This swim was a fiasco from the start. The RD had it set up to where there was a group in the water getting ready to start. Then the next wave in the water warming up. Then another wave waiting by the entrance to the dock. The swim was delayed 15 minutes. Not sure why. Our age group was standing around for quite a while. Met a guy from Austin and another from Long Beach who were both cool. As it was time for us to walk down the ramp my goggle strap broke!!! UGH. FCK! UGH. I started laughing because it was so ridiculous for this to happen as we are walking down to the swim start. Then I hear the announcer say, Hurry up guys, your race starts in 30 seconds!!! WTF?? 30 seconds??? Where's our swim practice. Needless to say, we did not get any swim practice in. So I'm running down the ramp to the dock, tying by broken goggle strap as all the guys are lining up for the swim. When I get to the dock the gun goes off. Everyone takes off, I finish fixing my goggles and jump in the water and start swimming. Back of the pack in this race was not what I wanted at all. It was a mess. I only got clear water after the bridge. Kicked, punched, blocked, etc. I know I sound like a whiney bitch, but I did not enjoy this swim at all.

Once the herd started to thin out a bit I was able to open up my form and swim. If my total time was 23 minutes, I bet my second half of the race was only ten minutes. Really felt smooth after the major turn around. It was a mess though.

Where to start? Goggles breaking was unavoidable and I had no idea that was coming. I know for sure that the next major race like this that I do, I'm going to make damn sure that I'm at least starting at the front of the group for the swim. I would rather have guys try to swim over me then get stuck behind a group.

Long run from the swim exit to T1. I passed several guys on the path. When I was taking my wetsuit off it got a little stuck on my heels, but not bad. The strange thing is my left calf cramped up as I was taking the suit off. The cramp got really aggressive as I was jogging with my bike.

Continue to improve my wetsuit removal. Figure out the cramp issue....

I had a blast on the bike. I was hoping for a 24+ Mph bike and I pulled it off!!! Hitting 1:01 was awesome and all I can say is that a sub 1 hours is possible. The cramp in my calf that I got in T1 was a problem the entire bike. I stopped pedaling several times to stretch out my leg on the bike. Frustrating because I would either have to do it on a down hill and give up the push fast down the hill, or stretch on a flat and lose momentum. Overall though, this was a strong bike. Very crowded at times and I was in chaos with the same 2 or 3 guys back and forth passing each other over and over again. No one was drafting but we were all pushing each other very nicely.

I think I got passed maybe 3 or 4 times on the bike and it was only by full disc wheels in the back and deep 808s in the front. Maybe I need to have them too?!?!?!



Work out the calf cramp and HTFU.

Socks on. Shoes on. Grabbed race belt. Took off. Socks cost me 10 seconds at least. Maybe time to start looking at sockless.....

HTFU. It was a good transition though. Not much for me to complain about.

Oh the run. The FCKING run!!! Calf cramp was hanging around. It would twinge, but did not really slow me down that much. I was okay(ish). Probably cooked myself on the bike more than I should but what the hell, its AG Nationals!!!
I was not happy with my run at all but I dealt with it. Truly ran out of energy. I did pass alot of people but felt like I was standing still when some passed me. I really need to be a stronger runner. Sub 2:10 was out the door after the swim, but sub 2:15 was easily in my reach if I would have just pushed harder.

Plenty of water stations that were very well staffed. No complaints there.

Run faster, Harder, and better. Stride out more. Keep my head thinking positive thoughts. HTFU!!!!!

Walked around forever looking for the rest of my group. We did not discuss a rally point so we were kind of screwed until we bumped into each other. Stretched out. Ate the post race meal. Watched Diane and shirley cross the finish line and eventually got my bike out of transition to head back to the house.


I think the swim mind fucked me. I was sooooo pissed off at the start that I just didn't get a good stroke going until the leaders were probably out of the water. The cramp in my calf has been beat to death in this race report, but it did contribute to my suckiness.

Milwaukee delivered a great race atmosphere and I was happy to be there.


Awesome race and I'm hoping to get there in 2014. If I can work out GSB and AG Nationals to happen during the same period of time again, I will be all over this race. Really excited about Hy Vee now!