Seeded myself in the front row, on the buoy line. It was the most 'washing machine' of any of my starts. Lots of arms, legs, bodies thrashing in the water. It sorted out by the first buoy though.

I was able to draft about 90% of the race. I found some good feet, and hung on for dear life. This was my best drafting job ever. I stayed with the same guy the entire leg down the beach. I lost him at the final buoy when we turned into the beach, but at that point it was good.

There's about a 250 yd run across the beach to T1. So I took my wetsuit off in the ankle deep water, rather than run across the beach encased in neoprene. It added to my swim time, but made for a fast T1 time.

Looking at overall times, the swim seems a bit long. It also includes the run time up to transition from the water exit.

Nothing. I swam great, and drafted like a madman. :)

Suit got a hung up on the chip taking it off in the water at the end of the swim. When I got to my rack, I threw my stuff down, and apparently my goggles went in the front wheel. I start running with my bike, and noticed my goggles were broken and hung up in the spokes. I retrieved them, and threw them back by my stuff. Good thing I didn't need them any more.

There's a hill out of T1, but it's not long, so I decided to leave shoes on the bike, rather than run with them. It actually is easier to ride with feet on top, than to attempt to clip in, so that helped. I kicked out the bottle I had in my bike seat bottle carrier while mounting. It was just water, so I didn't go back for it. I had a full aero bottle, and my Perpetuem mix was on the downtube. First water handup was 15 miles, and I knew I could last until then with what I had.

Despite the mishaps, I had a good T1.

Not throw goggles into my wheel.

Not kick out my spare bottle while mounting.

Biked very well. I was able to push a fast pace, without massive amounts of power.

I used my aero-helmet, as the weather was a gift. Cool from the start, so I didn't have to worry about overheating.

Since I lost a bottle at the start, I made sure to pickup 2 water bottles at the first hand-up. Refilled my aero bottle, dumped the rest over my head and back to keep cool, and stashed the second one in my bottle carrier for backup.

Took 1 bottle at each of the remaining aid stations. Topped off aero bottle and dumped the rest over my head and back. It worked well for Floyd, and it worked well for me. ;)

At the last aid station, I tossed the spare bottle, and topped off my aero bottle for the last 15 miles in, so I was running as light as possible.

Zipps were awesome, as was the aero helmet. Great combo. It definitely aided my time, as when we had headwinds, I was able to hold my power zones and pass people with less aero setups.

Nutrition was: 1 bottle of perp ( 5 scoops + 2 gels + 3 endurolytes ), and 2 more hits of hammer gel from my flask, about 3.5 aero bottles worth of water. Nailed nutrition and hydration. No gas, no bloating, no having to pee 800 times.

Maybe push a little harder. The goal was to average a little over 200 watts, and I was under that. But I'm very happy with this bike split, and it set up a GREAT run.

T2 was a little fun. I was the first one back in my row. The racks were a-frame design. As I was lifting my bike up to hook the seat, I hit the bar and one side of the a-frame legs fell off. I made a split second decision not to fix it, and rested the bar on the a-frame of the next section of rack. It worked. Phew, problem solved.

Put on socks, shoes, visor. Grabbed race belt, small flask of heed, and my endurolytes. I *FORGOT* my two gels for the run. Doh! Fortunately, they had hammer gels on the run, so I ended up getting the same gels anyway.

Not destroy the rack while attempting to rack my bike.

Not forget my gels.

Mile 2: 15:30, AHR 154
Mile 3: 7:41, AHR 157
Mile 4: 7:49, AHR 158
Mile 5: 7:52, AHR 159
Mile 7: 16:26, AHR 158 (turnaround, back up the hill)
Mile 8: 8:32, AHR 157
Mile 9: 8:35, AHR 157
Mile 10: 8:36, AHR 158
Mile 11: 8:17, AHR 158
Mile 12: 8:37, AHR 159
Mile 13: 8:17, AHR 162
Mile .1: :36, AHR 167

First loop was great. By second loop, one my shoes was damp, which sucked, as I started getting blisters on bottom of my foot. I ignored the discomfort and kept pushing.

My PR for a standalone 1/2 mary is 1:45. I came out of T2 about 3:14. I knew that I was on track to hit my qualifying time for Half-Max nationals of 5:10 unless I completely imploded on the run. I also thought I had an outside chance at hitting my "secret" goal of a sub-5, but I would have to have the run of my life.

I hit the turn around and saw 4:0x on my watch. I knew then I had a solid shot at sub-5. It was hurting at this point, and getting a bit warmer out, and I had one show that was damp. It didn't get full on soaked like has happened in the past, as I did a better job of keeping water off them this time.

I alternated water and InfinIT on the run. Took a gel at mile 3.5 and mile 10 ( the turn-around of the out and back ). Didn't use any endurolytes, as it wasn't hot enough that I felt I needed them in addition to the InfinIT.

I cupped ice in my hands at each aid station. Copying what some of the pros have done, as ice in the palm can help lower your core body temp. I think it definitely worked. And it's not as drippy as stuffing ice in your jersey or hat.

I also stuffed a towel in the back of my jersey at the neck, which I poured ice water on at each aid station. This worked well at Buffalo Springs and worked well here too. Definitely going to keep doing this. I'm goint to bring my own towel to future races though, in case they don't have them on the course.

Only thing I need to work on is keeping my feet dry. I think a wet shoe is was slowed me down on the second lap. It wasn't my legs so much as my feet.

I got a good handle on nutrition here as well. I was a bit dehydrated when I finished, but not badly. I don't think I really could have drank much more without "sloshing". I felt on the verge of sloshing a few times, but held it at bay.

I crossed the line pushing with everything I had. I was right at 5 hours, and wanted very badly to make it. My max HR in the last .1 was over my run LT. I got wobbly when they were taking off my chip, so I had to kneel down for a few seconds. They asked if I was okay, I assured them I was, then got back on my feet with some assistance and made it out of the post-race area. Got a bottle of ice cold water. About 1/2 of it went over my head, and I drank the other 1/2. Found my Dad, who had a cooler with my endurox in it. I took off my soggy shoes, and made my way to the lake. It's not an ice bath, but 68 degree water felt like heaven. I sat in the lake for about 10 minutes, then wandered back up the beach, and got my sandals. Wandered around, looking for other BTers, people from my tri club, and people from my Masters group.

Got some food at some point. Kept drinking water and fluids to rehydrate.


Nothing. This was an awesome race for me. I might have squeezed out another minute at best, but I don't know what more I could have done.

It was the perfect storm. Great perparation, great conditions, great course, great execution. I nailed this one to the wall. :)


This is a great race, that just keeps getting better. The changes this year to the park where transition area is made a huge improvement. No more run straight up a hill to start the run. The bike course is awesome. Only a few sections of cruddy road, but it's hard to find 56 miles of pristine road anywhere. The volunteers were great, and there are a lot of people who live along the course that were sitting out and watching and cheering, even way the heck out on the back parts of the bike course. Great community support.

I definitely will be back to do this race again next year.