Arrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhh! I'm going to have to either swim the entire course for a warmup before the race, or just accept that the first half of my swims are going to suck. It took me to the first turn to start to feel comfortable. I talk to myself, tell myself to slow down my stroke, take it easy. But it just takes as long as it takes. The last half I was very happy with, and I was happy with my swim time.

Warm up more

I walked up to T1, just to keep my HR down. I had the top of my wetsuit off when I got to my bike. But I kinda lollygagged a bit. I come out of the swim a bit foggy every time, I take a bit of time to clear the cobwebs.

Not sure.

Up, down, up, down, chipseal, up, down, wind. To top it off, my Garmin shat the bed and wasn't giving me anything--no speed, no distance, no nothing. On the swim it said it lost Satellite Reception, but my swim was ok when I downloaded. Nothing on the bike though. I didn't know the course, so I was blind. I tried to reset the GPS as I rode, nothing. I turned it off, then turned it back on. Nothing. So I just rode. I had decided that I wasn't going to push the run, so I may as well work hard on the bike. To be honest, this course had me seriously wondering why I do this. Or why I have to push. Maybe I should just put my competitor in my pocket and just ride for fun. I wasn't really understand why this was so hard. I feel as though I have been getting a lot of T.I.T.S. in, a fair bit of hill work, but this kinda sucked. (Did I mention that already?) I guess I did ok in the end, looking at my avg speed on a hilly course.

Ride more hills. Get a lighter bike.

Nothin'

I was happy with this. Started off a little fast in the first km, but not unusual. I had a dude right (like drafting distance) behind me for close to the first 500m. A heavy breather no less. I'm like dude: a. I'm not that fast and b. you aren't getting any benefit from being that close to me. So he finally passes--I figure maybe I get some nice pace booty. Nope. Saggy shorts. Like he had a load in them saggy. It was like a car crash, I wanted to look away but couldn't...I finally came to my walk break and he moved on. Phew.

Ok, so this was just going to be a bit of a training run. I did my regular run 1km, walk 1min, which seems to be working well for me. My splits were pretty even. Unfortunately, less than 3km in, I started up with a blister on my right arch. No new shoes, no new socks, no idea. Stopped to adjust my sock, but didn't help. Ok, I'll just have to deal.

As I was running, I was still sort of trying to figure out why this whole race was sucking. And then I realized, I kinda trained right up. I rode 60km on Tuesday. No wonder I am feeling a little rough.

Was able to pick up the pace for the last km and finish strong.

Not much. My achilles started to tighten up a little at km 8, but no pain.

Had some snacks and spoke with Vivian and Dennis. Vivian and Sean ended up not racing. Vivian was just not feeling right, and Sean's shin splint was bothering him. Dennis had an ok race, but had a rough time on the swim as well. Tammy ended up pulling out after the first loop of the bike because she was vomiting. The juju was kinda off on this race...


Well organized, many volunteers, lots of aid stations.