I was very nervous and down on myself before the race. I moved to the far left in the water and said 'good luck' to the other clydes and older dudes. My goal was to finish the swim fresh and use bilateral breathing.
Many folks started out very fast. I was kicked in the shoulder a few times in the first 100m. AS I kept my pace, I passed about 3/4 of my wave in the first 200m. I kept relaxed, bilateral breathing except for occasional breathing with every stroke when I needed to pass. At bouys 3 and four i latched onto a guy in front of me and drafted. I cut down on my siting at these points.
During the race I kept under control and only pushed when necessary. Slooooowwww Steve. Slowwwwwwww. The last 25 m I swam until there was too much gunk under my hands to swim. I got up on strong legs and ran out of the water! YAy!

Not much. This was a good time and set up my cycling.

4/22 for clydesdales. The swim set up a good transition. I'm not sure how I can make this too much better except to leave the cleats on the bike. I'm not sure I want to do that.

Nada

The swim set up the bike for me. 19mph is darn good for me. I pushed some, but occasionally I had to say "Slow!" I passed a load of people on downhills when I kept cranking on the downhills. I was passed by sandbagging novices (you know who you are!) about five or so times. They were flying by at 24 mph. My right leg (the dominant leg) started to cramp lightly at 8 miles on. I kept my cadence and dropped gears for a little to move back to aerobic effort.
Overall I was very happy with this ride. I felt well within mself and the heavy riding hours (300miles last month) really made a big difference.

Continue to train. Build up my left leg.

Ack! I thought the Brooks Beasts would be ok by now on the third run! Bad idea! They were a struggle to get into. I looked up at all the bikes and said to another competitor, 'Dude, there are way to many bikes there!'

Old shoes! Autoshoelace thingies (yes RG, I know you told me where to get them...). Don't knock the Cervelo bike off the rack next to me.

Ok. Don't wear newer shoes. I got blisters that have their own zip codes now. No sock combo was a real crowd pleaser. I bled into my new shoes. I could have been in the 8 minute mile range if I had socks on. The pain slowed me down.
The first quarter mile was hell. As I hit the hill in the first 1/4 mile, i dropped four f-bombs until I saw a family with a young kid at the top. (this is made much worse by the fact that they are from the local church). They cheered me on and I decided not to stop running up the hill to reward their cheering.
Once I hit the road I felt like garbage. My legs were lead. "So this is where the good bike time comes from Stevo!" I really good looking chick with a pny tail passed me and I paced on her for about 1/2 mile. I stopped at the aid station and drank 1/2 a cup and poured the rest on my head. The trichick stayed to long and I went on ahead.
The second leg in the woods was great. I was passed by 5-6 people here when I stopped at the edge of the woods. I looked at them running away and got sorta mad. "I'm not going to blow this friggin race."
I picked the last runner of the five and caught one at a time. One clyde passed me and was just too fast for me to catch. Once we hitt the downhill, gravity was with me. I poured it on and started passing a couple of folks. A blonde trichick aged 28 was ahead of me and I paced on her until the last 200m. She started picking up speed as we saw the finish and I turned on the afterburners and blew by. I said, "You paced me, now let's go!" I was trying to inspire her to finish strong. Obviously I had much more in the tank than I though as I ran very fast for the last 50m or so.

Not wear newer shoes. More bricks. More running. Find more trichicks to pace on. (It's OK, I told my wife and she thinks its funny and OK).

I had so many people here cheering for me that my warmdown was finding all of them as I drank water and said thanks for coming. Here's the list!

1. Erin- My wife
2. Nicholas- My son
3. Patty Callahan- My Mom
4. Chris and Katherine Zodrow- In-Laws
5. John - former Augusta Lynx prof hockey player and my best friend.
6. Paula, Ed, Todd NAs and an Anesthesiologist from where I work.
7. Rachel Sligh and her husband, a pharm rep for my hospital.

8. AND ALL MY BT FRIENDS!:
a. Runnergirl! She brought a cool sign and we hung out after the race and shot the s***. She is now officially my RL friend as well!
b. Swank guy! He is mucho fast on the run. He and I are going to trade running and swimming tips!
c. Trimossy! he's a big dude and seems very nice!



I feel like a very slow runner. I have been in build phase and the milage has gone up, but I'm not working with speed yet. It's in here. It will come. I've gone from BOP to MOP Clyde in three races and met many of my goals. With each race I feel more and more like I belong in this sport. I had so much fun and support! Thank you friends and family!


Much better than Fort Yargo. I will do this again next year.