Okay, first I want to say that it was a time trial start. We went off by numbers ever 10 seconds. I was #133 but that put me about 60 from the first person as alot of people didn't show up due to the temp (I'm guessing). It was COLD. When I jumped into the water it took my breath away...and I don't mean that figuratively. For me it was uncontrollable hyperventalation every time I tried to put my face in the water. In the first 50-100 meters I considered swimming to the bank and DNFing.

I'm no wussy but this was worse than anything I had experienced. Sure, I had a wet suit on but it didn't help when I tried to get a stroke going. The first 400 meters I did mostly the Tarzan swim.

After I rounded the bouy to head back I forced myself to keep my face in the water and I got a good stroke going. I even passed a few people (and dodged a few that crossed the imaginary line that separated the people going out and coming back.

My sighting was great (imagine that). Swimming with your head out of the water can really help with navigation.

I am confident that next season my swimming will not be a weak point. I could knock off 2 min easily if the water temp cooperates. And a wet suit will make it all the more easy.

Hmmmmm, I would probably force myself to get in the water and get acclimated. After all I did manage to salvage my swim on the way back.

T1 was good. I wasn't tired at all and I was so glad to be out of the water! I tood a little extra time in T1 for two reasons. First, I borrowed the wet suit I was wearing and was very careful taking it off and putting it up safely. Second I had an extra towel and dried myself off pretty good. I decided that the bike would really be cold if I went out wet. I am glad I did now.

The exit to the bike course starts with a hill....not a big hill but shit it was a hill. I set my gears to an easy spin before the race.... It surprized the hell out of me to see Jantzi at the top of the hill.

Nothing. It was a little long for a transition but the temp was extenuating circumstances.

The bike course was fairly uneventful. I did have to come to a complete stop at traffic light TWICE! It was a small intersection but there were cars coming and the had the green light so I just stopped.

The highway was smooth but the roads leading up to it were rough. I am gun-shy when it comes to flats (see previous race reports) and all that jarring makes me cringe.

My front brakes started rubbing so I just flipped them open and used the rear brakes.

My feet were totally numb at this point but I had a rock in my left shoe. It didn't hurt but I could feel the pressure when I would pedal. I just kept moving my foot around so the rock would be in diffrent parts of the shoe.

I will be very glad when I get a true triathlon bike. I'm sick of the KHS now.

T1 was pretty good. I really hadn't gone all out on the bike so there was no real recovery. Slipped on running shoes and left. My feet were still numb so I walked up the stairs to that get you to road level because I was worried I would trip.

Nada

I took it pretty easy on the run. At first it was because my feet were numb. I looked down at my shoes a couple time as I crossed the bridge to be sure I had changed from my cycling shoes to my running shoes because it felt like I was running with boards tied to my feet.

I hadn't drank any water the whole race so I did grab one of those little cups of water. My feet finally did thaw out a little on the way back in. But it was a nice easy run....

Maybe wear socks? but I'm not sure that would have helped.

Walked around a little bit and got some food and beer.


This was the State Club Championship race. We managed to hold on to the title even though several of our heavy hitters were MIA due to recent or up-comming Ironman's.

I really had fun once it warmed up. All the people were great. Lots of people to cheer you on at the end. I will definately do this one next year but hopefully it will not be derailed and rescheduled due to any crazy hurricanes!