The start was delayed for some reason that I don't know and this affected the last 2/3 of the swim.
I started close to the front of the group (in the second row from the front). There was a lot of congestion at the beginning of the race with people running through the shallow water and most others swimming. The water was almost chest deep on me and how or why some of the athletes decided to run still has me shaking my head. Seems to me like running in the water would exhaust more energy than a solid swim.
Anyway, the first250 went as much as planned as it could go. After the mayhem of the runners in the water things smoothed out and I was on track to establish my rhythm and stroke. As I rounded the first buoy I got tangled up with some other swimmers and was kind of slowed a bit. I cleared this and got out of the pack and moved on.
I was headed toward the second buoy when I was really struggling to see through my goggles. I had to raise my head very high out of the water, causing my legs to drop and my pace to slow substantially. I was able to make out large shapes and nothing more. The sighting was further compounded by heading directly into the sun, casting shadows on the farthest buoy away. By now I could not see anything other than the buoy directly in front of me. I rounded it as if it were the last buoy and headed toward the shore. I couldn't even make out the buildings on the beach now. I noticed that I had had some other swimmers close to me and realized there weren't any swimmers with me any longer. I decided to take a closer look and saw a lifeguard chasing me down and peeled my goggles up a little and saw I was WAY off course.
I considered for a fleeting moment about going on into the shore and DQ'ing myself since my race had been blown apart by stupidity but I thought more clearly after the rage passed over.
I went back into the field toward the back of the pack with the slower swimmers after being well in the front of the race. Apparently, as Lis told me, I would have been 4th out of the water had I not blown it.
I recovered as good as I could and decided that I needed to collect myself and finish this race as strong as I could.

I would apply shampoo! The delayed swim start was a contributor to my foggy goggles because they were on my head for so long developing a warmer temp. I could have removed them from my head until the 2 minute warning and saved myself too.
All in all, I should have used the shampoo!

The time is an estimate because The race doesn't chip time the swim and I forgot to hit the lap button until I was standing in front of my bike. (I seem to forget this one all the time this season.)
This transition was pretty easy because I didn't have much to think about. It went smooth and fast.

Hit the lap button entering the transition area.

As I ran into and out of T1 I saw a lot of people. I shouldn't have been able to see all of these men in front of me because I had planned to be in the front of the pack.
I was out of T1 with a lot of anger about my big fail on the swim. I used this energy to channel into the bike but I knew I was going to be very, very close to the danger zone. My thoughts were that maybe, just maybe I could salvage my race and at place in the top 3 in my AG. But I thought it was going to be a long shot knowing that my AG is one of the most competitive.
Once I had mt feet in my shoes, which was fairly quickly, I began to hammer. I didn't want to relent on the pedal. I was kind of punishing myself for being so foolish in the water.
I started to pass people immediately once out of the park entrance and onto the main roads. The first person I passed I had offered some simple racing advice to prior to the race start and I just remembered seeing him on the way by. The passing continued for a while but nothing like I had hoped it would be. I thought I should have been seeing a lot more people in front of me. "Did I really come out of the water in this poor of shape that I can't even catch that many people?" -I thought to myself.
I kept hammering away and gaining some ground. At one point about 5 miles in, as I passed another rider, he asked me how fast I was going. I checked my watch and told him, "25.4 MPH, now just don't pass me back!" He said he didn't think he could. He was a much younger man than I and I have to admit, I absolutely love making the younger guys hurt so badly.
So now, I am about 7-8 miles into the race and I am not seeing many people despite being able to see at least a mile clearly down the race course and there were only 5-ish people in front of me. Could it be that I was not nearly as far behind as I thought?
I continued to stay hard on the throttle, my HR still pegged in the REDZONE. I continued passing who I could, when I could but there weren't many people left to pass. I was passed a couple of times and was able to hold one of them close but another ANIMAL on a roadie blasted by me. I found out later hes was on a relay and didn't have to suffer through the run like I did.
I came into the dismount area with only 5 people in front of me that I could tell. I had smashed my thumb taking my shoes of on the bike causing it to bleed and now I had something else to be mad at. Besides blood all over my seat from running the bike into T2, had to wipe it all over my shorts. Good thing they are black.

Swim the right course!
Ohh! On the bike?
I don't think I could have done much differently. My HR average was at my MLSS for the ride.

Again, I got everything done pretty quickly. I may have been able to trim a couple of seconds off had I been able to get my right shoe on a little faster but that would be splitting hairs.

Nothing.

After I allowed myself to be punished on the bike for nearly all of the bike segment I knew I was going to feel a lot of pain on the run. I considered on the bike the possibility of this and threw caution to the wind in order to stay in the front of the pack. Now it was time to pay the piper, so to speak.
When I took off on the run I actually felt pretty good. I didn't feel the pain of the transition to running right away and the rubbery legs never seemed to show up at all this race. This feeling of "euphoria" was not to last very long. At about .25 miles I began to fell that ever so familiar pain of high HR and low O2 levels in my system as I tried to keep a seemingly ridiculous pace (for me).
I checked my watch several times during the race but the first couple of times was early enough to see my HR was going to be higher than I have seen in recent races, even the shorter ones. I saw that I was at what I thought was a pretty high HR to maintain over the entire running course but I stayed at it. I also began to think that maybe I had over done it on the bike and I might have to slow my pace to keep from blowing up. This was mind games in my estimation, so I tried to put that behind me.
I kept trudging along at what felt like a really slow pace and I passed one of the athletes that was in front of me on the bike at about .75 miles in. I didn't pass him very fast and even commented to him on the way by that he had a nice ride. He replied: "did you like that gravel?" Referring to the bad section of road that had been freshly chip and sealed. I told him "I didn't particularly care for it" and kept moving. I think he must have slowed down at some point because someone else passed him and he was quite a way behind me at the turn around.
The hills toward the turn around seemed to be brutal bit At least I knew they were coming this year so I was able to mentally prepare for them. I paced up them as Jeff taught last year and made it across without wanting to shoot myself (like last year) before reaching the top.
I kept thinking that at the turn around things would be easier because it would be more downhill than uphill at that point but I would still have one hill to climb back up. I made it through that one last climb and thought I had it made.
"Not so fast" as the saying goes. Shortly after that last climb I began to feel the slight side stitch coming on and began to consider, again, a slower pace to regain my composure. I talked myself into staying as close to that pace as I could and see if I could make it back without slowing. Now, after looking at my pace, it seems I was not able to do so. Mentally I felt like I was running the same but according to Garmin I slowed down a bit.
I had been trying to keep the person in front of me in sight for the whole run and was able to keep him at the same distance for as long as I could see him but the last half mile I could no longer see where he was at due to people coming and going on the course and the course profile itself. As I got closer to the finish I think he was able to speed up and I knew there was no way I was going to catch him. I had hoped that he might blow up and I would capitalize on his pacing error but there was no such luck. He finished with about 200 feet gap.
For the last .25 mile I was ready to be done with this race in a bad way. The stitch began with a mile left was beginning to get more intense but I knew I had only a short distance to go. I figured I could allow anything to hurt for that short a period of time. Then I heard footsteps behind me.......I picked up the pace for the last 300-400 feet as much as I could..........But there was no one there. I finished with several hundred feet and 20-30 seconds (it seemed) in front of the next finisher, still not knowing where I placed n the overall field.

I don't think there was much I could have done different on the run course. I ran as close to the break point as I felt I could.

Hunched over, gasping for air, stood up and walked around, panting and nearly dying. Then I was able to drink some water and try to find Matt to maybe run up to the finish with him. My recovery was too long and I didn't get back to see him until I had no time to pick up and run with him.


Stupidity!!!


General Comments: I had a poor attitude about this race. I thought a certain person had won this race 5 years and made a long trip from Chicago to "win" this race every year. This irritated me because it is a small race and I felt he should pass around the confidence boost to others. My primary goal was to beat this person and I wasn't focused on my own race. This set me off of my pattern of racing and kept me from making clear and right decisions. My attitude needed adjusted and it was done so on the swim. I was reminded after the race (by my thoughts) that I don't race against others, but for myself......for the pure enjoyment of it. This race got in my crawl and I am a lesser athlete for it. I have learned my lesson and will put myself back into the correct mindset in the future.
Results: http://ohioroadraces.net/web_documents/2012_kewpee_triathlon_male_r...
News article: http://varsity.limaohio.com/articles/triathlons-9085-kewpee-kuhlman...