Well this is where my grand plan began to unravel! I'd be able to do a 45-50 min mile in the pool, so was expecting an hour for the swim. How wrong can you be?! As soon as the swim started I panicked a little, and was able to do freestyle intermittently, with LOTS of breaststroke. I reached the turnaround at about 33 min, and figured I'd be OK for the cutoff since there was a slight current. Unfortunately my sighting was way off, and when I realised that I was near the boats, and there were no swimmers around me, I knew something was up. Sure enough, way to my left were the buoys, so I spent the rest of the swim fighting my way back across. A lifeguard crew rowed over at one piont, but must have realised that I was ok. Once it reached the 1hr 15 mark I just started praying that they'd let me slide and carry on. I deciced that I'd just keep on going and see what happens.

LOTS of OWS training, along with some individual coaching.

I raced through this as I was expecting someone to come along and ask for my chip. When they didn't say anything, even after I went over the bike out mat, I knew I had a chance to carry on.

You've already read about the bike course, so you can imagine that since my swim had taken me almost twice as long as expected, I was a little tired around the edges! I did get into a decent rhythm for the first 15m, but had a hard time after that. The winds were a lot harder than I expected.I did pass one person, but she caught me up at about the 40 mile point. Apart from that it was a day of getting passed by everyone else. Most people gave words of encouragement, which were greatly appreciated. My drinking and gel ratio went to plan. I took a Clif bar along in case I felt hngry, but didn't eat it. I was glad to see the Cambridge town limits come into sight.

Train more on the bike! My training had been very patchy, with my working two jobs, plus overtime. My longest bike in training had only been 46 miles, so I learnt my lesson the hard way!

Went to the POP to get changed, as I found my tri shorts always chafed in training. Was still waiting to see if someone would come to get my chip. No one came, so set off on my run.

It's certainly demoralizing watching everyone else finish as you start! But they (or should I say YOU) are the real triathletes, and I feel like a bit of an imposter! Anyway, I stuck to jogging between water stations, and walking whilst drinking. Once again, everyone was very encouraging, and there were plenty of high five's and 'keep it going big man's given to me. Once I got to the turnaround it was very quiet. I got caught at mile 7 by someone called Jen from Long Island, so it was nice to talk to someone for a little bit. Then she was off and it was back to being by myself. The volunteers were all great, as I stopped at the ones on the way back because they'd already cleared up and I didn't want them to have to pick up my cups down the street. I thanked everyone for staying out so long for us at the back (there were 3 people behind me), and they kept thanking me for coming! What a great bunch of people. My wife drove out to meet me with about 2 miles to go, as she had to leave and pick up my youngest from the party. So my 10 year old ran and walked the last 2 miles with me, which was a really good experience. One of the things we discussed was not quitting, which we'd told him when he was in a race last week and kept going even though the front runners were way ahead. We ran the last 1/4 mile in, and ASI photo just caught us as they were leaving, so hopefully that'll be a nice pic. Crossed the line and got my finisher's medal. I'd made it!

Run longer distances more often.Maybe let my HR go higher.

Walked a bit and drank some fluids. Wanted to wait for a massage, but needed to get on the road so paked up and left with son.


Too much work and not enough training! I've told my wife that next time (hopefully there'll be a next time) I'm just going to work one job so that I can follow a training plan more religiously.


This was an extremely humbling experience. The camaraderie amongst the triathletes was great. I do feel that with some work and some weight loss, I could have a better day. However, out of the 5 people who I know who entered the race, 2 DNS and the other 3 quit after the bike (one was actually knocked off his bike by another competitor), so I'm glad that I finished. Lastly, some of the members of this site gave me indirect inspiration, which was helpful esp during the run. Thanks for reading this far, and thanks to my son Joe who made me laugh so much during those last 2 miles.