I don't really like this swim. I started in the second wave (5 min. after first wave) and there were only about 50 or so of us. I didn't draft much because there was nobody to draft off. Coming back is all upwind too so it takes forever to finish. I did finish the swim 20 min. faster than last year which is a huge improvement.

I really felt like a swam straight and followed the bouy line well. I'm going to try to start swimming faster over the winter.

This transition take awhile because you have to put your wetsuit, etc. in a bag so they can haul it back to town. I had to open the bag after I'd tied it up a couple of times because I forgot to put my towel and something else (can't remember what) inside the bag. You get in trouble if everything is not in the bag. Anyway got everything together and ran to the mount spot, got on the bike and rode about 20 yards before I had to get off the bike to use the porta potty.

Tie up bag after I made sure everything was in it the first time around.

I had a really good ride. I did it a little faster ride time anyway than the results say because of my potty stop and I dropped my e-cap container and one point and had to go back to get it. I went pretty hard on the bike. I didn't wear my HR monitor. I felt like riding fast, so I did.

I probably won't hammer the bike quite as much next time and save some for the run. I did that at the IM in June and felt a lot better at the end of the day. I just really wanted to try to go under 6 hours.

They had bike catchers there and people to take my shoes and helmet then I had to run a few yards to get my bag with running shoes, hat and race belt in it. Sat down and put shoes on. Got belt and hat on as I was heading out.

Nothing.

I had a lot of trouble getting my race belt situated for some reason. I used the same racebelt set up at Ironman and it worked fine so I don't know what the problem was. I put 4 packets of gel on the belt with safety pins and then had my number on the D-rings and my e-caps, etc. in the little pouch thing. For some reason it kept sliding around and those packets would start bouncing all over, then my number would get all messed up. I was about ready to chuck the whole thing beside the trail and I would have except for I didn't know what else to do with my race number.
I ended up hitting the wall pretty hard between miles 6 and 7. I had to walk quite a bit each mile for the next few miles. I started eating icechips and for some reason that cooled me off more than anything else. It's also a little bit downhill on the return so I think that helped. The last half of this run was pretty much a mental battle though. I certainly didn't enjoy it as much as the IM marathon. There was nothing left in the tank when I got finished.

Try out the racebelt the night before to make sure everything is sitting right. I'm really going to get serious and train for this race next year. I haven't done any real training since before IM taper the middle of June. I may not have been fully recovered yet either. Next year I'd really like to do this race in under 5:50.

Walked over to get my bike and gear. It's actually quite a ways from the finish line. They make you get your bike before you can get a meal ticket.


Lack of training.


I like this race. It'e very well organized and I like the smaller size. It's usually really warm which I think keeps the number of entrants down.