Swim cancelled. I was disappointed that the swim was cancelled. It is my worst sport of the 3, but I was interested to see how I would do today. I was hoping for some improvement in my swim today.

We went off in our normal waves (I was in wave 7). They sent us through the chute 10 at a time. Once they told me to go, I took off. Running is what I do well and I saw no reason to waste any seconds here. I ran straight for my bike, grabbed it and ran. There was nothing else to do, since my shoes were already on the bike (and I had my helmet on).

Nothing.

I had high hopes for a PR on today's ride. I did a lot of bike focused work over the winter. I did a 2:50 at Beach 2 Battleship back in November and I was hoping to take a few minutes off of that. The first 40 miles went well. I was averaging close to 20mph up until I turned onto Hwy 53. Two things happened at this point. The roads got rough again and we headed into a headwind. The wind wasn't too bad, so I was dealing with it fine. But the rough roads were an issue. They slowed me down a lot. I am not used to riding on roads this rough and the jostling started to make me ache. The last 16 miles of my ride were just torture. The only thing that made it bearable was that I was passing a lot of people! For a while I began to wonder if it was really the rough roads causing me to feel so bad. I went from having a really good ride to a crappy ride so quick, I wondered if maybe it wasn't a nutrition issue or maybe I had pushed too hard on the first 40 miles. But as soon as I hit the smooth pavement around the lake, my speed jumped right back up.

This ride was 10 minutes slower than I had hoped for. I was very disappointed that I wasn't able to keep pace on the rough roads. I did this race 2 years ago and knew the roads would be rough. But I don't remember them being this bad.

The best part about the ride was the aid stations! :) My tri club team mates were manning the stations. As I was approaching the first aid station, I saw our banner on Pete's truck. It was a nice pick-me-up to hear their cheers. I thought they were only at one aid station, so I wasn't expecting to have Rob hand me a water at the second aid station. And then to have Shelley cheer for me at the 3rd. It was great to see all the Tri-Warriors out there!! :)

There was a lot of drafting going on today. I got passed a couple of times by whole groups of people. I wasn't upset by it. It didn't affect my race. I made sure I did the right thing, that is all I have any control over. Besides, I saw the race marshalls several times, so assumed they would handle it. Apparently they did a good job because I saw a lot of penalties in the results.

I am not sure. Maybe less air in my tires would have made the ride less jarring and I could have kept a better pace.

This transition went smoothly.

The run went alright. I could tell from the start that it was going to be a tough run. My hamstrings and hips were feeling a bit tight. They loosened up a bit after a couple of miles and I got into a rhythm. I was hoping to run well enough to catch up with James. So, I started focusing on that. Around 5.75 miles I saw James (he had already turned around and was passing by). So, I was about 1.5 miles behind him. I thought I had a great chance of not only catching him, but passing him before the finish. That thought lasted about another mile. Then my legs hips started to really ache and my right knee started to hurt. I kept running but my pace started to slow. It was all I could do to keep running. I wanted to stop so bad, but I kept telling myself that I would finish faster if I just kept running. So, I just kept willing myself along (it felt like my legs were going to lock up on me any second). At the last water stop (just a bit over a mile from the finish), I caught up to James! I told him to come on, we were almost done. He told me to go on, he was right behind me. I ran on and never looked back. I thought he would finish right behind me. But when I turned around at the finish line, he wasn't there. He finally arrived a few minutes later (he struggled to finish because his calf cramped).

I ran the entire time except for the aid stations. I walked every aid station. Not that I had a choice. The kids that were running the aid stations were not doing a very good job. They weren't handing out the drinks. They just filled up the cups and we had to stop and find what we wanted. Since I had to stop to find my own drink, I took a couple extra seconds to make sure I drank it all too (while walking). So, this run probably could have been a couple minutes faster if I didn't have to stop to find my own drink every mile.

Nothing. This was a good mental effort for me.

I soaked my legs in the lake for a few minutes and then got something to eat.