards or so and went really slow. I wanted to be able to pick up speed along the way and have as little interference as possible. The one area I am not happy in is on the back side towards shore I needed to swim sidestroke to catch my breath a little. Probably a little too much really but I noticed I could keep pace with the guy beside me swimming freestyle while I cruised on my side. I would then turn to swim freestyle for a while and pull away from the guy and catch someone else. I then would switch back to side stroke and cruise with the next person and then pull away. I was in the back 1/3 anyway so I wasn't passing lots of people but probably 7-8 people doing this. I think I probalby could of swam the whole thing freestyle in 33 min's but mentally I was off once I started the side stroke thing. The reason I even started it is simple, my watch, which I have never had problems with came un-velcroed 3 times and falling off my arm. I tried to fix it while continueing to freestyle the first two times and finally switched to sidestroke to do it....then my goggles start to leak and fill my left eye, I drain it and it happens again. So these two seperate things that actually are about 5 different things happening while swimming took me out of it mentally. But I am still happy with my time in the swim. I have room to improve.

Swim freestyle the whole way would definately take off minutes of this time. Need to work on speedwork in the pool for Oly distance. Not let the little things mess with me mentally.

Getting out of the water proved difficult with the rocks. They had people in the water pulling you out. That helped a bunch. Then we had to run up a hill and then down a steep hill to transition. Things went pretty smoothly and nothing much to say.

Nothing

I wanted to push the bike but maintain some of my legs for the run. I had some good advice from Eric (egates656) and Cameron (cameronw) before the race in that I need to save my legs for the run. It is a 10K after all and I haven't run one yet this year. However, I had that in the back of my mind during the race but still probably pushed too hard in hindsight.

Hold back on the bike a little more and save something for the run. I probably could of averaged 18.5 and felt much better going into the run. I didn't feel it at the time of the ride though, I felt really good on the bike.

Coming into the bike dismount area I had just crested a hill and was on a slight decline, I ended up locking up my breaks on a hot patch of tar and fishtailed right past the guys showing where to enter T2. I have never locked my brakes up before and I have tried. Really weird feeling. Running with the bike was tough, the last hill hurt my thighs and running was proving to be tight. I do make it to T2 and Mark tells me I am 5 min's ahead of Eric. I tell him I don't know if I have 5 min's left in me. It was HOT. I was hot and all of the sudden I was really drained. I finished off my drink bottles from the bike, there wasn't much there but I wanted it in me as hot as it was getting. I took off and thought I might be alright.

Nothing

Leaving transition my legs were tight but I thought I could run through that until I run up the hill out of transition which caused my legs to really really ache. I think to myself after the first 1/4 mile or so that man I may not make this. I was extremely hot and all of the sudden very thirsty. The sun was beating down and relecting off the lake. There was absolutely no breeze and not a tree or bit of shade to be seen. We were elevated above the water and I was baking. I needed to take off my shirt but since I hadn't put on sunscreen I didn't. I didn't need a burn to top it off. At about the 1/2 mile point I was cramping up. My thighs were burning and cramping. I had strong thoughts of quiting but I couldn't. My wife, son, daughters and neighbors were there. I couldn't quit. What would I say in the race report? No one would care about my time but I couldn't let them see me quit. I got to the first water station and stopped to try and stretch my thighs. It didn't work and seemed to take too much energy. I only got water at this aid station and could of received the Gatorade Endurance but wasn't thinking clearly. At this point I am a little worried about finishing so I start to walk. I then start to feel better after 2 min's. Decide to do a run/walk with 2 min run/ 1 min walk and this seems to work until I hit the uphill of the dike. That starts the cramping again and I start a 2min run/ 2min walk and that seems to work. I make the next aid station and get the gatorade and the water and a water to pour over my head and neck. I am really hot. I time my run walk a little bit so when I run past the transition area I am running...I do have some pride left.....and run about 4 min's to the turn and finally get to the next water station. I really could of used 3 aid stations on the course. After the 'hill' I am completely drained and start a 1min run 2 min walk until I get to the last water station. I stop, drink, stand in the shade under the tent with the water and head on. I have 1 1/2 miles to go. Normally no big deal but I could barely see the transition area from here. I do run with about 5 or 6 other people for most of the course. We are all run/walking and talk occassionally....almost done, hang in there ect...we were all suffering. Once I got to mile 5 I was thinking I made it and even though I continued the run/walk until about 1/2 mile left I finished running. I had goals set for this and was figuring 48-55 would be my time depending on best and probable time. Worst case would of probably figured to be an hour. This obviously was worse than I had imagined but I finished.

With the run not much I think I could do here. I either pushed the bike too hard (probably) or it was just not my day today. It was hot with no breeze or shade with the sun relecting off the water. Even the first place overall runner was over 40 min's and that to me is slow for the fastest runner. The course was either longer than 6.2 or it was just freakin tough out there. My guess it was just tough for every one.

Sat in the shade drining water, gatorade and endurox R4 while talking to my kids.


Heat, mental game, training...need to do bricks before Chicago. Need to get back to running. Long runs shouldn't be 4 miles.


Coming into this race I had an over all time goal of 2:45-2:55 or pretty much under 3 hrs. I am using this race as a warm up to Chicago in 3 weeks so with that I did gain some valuable experience. There seemed to be bad omens throughout the whole signing up for this event...The course change after I had driven the original one, the bike flat the morning of, the watch coming undone during the swim 3 times, the goggles filling with water twice and the race shirts looking very girly in a purple/pink color print. However, I did finish and it was very tough mentally to finish that run. I have never run a 10K in over an hour even my first 10K was a few years ago was under 1hr so that was very disappointing. My swim although not ideal was still where I said I would be happy and I am, my bike although probably faster than I should have done it, I was over 20mph and I am very happy, the run well lets just say if there was once area I wanted to need work in after this race it would be the run. I actually think I deserved what I got from looking back at my training. I hadn't been putting in the run miles at all. I ran 9.7 miles in June and just over 18 for the month of July. I figured that after I did the 1/2 marathon that 10k would be no problem. I 5K is no problem, a 10K takes work. I consider it my easiest to work on time wise at home. I have to go to the pool, I have to plan the ride with the family but I can run anytime so I take that as a positive. I am not sure I would do this race again though. Maybe to chase the demons but really the run was not fun. Nothing to look at no shade and nothing to take your mind off of your suffering except the small white tent that never gets closer with all the water. I think this would be a very tough 10K course especially if you start it at 10am when it is 80+ degrees with no clouds. I wouldn't enter a 10K that started at 8am on this course. It is too boring. The swim wasn't so bad and the weeds didn't effect me either way, kind of gross but no big deal. The bike course was different with 3 laps but not too bad either. 2 laps might be better though. After all is said and done though, I will wear that girly shirt with pride. I finished and live to fight again, I just have a little work to do. I found my breaking point and I hadn't felt that before in a race or in training. I am glad to have been there (in hindsight of course) I know what it feels like and I also know what I need to work on. 2 more Oly's to go this year and I am looking forward to them.