The swim went pretty well considering I've swam once in the past month. I navigated well, and the best part was my goggles didn't fog up.

It's a 300 yd, uphill run from the water to transition. Carpet covers about half of the asphalt. I started running and quickly decided I'd better walk it if I didn't want to throw up.

Like the first time I did this course, I spent the first half of the bike trying not to throw up. The first half of the course is all uphill. These two things don't go together well. This was the first time I'd been on my bike in a few weeks. I'm just glad I didn't have to walk up the hill.

I didn't like being so far away from the entrance to transition. Long walk in bike shoes feeling like I would slip was better than going it barefoot again. Toe shoes went on well.

I was excited to wear my toe shoes on a trail run in a race because that's where I train with them. The trail sections of the course were gravel trails. Considering how I felt by the time the run started (and the fact that I have run once in the past few weeks) I did a 3:1 minute run/walk. Walked a little more uphills but made up for it by running more towards the end.

This race was an experiment of sorts. For about the month leading up to the race, I pretty much didn't train. The Wednesday before the race, my wife gave birth to our wonderful daughter. So I went into today severely undertrained, sleep deprived, and having spent most of the week in a hospital room. Finishing the race under these conditions and feeling alright makes this an Ok race despite my slow times. I probably will have nightmares about my bike performance today. I rode a slower average on the 11 miles today than I did at Timberman last year.


A 12 minute late start isn't too bad, but getting to the beach and seeing the race staff realize there wasn't a clock on the beach?