Made it to first marker doing freestyle and felt pretty good, then POW foot to the nose, brought on sneezing fit. That was a nice welcome to my first swim. Started to freak out a little and went to side stroke to regroup. Group pulled away except three people. Was going to try and draft but these guys were all over the place. Thought it would be better to stay on course than it would to draft so I kept going. Made it to furthest marker and go to turn left and my arm gets tangled in rope holding marker. Actually thought about holding on to rope to catch my breath but said screw it, the other two slow folks with me were passing. I kind of hung with them the rest of the way. Thankfully the lifeguards on surfboards were not very close to me, or I would have stopped a few times. Was so tired I figured it was too much effort to swim over to them. Kept going and passed the 2 other slow guys with me. i was tired, kicking hard, stroking hard and trying to talk myslef into paddling harder but I was done. At this point finishing became priority and had plans on trying to catch them in bike. First of the three slow guys out of the water(by a foot or two) but they jogged and I walked to T!.

Significantly increase swim practice, practice with swim cap(that was new)and not lose focus. Too much doubt.

Felt like I did OK here. Had liek the 6th fastest T1 and I was walking so not too bad I guess. Put bike shoes on and ran grass stretch in them going out so no dirt or grass would be in my shoes

foot bath

I lost time in turn areas as the guy I sighted to chase pulled away in these areas. Legs were dead until bike was half over. Had trouble finding a groove from tired legs and hills, and turns. Swim really hurt my other areas. Tried not to push too much since I did not want to die on the run. Dead racoon on the way made me nautious and almost lost it while riding. Normally would not bother me but some reason it did this day. Girl was stopped about halfway and asked for CO2 cartridge and no one was helping her, so I stopped and tossed her one and took off. Wish she would have needed this earlier since this kind of woke me up and I started to pedal. Out of the saddle on the up hills and pushing more on the flats. Too little too late since it was just a 12 mile race but of well. Ended on a high not which was not bad.

Push more, remember gum I tucked in aeros earlier since I got a little cotton mouth. More smaller drinks and not as many chugs. Not be afraid of the burn out I feared. Should have done better in this area, but swim took its toll on me here and the run.

Decent T@ once I moved the four bikes down that had covered my spot. I was pissed but they had pretty nice bikes, so I moved them gently. Decided to run without socks(big mistake)so I slid into my pretied shoes, quick drink of gatorade, and changed shirts since mine was wet from swim.

not change shirts, drink on jog INTO T2 from bike and not IN T2

Had to stop and pee at start. No way was I going to make it without a pit stop. My wife who was roped in volunteering was handing out water at aid station actually wasted a photo on me going in. Oh Joy! Came out of potty and they yelled at me to run back to where I went out of cones to keep going rather than to jump back into cones by the potties. I thought this was stupid, but who was I to argue. Probably lost a 2-3 minutes in that ordeal but I was off. I wanted to start slow and gets my run legs under me so I did. Ran course which was the most enjoyable leg to me for some reason. Encouraged some folks that were pushing hard along the way. Stopped and walked twice, btu only for a few feet. Felt pretty good so I just kept going. Felt something rubbing on my foot and it started to hurt and thought to myself this is why I should have put socks on. Made it to turn, grabbed some gatorjuice and drank it, dumped H2O over head and kept on despite big blister. At the roughly 2/3 mark I thought I felt to good so I picked the pace up a bit. Picked it up a little more and still liked how I felt so I stuck with that. Finished strong with a fast long striding jog until stupidnickname started yelling at me to sprint. This scared me a little until I figured out who it was but I just crossed the line. Girl came and bent over in front of me which freaked me out too, but then I realized she just wanted the timing chip on my leg. Oh well, first OWS done. Time in run was not good, but with pee break and blister and a hard swim it was ok.

faster pace, drink less on bike and T2 to eliminate sloshy feeling during run, wear socks

Kissed wife, drank a water and went for a cool down swim with stupidnickname. walked around a little and went to try and clean up and wait for Phoenix to finish.


training and work travel


Seemed pretty organized, but needed more aid stations. More volunteers as well. They came and asked my wife to help for goodness sake.