Decided to try and stay WAY to the inside, even swam a little to the inside of the bouys and just made sure to get to the right of them when they came up. Actually passed a few ppl on the swim, that was a first. Do not like how I reacted to contact. Every time I would swim into someone I would come up to see where I was and change my direction, I did this about 4 or 5 times and I think this pry cost me about a minute or so. Wish I was used to more contact with IMWI coming up in about 6 weeks. I wanted to swim the course in about 37 or so and coming out of the water at 40:30 I was a bit upset but knew I could not let it ruin my day. I also did not feel tired coming out of the water which I was very happy about. The stamina is there, the speed and stroke still need a lot of help. For me, I would say the swim was average.



I just really need to work on my swimming. Should have maybe purposly swam in high traffic areas to get used to getting beat up a bit...

Got to t1, shoved a bonk breaker down my throat and was off.

The bike was great. At about mile 3 I passed my training partner Brad and we went back and fourth with each other for the first about the half of the ride. While going through Sturgeon Bay, a car pulled out in front of a group of us that forced us to slow down, that kind of sucked. At about mile 30 I felt like Brad picked up the pace and I did not want to risk my run so I did not follow. Last five miles of the race I gradually slowed my pace down into z1 to get ready for the run.
Felt like my nutrition and pacing were spot on. For nutrition I mixed 4 scoops of Perform with 3 serivings of hammer chocolate in a water bottle. Took a big swig every 5 miles and it was gone by mile 45. Also took a bonk bar at about mile 30 and took 3 salt tablets at diff times on the bike. Kept my HR in high z2 to medium z3 for the majority of the ride. Hit a little z4 on some hills. On about 80 pct of the ride, my HR was between 155 and 165.
Some of the riders on the course need to learn to ride in the right side of the road. I don't understand why people ride side by side for long periods of time and why other riders just ride out in the middle when not passing...Wish some of the drafting rules would have been inforced a bit more because there were a few times in which I got stuck behind a pack of riders and had to wait for them to get over...

I really don't know. I could have maybe gone a little harder, but I really felt like my pace was good.

Shoes off. Stuffed GU and chomps in my jersey and I was off.

-

Got done with t2 and as I was running out my buddy Nick was running out at the same time. Talked to him for a sec and I was off. Did some calcuations and realized that if I ran 7:30's on the head, I would go just under 5 hours. Coming into the race, I did not think I would bike as fast as I did and thought if I had a good race, I would be somwhere around 5:10. I honestly did not think sub 5 was in the cards. Still at this point I did not know if it was possible because so much can happen on the run. Last year I completly blew up and ended up running 9:40's. I was very upset after last years race and did not want that to happen again so for a minute I thought about playing it conservativly. After about .5 miles, I saw my training partner Brad up ahead, decided to pick up the pace a little bit to catch him. Wanted to see what his pace was at and maybe run with him. Caught Brad at mile 1 and looked at my GARMIN and saw I was running a 7 min pace. Once I caught up, I just felt awesome at that pace so I decided I was going to try and kill it. Ran hard into egg harbor and north to the turn around. After the first 6 miles I was still holding right around a 7 minute per mile pace and was feeling good. Mile 7 saw a .7 mile climb in which you gain 100 feet of elevation. Ran up this hill and after the hill I felt like I was starting to crash a little bit. Took a gel. Next two miles were a gradual downhill which was nice and I started to come out of it but was still not feeling nearly as great as I was. Right before mile 9 and the big hill, my wife, Allie, Lindsey, Jared, Brian, Tessa, and Becky were all at the side of the road and were all screaming. I got very jacked up and when I ran past them I looked at my watch and was going at a 6:30 pace...oops, need to slow down.
Mile 9 was a beast. "The Bluff" is no joke. The hill is right around one mile long and it has 150 feet worth of climbing. I ran the first 1/2 to 3/4 of the hill as it was not too steep but I knew it would take its toll on me. The last quarter mile or so was so steep i decided to walk it. I figured there would not be too much of a difference between my run and walk b/c of the steepness and I figured I could save some energy by walking. Did mile 9 at a 9:30 pace.

Starting at mile ten I knew I had to go at a pace of about 7:45 to go sub 5 and knew it was going to be tough. The wheels were really starting to come off so I tried to focus on anything other than how I was feeling. Miles 10 and 11 I somehow ran at right around 7:30's per mile, during these two miles I stopped for a sec at two water stations to take in extra fluids. Mile 12 I ran like a 7:55 and was definatly my toughest mile. The last mile was all downhill and finishes with a very steep last half mile, I did not know this coming in so it was a nice suprise. Ran through the finishers' chute and was very happy to finish in under 5 hours.

Get mentally tougher, find ways to push myself harder.

Got done, gave wife a big hug, talked with Jared and everyone else for a minute, got pretty dizzy and needed to sit down so I headed to the ice bath. Heard my training partner Brad's name called as he came in at 4:59.55....awesome. We hung out in the ice bath for awhile and as I got out I got the worst cramp I have ever had in my hammy. I could barely stand and one of the medic guys ran over had me lay down as he stretched out the cramp.

Got out of ice bath, had some water, restore and then proceeded to drink beers and watch Jason finish his first Triathlon ever in 5:20.....awesome. Watched Nick do a 5:30 after only training for 6 weeks and ultimatly make a trip to the med tent, lol. Watched Murph PR by 45 minutes, and watched Jeff finish after doing minimal training. It was a very fun day.


1. Swimming 2. Mental Toughness. I felt like everything came together today, but I still feel like I could have dug a little deeper.


Everone always raves about the Door County half and now I know why. They have so many activities and it is very organized. The course is awesome and so is the support. I highly recommend this venue.