I was okay with the swim. My watch had the swim around 1 mile. Starting off, I positioned myself towards the outside and overall middle of the pack with the wave (men 39 and under). Swim was good, found good tempo and stroke felt good. Sighting was easy enough with the large buoys, but I sort of found a good landmark in the distance to go off of too. This being my first oly, I paced a little slow and tried to not go too hard with my legs kicking. A few unintentional bumps here and there with other athletes but no problems. Saw a few caps from the wave starting 3 minutes after us and thought those guys must be really good swimmers. Exited and remembered to RUN out of the lake once I got my footing. The picture from the sprint tri a week earlier made me look dog slow and tired.

Pretty happy with the swim. Felt good and got out ready to jump on the bike and rock and roll.

No problems. Happy it didn't rain the night before/early morning otherwise transition would have been a mud ball. Good job of finding my race gear and changing fast and efficient. Took the time to throw a couple gu's into my trisuit for later in the day.

Nothing

Enjoyed the bike course. I was pumped to jump onto my bike and see how this would go. There's hills in/around Wahoo and I love when I get to see how I can hold-up against them. This course was maybe a little hillier than what I'm used to. Took off out of transition and mounted around the line. I didn't see a huge advantage of doing a flying mount other than looking awesome (lol) because the tansition area was soft dirt and easy enough to run in bike shoes. Going out, passed a number of people as it's a bit of a climb out of the lake area, also got passed by a small-er number of people :) It was really cool seeing the officials on motor bikes flying around the bike course, gave a bit of an "official" feel to the event as it was host to the midwest regionals for AGers. Riding highway 36 on the out and back was a blast. I sort of told myself to just go for it, not go for broke, but see how it would go if I left quite a bit out there on the bike. I was happy with my performance and what I had left coming in off the bike. Slipped out of my shoes towards the end of the bike and got to see my in-laws with my wife. Gave a huge smile and waved to them, loved the support.

Not much, I am excited about my bike ability and look forward to the days when I can put up/over avg 20mph. I know if I continue to work on it and continue to get some extra lbs off the climbs may be more fun yet. There's nothing like getting passed by a skinnier guy/girl on the uphill and watching them peddle away on the downhill, only to fly by them at rest with a little extra weight though ;)

Went one bike rack too far and had to quick run around, no problem, maybe cost 10-15 seconds though. Everything else was off quick and on quick.

Not miss the bike rack.

This run challenged every last bit of everything you had left in the tank. I'm not a runner and I knew this would be 6.2 miles of hellish time. I really wanted to break 60 minutes on the run, I think I'll save that goal for another course and hopefully set the bar even higher for myself. I started out around 9:00 miles and slowly backed off to 9:30 miles, then to 10...like within the first mile lol. I knew my overall goal was just to break 3 hours for my first oly. About 2 miles in is where you really start to see how the course if going to go and begin to get into the larger hills on 96th street. The pain came on fast and hard. I was able to run most of the out leg and only slowed for 15-20 seconds for some minimal cramping. Took a little water because I hate what gatorade does to my stomach, dumped in on myself and just kept plugging along. Once I made the turn around, I started to bargain with myself to walk only smaller portions of the uphills. I was starting to feel that deep acid feeling in the lower quads (right abover the knees at the bend point). Once I got off the large rollers and back into the lake area it was a little flatter again. One guy came up on me and said something about it being a little hotter...There's those times when someone says something you weren't even thinking about until it gets brought up... that was one of 'em. It was just a fact and he was encouraging and we talked a bit back and forth, but after that I was thinking to myself, along with beginning to feel the effects of constant movement for 2.5 hours, that black was a bad choice. Dumped a little more water on myself, which I now know I really don't like that sloshing shoes feeling, and they're heavier. I started to play with numbers in my head, "Okay so I have like a half mile to go and I have like 6 minutes...no like 7 minutes...no 5 and a half??? Shit who cares just break 3 hours." I knew it would be kind of close and my mind wasn't wanting to work. I came up on the dam portion and the trials where some guy went down, I had heard it was dehydration and hope he's okay. From there I just told myself to move and fast. It helped to come out of the trails, down a pretty technicial little downhill dirt path and out into the crowds view. I saw my father-in-law signal I was on my way and saw my wife and mother-in-law yelling for me. No time, no brain cells left then I start to think I can hear some guy trying to make one of those damn last second passes. Not a chance in hell, throw it all out there now! Extra little go juice and I cross the line, looking at the picture there wasn't a guy within 200 yards lol. Not a bad feeling though.

Just HAVE to continue to run more and improve at distance running. Again, my point with my biking would greatly help my running too, drop a few more pounds before the Lincoln Tri.

After crossing the line I sort of had to go to my knees to get some air. A volunteer asked if I was okay and I was barely able to tell her I was okay, but if there was a saline bag available, that might have done a world of good. Stood up and huged my wife, then realized I forgot to hit my Garmin to stop my time. Stopped in at 3:01, but I thought for sure 1-2 minutes had passed and I was under 3. I had to wait until the results were official to see I did break 3 hours on a very difficult course and from there my day was made. Hung out for just a bit with my cousin and his wife as he raced and finished around 3:14. Once it was all said and done and I wolfed down some post race food, hit the couch for an awesome nap!!


I wouldn't say any one thing, this is still my first year in this sport. I am loving it and loving triaining while still spending plenty of time with my wife and friends. I continue learn more and am eager and have enjoyed using the sport for my number one goal and that's to get healthier and down to a healthier weight and in better shape. So having some extra baggage in the form of a spare tire limits me a bit too.


I really enjoyed the feeling of being in a bit of a "big time event". The organization was great and the volunteers were awesome. The course was just a little too hard FOR ME, but it was an awesome challenge. A little bummed they somehow ran out of like pretty much every shirt they had available. The other thing that kind of erked me was the overall post race nutrition. They played up this huge deal that Chipotle was providing post race food... then I hear an announcement that the hot food (the queso cheese) is only for volunteers and the athletes have to eat the (stale) chips with the mango salsa... uhm I don't want healthy right now...get it?! Getting to race on a closed course was really cool and the fact that they had bike support out roaming the roads was really cool. Will definitely do it again this year.