Best race swim to date! 2'41" faster than last year. No nerves at the start. Good position in the front middle. Not too much bumping on the way to the first turn. Got out of the pack and settled into my rhythm. Good navigation. I was on one guy's hip for a while until he started swimming of course. Much more relaxed than last year.

Get faster!
Goal: 1:20's per 100M

Got my cap and goggles off in knee deep water. I couldn't find the zipper pull on my first attempt, so I ran to T1 zipped up. I don't think it hurt too much. Got the zipper down and put on helmet and glasses while stepping out of wetsuit. There's a big hill right after the mount line, so I put on my bike shoes in T1. Ran in my shoes to the mount line, hopped on left foot clipped in, missed right foot on first try. 2'23" faster than last year.

Practice running mounts

Good ride. I had a fuel bottle with two scoops of HEED that I somehow filled with Gatorade at the water station in transition (Dumb ass!). Took a big swig after Lynch Hill and almost gagged. Took a couple of more sips on it before I could swap it at the first exchange. Started to feel the heat building and finished 1 1/2 bottles of water and 1 GU Rocktane on the ride.
Really like the "27" on the 12-27 cassette, but felt I could have used an "11" on the flats. Half a mph better than last year.

Train harder. Get the VO2 Max up and work on hills.

I thought I was going to unstrap my shoes and ride with my feet on top but felt there wasn't a good spot at the end of the course to unstrap. Ran in bike shoes, lots of small stones, so it probably better anyway.
Put on socks in T2 and didn't get them pulled on really well. 20" slower than last year.

Work into running sock-less

Started off good with a relaxed pace. Legs felt good. Had some sips of water at the first two aid stations. At the 4k point started to really feel the heat. Walked the aid station. Started to feel really light headed at about the 7k mark. Walked for about 2 minutes. I could hear the "party" at the top of Lynch Hill and got some motivation. The crowd was going nuts up there and very supportive. Ran the steep down hill and last 2k. 2'24" slower than last year.

Train in the heat!
More speed work.
More hill work.

Iced towel on head, and staggered around the recovery area. Found some shade and had a G3 recovery shake and a liter of water. Way overheated!
Took about 15 minutes to feel better and then ate some food.


HEAT! 91 degrees during the run.


5'17" better than last year! I'll take it considering melting on the run.

*Chris "Macca" McCormack raced as a pacing race for his upcoming Olympic qualifier. SO COOL seeing him in person! 2:03:06 and overall winner. The M45-49 winner, John Murphy, finished 2:09:28 and 3rd overall.