Typically I start to the outside and at the front. Well, I went to what I thought was the outside, with everyone on my left, but not long after I was outflanked by 100 feet to the right as well. Pretty much in the center, so it was a bumpy first 100 yards with people swimming at me from both sides as the pack narrowed.

I really neglected my swim training this year, so I set my expectations low and tried to draft off of people's hips and feet as much as I could. Overall it wasn't an eventful swim.

Train.

I decided that socks would be worth the extra 30s, since it was cold and damp out. No major issues, everything was in line with my expectations.

I got up to speed on the bike without issue and noticed an unusual wind fron the East. The largest straight portion of the course is due east alongside a railroad track, it's dead flat, and today there would be a headwind. Joy.

Some people passed me and I never saw them again; those are the 32-33 minute splits that whooped me and I never had a chance. Notably, however, there were two people who passed me in the first few miles that I was able to catch up to at one point or another over the next several miles. Feels good compared to the 'riding backwards' feeling I know too often and too well.

I made the decision to race without a watch, so I just pushed as hard as I felt I could sustain. My legs were pretty shot by the time I got to the first of the two climbs near the end, and I just spun up them in my lowest gear without worrying too much about it. I'm not sure if I could have done much more than that at that point anyhow.

The downhill back into the park was as awesome as ever, and there was little traffic so I was able to pick my lines and ride smoothly to the transition.

Got my feet out of my shoes right before the dismount line, hopped off and got my running shoes on quickly. Love the easylaces.

As I was leaving the transition area, a spectator shouted out that I was currently the 40th person to pass him. Running has been the focus of my training this year, and my standalone 5k PR has stood for almost 10 years at 22:43 (I don't particularly train for 5k's nor do I race them often). If I knew how close I was to beating that at the end of a tri, I probably could have pushed more and done it. As it was, without a watch, all I could do was try and push enough so that I wouldn't feel comfortable talking. I passed about as many people as they passed me; chasing a few runners down took over a mile and felt good when I finally overtook them.

About half a mile from the finish, one runner was huffing and puffing loudly when I passed him. He sped up and matched my pace, huffing and wheezing loud enough to set me on edge. The last 400 yards was in the open around the beach, ending in front of the bath house. Wheezer was probably two steps behind me, and I sure as heck wasn't going to give him the pleasure of retaking his position in front of me. I turned it up at 400, then again at 200, and as I rounded the final turn I saw the clock at 1:16... my previous PR time was about 1:16:30. I was so excited I found another level of speed, above what was currently my hardest effort and ended up passing another person about 5 yards before the finish.

Drank some milk & water, two orange slices and hopped in the car to drive to Buffalo for my friend's wedding.


Limited training this spring. Life throws some curveballs at you and you can't always have your nice training plans, so I've been subsisting on 3 runs a week with maybe 1 bike ride. Swimming was completely neglected until two weeks before the race, where half a dozen 1k yard swims was just about all I could fit in this year. I still PR'd... Looks like I made some good fitness gains from the 70.3 training last year that have carried over, and my running has definitely improved too. Previously, my best 5k after a sprint had been 25 minutes, so dropping that by two minutes was huge. Looking forward to next year, let's see how fast I can go!