Holy panic attack, batman! I must have started out waaaayyyy to fast, as by the time I hit the first turn, I was totally panicing, out of breath, and my heartrate was way up. I ended up on my back to recover, then a little bit of breaststroke. The waves were washing over my head, which was a new experience for me. At the first turn, I was seriously wondering if they would just let me do the Sprint, cause I REALLY did not want to do another lap. However, I knew that was out, and there was no way short of drowning that I was going to DQ, so it was head down and just SWIM. Once I hit the downward leg, the waves were now going with me. That allowed me to get in the zone, and after that, i just swam. I had zero problems on the second lap, and I actually came out of the water at 22 minutes, when I was figuring it would be closer to 30 minutes. That made me feel a ton better.

Swim more the days just before the event. Not start out so fast. Spend more time practicing in Lake Michigan. All of my swimming has been in inland lakes, without the waves. The waves were really not all that huge, but they were much bigger than anything I had encountered before. I was finally able to put this in perspective when I realized that 9 months ago, I would have made it to the first buoy at about 75 meters, and that would have been the end of my day!

This was a decent transition for me, though a bit slower than the front of the pack guys. I was still reeling from the swim, but got the wetsuit off in record time. This was a LONG transition, about 500 meters from the swim to T1. The fast times were 4 minutes and some change. I felt good on this transition.

Probably start considering putting the shoes on the pedals and practicing that technique. I wear socks, and I know that slows me down too.

The bike was a battle from the half-way point on for several of us. My hill riding time was evident, but whatever advantage I had went away when I dropped my chain on an uphill, not once, but TWICE! I had this problem early in the season, but thought I had it fixed. Off to the bike shop it goes this week! Felt good on the bike, and I had a lot of fun. Ate one full shot blok on the first half of the run, and downed most of a water bottle of Gatorade by the 30 km mark. This turned out almost perfect for both the ride and the following run.

Nothing.

Good and fast T2 for me. Only problem was getting shoe tongue unbunched, but it was not a big deal.

nothing.

It was a battle between three of us on the run, and I am happy to say I prevailed. I wasn't sure I could pull it off, but I felt real good coming off the bike. Hit my stride by the 1 mile mark, and then it was just keep plugging along. I had the Garmin with me, so I could keep an eye on my HR. With it settled down around 155, I knew I could pick up the pace by the halfway point, and I began picking people off. The course runs parallel to the finish chute at about the 4.5 mile marker, but it was not really well explained or marked. Luckily I was watching the Garmin and knew either we still had a ways to run, or the course was really, really short. I picked the first, so when it became apparent that we were passing by the finish line, it didn't phase me. However, I think it got to a couple of the runners I was near, as their pace dropped dramatically for a bit. That gave me a chance to make a move. I hammered the last 1.5 miles, and BOY did it hurt. But, I came in strong and even had to sprint the last .25 mile to keep one of the guys I had passed from catching me. A real strong run, and I am really, really happy after my big FAIL at Interlocken earlier this year.

Nothing.

Walking, eating, and basking the joy of it being finished.


Swimming is still a weak point. Biking is not as strong as others in my age group, but I feel confident I can fix this. My biking has improved tremendously with realatively little work, and I think I can really do better with a winter of hard work.


3D might want to look at the County Park on Crooked Lake for a better venue. While this was fun, it had to have been tough to setup, with all the roads and activity going on. The run was a dodge-fest of bikers, walkers, and at one point cars. With that being said, I had a TON OF FUN and will do this again next year.