Some of you may see the 1:30 splits and think I was Mark Spitz. But the swim was so bad it was one of the most humbling experiences of my life. Up to this point I had a total of 400 yards of OWS. I am still very new to swimming as I've never had a lesson and as recent as April I could swim across a pool without stopping.

I went into the race not respecting the power of the river and how actually difficult OWS are. At about 500m I noticed that I had veered a little to far from the shore and was well behind anyone in my wave. I also noticed I picked up my very own cheering section who was in a yellow kayak.

At that point I questioned what the hell I was doing out here and completely lost any swimming form. My goggles were freaking me out a little so I took them off and decided to swim without them. I them proceeded to rotate from swimming on my back to swimming on my front keeping my head above water and focusing on the orange bouys at the end.

About half way through the other waves started catching me and I just watched and admired their strokes as they blew by.

I never really noticed the current until the end. I mistakenly aimed for dead center of the exit ladders. I should have aimed for 75 feet to the right. About 25 meters from the end I realized the the current which was faster than the fastest I can swim was going to pull me too far down. I had to turn up river and swim as hard as I could to catch the last ladder. I was so relieve to grab that ladder but was so spent from that final push that I didn't have the energy to climb it. I rested for about 15 seconds holding the ladders before I made my way up.

When I got out of the water I was delerious and felt drunk. I couldn't find the strap to unzip my suit and had to ask a spectactor to unzip it for me (illegal...maybe but at that point I didn't care). I took my sweet time getting to my bike hoping to get my wits about me.

I exited the swim with the back of the second wave and the front of the third wave.

take a lesson. train more for OWS. Respect the water. Do relays and get some other sucker to swim.

The USAT should have video taped this and show it as what not to do in T1. What the heck was I thinking clipping my shoes to my pedals during the pre race setup?

I took 3 more Ecaps and lumbered out onto the bike course.

Practice.

I've heard the joke a million time "There are two kinds of bikers, those who have crashed and those who will crash". Well I earned my battle scars today and entered the "those that have crashed" catagory.

It happend about 15 minutes in where I was flying down the first big decent. There was a cop at the bottom of the decent pointing right and yelling something like "slow down you dumb ass, sharp corner ahead." I hit my back brake and at that moment I kind of got that feeling that this wasn't going to turn out well. I started my turn and there was no frickin way I was going to keep me and my bike in an upright position on the road. So of course I did the smart thing and grabbed my rear brake a little hard. Well at that moment it felt like I was turning on ice and my back wheel let go.

The cop asked if I was ok. I stood up and notice a good amount of blood coming from my elbow and shin and the wind got knocked out of me a little. I waved off the cop and told him I think I'm ok as nothing felt broken other than my pride. I was more worried about my bike than myself anyway. I jumped back on and thankfully I didn't have to change a flat. Assessing the damage on the ensuring uphill. My steering was out of kilter, my rear derailer felt a little out of alignment, and my left areo bar was loose and my bike computer wasn't working. I straighten the steering at the top of the hill and continued onwards.

I took a look at elbow and it looked real ugly and missing a bunch of skin. I decided not to look at it again.

I tended to get passed on all the uphill and pass on the downhills. Overall, I passed much more than I go passed and excluding the crash I was happy with my bike.

I don't think I drank enough so I need to get one of those water bottled that go inbetween my aero bars. Not crashing next time my help also. Also a little more hill work to keep pace in that area.

I've never done it before so I did as well as I could. My kids and wife were just outside the transition area hoolding a sign that said "Go Daddy" so it gave me a bunch of renewed energy to see them. When I sat down to put on my shoes my abs and quads tighten up pretty bad as I think they were trying to tell me that they were not in the mood to run.

As I was leaving the transition area, I was asked for my number.....oh [email protected] forgot my number. I had to run back and get my number. A bunch of people followed me and hilarity ensured as voluteers were trying to get those people to run the right way.

everything....

I've run one 10k about a year ago and I beat that time by almost a minute. So I guess it's a PR. My quads were always on the verge of locking up but I was able to keep them moveing forward. I pretty much passed as much as I got passed so I was fairly happy with the run overall. At about 2,5 miles the heat really started to get to me so I decided to walk the hills and walk through aid stations to get every drop of HEED and water in me.



go faster. I think I had a little more left in me. Other than that I think it went well.

massage, gatorade, water and first aid station.


fitness, training, the concept of swimming with escapes me at this moment


I met my goal of finishing in the top 75% of my AG!!!

Fast swim for most....

Hilly and fairly technical course so it was a good challenge. A great experience for my first Triathlon.