this was really neat. took the opportunity to watch all the early swimmers. all the anxiety i get from swimming in open water was not even a thought and i was totally confident for the pool. my only bad moment was when i caught up with the person in front of me. i hit his toes twice, once on purpose and once by accident. he had caught up with the person in front of him and i ended up standing up and walking several steps to let them get away a bit. then when we got to the wall they both hung back and let me through. SWEET! i torpedoed under the rope and took off because of course you can't pass two people at once and then swim slow can you? i just put my head down and swam. i didn't catch anyone else until the end, i started swimming more slowly and taking 3 or 4 breaths at the ends of laps. no one was near me from behind so i was able to have what felt like lanes to myself.

i would have given a faster swim time so i would start the race much sooner. i saw people seeded well well ahead of me side and breast stroking and not always because they were trying to stay off the feet of the one in front of them.

when i got out of the pool i felt a bit winded but i started running anyway and was quite pleased that it worked. i just flew along with baby steps and the legs cooperated. felt cool cause when spectators see you trying hard they seem to whoop and hollar louder. ran down the wrong row and couldn't find my bike which pissed me off, wasted the whole advantage of running. i had to go all the way back around and find it. just grabbed the bike because my shoes were already clipped on (i practiced doing this friday afternoon and it worked really well) and booked it to the mounting area.

i will show up on time so i am better acquainted with the transition area.

i had fun on the bike. i was trying my new putting my shoes on while i ride trick and i think it worked out awsome. i'd thought it through while practicing a few days ago. i would get on and then all wobbly try to put them on. realized then that there wasn't any rush, that as long as i was moving forward i was saving time so i got all the way up to speed and then simply reached down and pulled them on then. i repeated this for the race and it worked out. i caught lots of people and was never passed by one. i did have this one incident with a dog. this course was mostly down a long straight country road. i looked up and there was this medium large dog trotting along the road about 40-50 yards up and he was on a shallow diagonal path that looked like it was gonna put him in right under my wheel and i was not feeling like crashing. my mind was saying "that f*#%er is gonna run out here and finally hear you then flip out and make some weird move and make you crash" and i wasn't having it so i shouted "MOOOOOOOOOVE"!!!!!! that damned dog looked over his shoulder and started hauling ass. he ran across so fast, tail tucked under so far that he could probably see it and into the tall grass on my right and slid under the low wire of a fence. never enen barked. i was happy that i avoided death or at the least a Bobby Julich time trial moment and that i hadn't even had to slow down. i kept it skint back with my pedal to the metal. the dismount was beautiful, only problem was there were two guys that i caught up with right near the end and were in my way. here i was riding in the last 15 yards on one pedal and already stepped over the side and having to navigate too. it was fun though and it felt like it looked really cool (you know how important THAT is).

also, my rear wheel came up about 6-8 inches as soon as i got off but it didn't create a problem. i need to practice that at speed and figure how to make that not happen, i have seen guys fall at the end when their bike flips over while doing that dismount so it must be some common brake thing.

same as before, i would have given a faster swim split. staring so late and with what i now know was a pretty back of pack swim seeding had me pretty far removed from most of the faster guys. i would have liked to do some dueling out there on the road cause i know that would have made me faster. as it is though i think i gave it a pretty good effort, keeping in my mind that the run was coming up and not wanting to risk a blow up.

found my rack on pretty much the first try but for next race i may count them or something. i was a bit lost because there were no bikes there and that threw me off because there were lots of bikes before but then i realized there were no bikes because everyone was still riding. this was the exact opposite of my first race, when i finished swimming and got to my bike it was easy to find because it was the only one left.

uhhhhhh, send a faster swim split.

i started off ok and tried to find a pace that suited my legs which were complaining. i am not good on the run and will have to put in some big miles to try and change that. walked a few times, far fewer than in my first race but i still walked and i am not happy about that. i didn't have to walk but i did and i am gonna have to dig deeply into myself and find the strength to just keep going.

find the part of me that gives up and kill it.

the ice cold towel handed to me at the finish line was AWSOME!! that was the best. my warm down was a walk to the keg where i got a cup of beer.


my run. it was definately the limiting factor for me today, unlike my first race where i had difficulty in the swim AND the run.


i think HRTC put on a very good race. i will definately do this race again next year.

spent a little time and figured out my rank in each event individually. basically i am HORRIBLE in the run. there is massive room for improvement. there, i said it, now i have to do something about it.