Got in the water and wasn't sure how I would do. Stroke count was high, but I felt I got moving ok the first 200. I was second of the 3 in our lane, we started 5 seconds apart. The fastest was someone who just wanted to move up our start time since the third person in our lane did not show. She was expecting an 18:30 so I was just hoping to draft her briefly while she passed me. She passed me twice and I passed the other guy twice. I projected 22 minutes based on a 1000 m swim I did 17 day prior. I came out in 21 and change. Timing mats were outside the building. So I was happy based on what I had done

Start swimming earlier than August really, swim more than 7 hours in 4 years....

I came out and tried to move steady, over heard a dad telling his kids "this is how the faster ones do it" and that got into my head, I rushed and felt like I fumbled with some stuff - race belt was the biggest one. Took the time to put socks on and get going. As it was, I was 9 out of 60 in T1

Remember that slow is smooth and smooth is fast

Came out of transition and as I got to the road and got on the bike, I started and a volunteer yelled I dropped my computer. Stopped started back and she brought it up. Got going after that and was moving quickly down the road to the loop. Got out of town and the HR was way higher than I had wanted and I was not looking forward to the hill. Just peddled up it and let the HR do what it may. I was happy with the pace but could only gage it against my course pre-ride the day before. Got out to 285 and took in a gel as I was getting to the high point of the course. Then hit the downhill and just tucked in. Wasn't worth the energy to spin out the gearing I had. Hit the right had turn and ended up maintaining 23. Then cruised in mid 30's down 160. Slowed on the uphill then cruised down to the road that repeats the loop. Struggled with getting in some nutrition at that point and hit the second loop. HR was down where I wanted it to be, but the speed "seemed" slower than I remembered it being on the first loop. On one of the two descents I hit 43.4. I felt better the second lap, but overall it just felt slower. I missed the lap button when I was out there but saw 37 something so really both laps were fairly close in time. Got back to the aquatics center, jumped off the bike and trotted to transition. Was about on pace for what the realistic bike goal was.
Did I push too hard for the amount of running off the bike (or lack thereof) I had done this year?

Maybe take it a little easier in the first couple of miles out of transition. Pre-cut some of the items I am taking in

T2 felt good, But it felt like I was forgetting something, shoes off, shoes on, grab hat - maybe it was the fact I already had the race belt on

Felt good, don't know just be quicker, smoother. 5th out of 60 someone did it in 14 seconds the others were within a few seconds.

Got out of transition and was trying to run, not sure how I was moving. Tried to keep cadence up. Hit one point a bit faster then the pre-race runs but never knew how far that was. There were not mile markers on the course. I saw a 1/5 at one point and I was at 9:15 - I was guessing it was a good 5 mile marker so in my mind that was 1.2. I was hoping for mile markers at some point. Hit the first water station, grabbed a water and a gel. Crossed over the creek and the track and hit the dirt road. Made it to the "climb" and just kept the feet quick. I had some traction problems but kept running as long as I saw the girl ahead of me still running (she looked young) finally about 3/4 up, I walked a bit figuring it was not much slower. Grabbed water and heed at the top. got going down hill and felt okay. Took the spur out at at that water station/turn around saw a 3 on the pavement was there in 26:23. I was hoping at worst case that was 3 miles left. As I got to the downhill, I saw someone coming down and running well. I still felt like I was okay - HR was about 10 bpm lower than I had hoped to target but I didn't have it mentally to push myself to increase the effort. Got back into town and on the trail and I just wanted to be done. I walked a 30 second and started again. I hit that 1/5 and had 10:00 minutes to get home from there to meet a tertiary goal of breaking 2:30. With it being slightly uphill the rest of the way, I was believing I could do it but also just hoping. The hamstrings were tightening up a little at that point. With about 3/4 of a mile to go, that guy I saw passed me. I said to him I only wished I could run with him on the way in. I knew there was not much left, so I just tried to lift the pace. I used him as a carrot and just keep going. Back on Holman I slowly lifted the pace all the way home.

In all my plans, never did I think I would go over 50. But when I did do my long runs, I never felt strong enough and was thinking - oh my goodness, I could end up running a 52 there. I guess that was prophetic.
With all that being said, if you kick out the top two people who went 1/2 in the overall, I had the fastest run in my age group.

Get more long training runs. Believe I can do more than I think I can. Be smoother at the water stations. Walk through them instead of stopping to drink, although that almost appeared to be their intention the way they were set up.

Talk, eat drink


Racing at 7000 ft, poor sleep pretty much the whole week before, lack of swim prep, sproatic running training- missing long runs and long term consistency.


Small race, great for people just getting started or moving up to a first OLY. Friendly folks abound. Playgound at transition/finish for kids to play at.
This was my re-entry into Tri's. My last one was Nov of 2007 and with 3 miles left I was thinking - I could be done with Tri's - but something inside kept wanting to get back into them. This was a race I did in 2005 as my first "Oly" type distance and was fun. I had problems with transition, setup on the bike and some muscle issues on the run so I wanted to "redeem" myself and utilize the experience (albeit from years ago) to see how much better I could do. I ended up about 10% better although I had hoped for so much more. I didn't really put in the work to get the much more.
You know it is a tough age group when out of 13 people, the top 2 go 1/2 in the overall and 5 of the top 16 overall