So my wave was 14:00 to 15:30. I figured I was good for about 14:30, so got near the front. I think I was about 5 from the start--no one seemed to want to go ahead of me. The first 3 laps were full-contact. At one point I had one guy on my right, one guy on my left, and I was going to be damned if I was not going to make them work for it. This pool is about 1&1/2 feet deep at the shallow end. Tough the wall and go under the lane rope to the next lane. Try doing that with someone on either side of you. I ended up under someone at one point. In a foot and a half. Kinda intimate. And it actually may have been the same guy as in Salty's pictures. Not my first choice. Anyhoo, I digress. In the middle of lap 3 (the deep end), there was a guy who made the turn just after me and then he was trying to pass me on my right. Soooooo I gently, but firmly, established my position on the rope, so he had to slow down and pass on the left like a normal, civilized swimmer. And then I drafted off him for the rest of the swim :). It wasn't until partway through lap 6 that I realized that I was just hammering and not really thinking about technique--once I did so my breathing evened out a bit. I had my actual swim time (not including the 200 m run to transition) at 14:32, which I am totally happy with.

Not much really. I may have been able to be a bit faster had I remembered to focus on my technique earlier than I did.

I'm pretty sure T times are included with the bike, so I don't know what they are individually.

Looking at the elevation graph for the route, it is a net uphill on the way out. The hills are kinda rolling, but on the way out there are a couple that are just long enough to make it hurt. I was thinking about the fact that some people say you should feel like puking after a sprint, so I thought ok, let's go for it. I kept wanting to ease up, but stopped myself. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to push hard on the run, due to a relatively recent injury, so wanted to give the bike a good go. On the return leg of lap 1, my front derailleur started acting up. Oh oh I thought. But it seemed to settle out. Then, in the middle of lap 2, I was getting a clickity-clacking; neither the front nor rear derailleurs seemed to want to get into gear properly. I tried shifting up and back down, but it was still not working right. So I stopped at the turn around to check it out--my chain looked like it was skipping when I turned the cranks. I was checking the rear derailleur, seeing if my chain had slipped... then I saw it. The magnet for my cadence thingymajobbie had somehow come off my crank and 'jumped' across the bike frame and attached itself to my chain. It was stuck to the chain right at the rear derailleur and clackity-ing against it. WTF? I have NO IDEA how that happened. Anyway, fixd and off we go. Just kept working on really pushing the whole way.

Ummmmm, not have the magnet have a mind of it's own?

This was hard. I wasn't sure if I was going to push; I have been so worried about re-injuring my Achillles. All my runs since I have come back have been pretty much slow and easy. Not a bad thing, building a base, but at some point, I have to test it. I just didn't know if today was going to be the day. And I didn't really think too much about it, I just ran. Now, this is a hilly 5k. The first 100m out of transition is a steep up, then you go down for about 200, then turn around and go up for almost 1km. Then there is a bunch of up and down that goes from like -15% grade to 18%. Stupid uphills. They aren't super long, just steep. My body kept saying 'it's ok to walk' and I so wanted to give in. Honestly, while I was running this, I was seriously questioning my mental capacity and thinking about the fact that I am really not built for speed. I am an endurance athlete!! But I thought, nope, let's just give'r. I walked the one aid station at about 3km, but only for long enough to gulp the water and then got going again. The last 1.3ish km is all downhill. I passed one guy at about km 4 and never let him back in. Pushed hard to the finish and was surprised that I beat my time from last year by 30sec (considering I have not been training 'hard' on the run).

Not register for a sprint?

Grabbed my bike out of transition before they closed it for the elite race, and walked up another beeatch of a hill back to my care. Note to self: find downhill parking!!


Considering I was in Zone 5 pretty much the whole time, um, age and body type? :-D


Waaaaaaaaaaay better swim format and bike racks were numbered this year, much better. Volunteers are great!