I started on the right of the front row which by all accounts is scary in itself with my swim speed but no one was wanting to get up there so I figured it was better to kick somebody than get kicked yourself so I held my position. The gun went off and off we went, the elites had a five minutes lead and with the fog they were pretty much out of sight by now. My goal was to stay calm and smooth using three stroke breathing technique and if I ever took two breathes on one side other than for the chop then to slow down. My goal was anything under 40 minutes and to be at least halfway before I saw any caps of an opposite color. Well, what do you know about 25 yards before we hit the last turn buoy, I look to my right and here they come. The front runner from the group behind me was coming through with three in tow. I jumped on their feet for like a minute just to act like I was cool!! This did not last long. I was having a good swim until one guy got in front of me and kept zig zagging all over on the home stretch. I had a good swim up to this point and did not want to risk getting kicked by this guy even though he was my speed. After about 3-4 minutes of him cutting in front of me I took a hard right hoping he would not follow and he didn't. I took an angle to the next buoy to make sure I cut it with it on my right and also to make sure I got around this guy. It worked. Now the pier was in sight. Stay back!! It is not as close as it looks. I had to keep telling myself this so I did not get crazy and blow myself up. Got to the dock and there was only two people in front of me getting on the ladder. This was good, I took this extra second to look down at my watch 38:43, Woohoo!!! I am on the dock headed for solid ground and the timing mat which was past the end of the dock!!!

Not too much. This was a good swim for me so nothing to complain about other than having to use a spare pair of goggles but it worked out. Also, my wetsuit started to rub on the back of my neck on the way in. I did not put body glide back there!!! I had never had problems before with rubbing from my wetsuit. Well, I now have a nice "hickey" on my neck!! Things could have been a lot worse.

T1 was not bad. My wetsuit did hang on the first foot I attempted to get out and I got in too big of a hurry and almost caused a cramp in my calf. Slow down!!! I slowed down just for a second and everything went as planned. I was off on the bike course!!!

Another good performance here. I did not feel like I lost a lot of time in this transition. I actually was leaving the transition thinking, man that was quick....did I get everything as I feel to make sure my helmet is on. I did not clip my shoes on my bike but I have never done this and was not going to try it today!!

Okay, this is the most frustrating part of my race!!! I rode the course conservative but I think I left a lot of time on the course. I am a descent rider so I could have done a 2:30 but then I know my run would have suffered. I do think now that the race is over that I could have done a 2:40-2:45 on the bike and my run would have suffered, but how much? I definitely think you can make up time easier on the bike. I guess that is what I am saying. I stayed in high zone 2 low zone 3 the entire time and felt like it was easy. People were passing me left and right but I let them go ahead. My goal was to take a bottle of Accelerade/water and a GU every hour. Well, the first water bottle handoff was at mile 20 and my first bottle was way gone. Time to go with plan two. Drink Lots!! Grabbed a bottle at the first handoff and decided to go with water and GU until the last hour and then do my other bottle of accelerade. Man, I drank a lot. I usually do not come close to drinking this much. Oh well, I thought. I want to make sure I was hydrated and boy was I hydrated!!!! Let me just say to the people who were drafting on the race course. I hope you had a good race....you only cheated yourself. I hope you were one of the ones I caught on the run!!!

Speed up!!! I left a lot out on the course but I am still trying to figure out this heart rate training and when I can go and still not crash on the longer race. It's easy when you can go all out and still hang on!!!

T2 was again, uneventful. I did leave my glasses in the transition area but no big deal. I can deal without them. I almost forgot to get my feet out of my shoes before I got to the dismount line. I was scrambling to do this but was able to do it in time..

Grab my glasses!!

Run was not bad but I would have liked it to be about 4 minutes faster. Again I think I could have done this if I had went faster a little sooner but I kept to my original plan. On the first loop I passed a couple of people but not too many but man on the second loop I was passing people the whole time. There were people walking all over the course. All I could think about was they went out too hard and I did not go hard enough. I have been in their shoes and it is not fun but I was glad to be on the other side of the fence this time!! I did a negative split of about six minutes so I was happy with that. It definitely shows I ran a smart race!!!

Start to pick up the pace a lot sooner.

Grabbed some coke and some cookies. I felt okay so I went to cheer everyone else on!!


Base zones not developed enough. Not going faster on the course at the right time.