Started the swim at the front right, figuring it's better to let faster swimmers pass me than have to fight through others myself. First 200m was good, but from 300m - 600m I felt like I was in the middle of all 140 people in our AG swim start. I was trapped inside of about 5 people all swimming together and there was no rhythm. After that separated I got going and felt good. Breathing was feeling good and sighting wasn't an issue. Next thing I knew I was rounding the buoy to head to shore and wasn't having any problems with the swim, which is fantastic for me. I did end up getting hit in the head and my goggles fell off, to which I was a little pissed at first and then just figured it's part of racing so who cares. Fixed that problem and went into shore. When I got out of the water my watch said 29'45" and my goal time was 30'. Ended up being a 1'59"/100m swim for me, which is a PR. And since my t-pace is 1'58"/100m (over 1000m), I basically held that for another 500m so I'm really happy with the swim. I felt like I could've kept going too, which gives me confidence for the half.

Total swim time of 30'39" includes my run up to transition.

See if I could draft better maybe? I tried when I could, but I was kind of stuck between the fast swimmers and the not as fast swimmers, and was in no man's land.

Running up to transition there was a wall of people that was hard to get by. Granted, it was only a few seconds, but after looking at the results, if I would have been okay on the run and hit my goal time of 2:30:00, there were 6 people that finished between that and 2:31:00 so those seconds count.

Not be as reluctant to go through/around the people.

Saw Julia right away on the bike, which means she had a good swim since she started 5 minutes behind me and passed me in the water. Got going, but had a hard time getting my legs under me, which I chalked up to the additional time in the water (compared to a sprint). Leading up to Olde Stage, I didn't want to blow out my legs so I kept an average cadence of 90+ and had confidence my legs would come around, which they did. Was sipping from my water bottle, which had 200 calories of Cytomax in it, and somewhere just before the hill started I thought I put it back in my saddlewing. Come to find out at the top of the hill, I must have temporarily balanced it and missed the cage since it fell out, which was where my problems started getting worse. Going up OS hill was tough, but do-able and I passed several people. I switched my cassette to a 12-27 two days before, and even though I could make it up in a 12-25, I was happy to have the two extra teeth. There were people standing up after the first pitch of the hill, all along the road with cowbells, cheering, etc. so that was pretty cool and motivating. Once at the top (after the aid station) I went for my bottle and it was gone. Not so good.The decent was fun, ableit slightly hindered by the 35 mph speed limit. That was only for 2/3? mile so it wasn't that big of a deal. Once things flattened out I held a steady pace at about 90 rpms. Finally hit another aid station and got a bottle of water and sipped on that on the way in to the end of the bike.

My goal time on the bike was 1:15:00 and I came in at 1:15:11 so close enough (though I'd be happier if it were 11" under rather than over).

Not lose my water bottle with all (almost) of my nutrition in it. Also, I think I could go harder on the bike, but I don't know where the line is that going too hard will make me blow up on the run so my gameplan has been to spin around 90 rpms and see what happens.

Slight problem dismounting, and then getting my running shoes on. T2 needs to improve.

Yo no se.

This was the beginning of the end. Having taken in minimal (at best) liquids and calories on the bike, my first 300 yards was alright and then my stomach shut down. It was basically like having a side ache, but in my stomach. I tried running through it but every step made it knot tighter and hurt more so I had to stop. I walked a few steps and tried running again, but the same. I considered a DNF but then thought I'd walk to the aid station at mile 1 and see how I felt. Every time someone would pass me I'd try and run to keep up, hopeful it would come around, but no luck. At the aid station I downed water and gatorade. My body wanted to reject that too, but I gagged it down figuring if I threw it up, who cares. Ended up walking the second mile and repeated at the aid station there. Same for the 3rd. I tried running no fewer than 30 times, thinking I'd be able to sustain a minor jog at least, but to no avail. At the turn around Stacie (luv2ride) passed me and I figured she'd be running an 8:30-ish pace so I'd see if I could hold that and was able to for most of that mile. Then everything started feeling better and my body improved so I ran the last two miles back in at about a 7:30 pace. I've never been more frustrated in a race than having to sit there and have everyone pass me without being able to do a thing about it. I will say that the other athletes were great, offering encouragement, gels, etc., which was nice.

The end was lined with all sorts of fans cheering on both sides, then turn to the chute, hear your name announced and finish with an ice cold towel draped over your shoulders, which was perfect.

Nutrition on the bike, nutrition on the bike, a thousand times nutrition on the bike.

Talked to Mark and then went to disarm myself before talking to anyone else.


Nutrition, stomach.


There's a reason this race sells out every year and has representation from 48? 49? states - if there's a better run event out there somewhere, I'd like to see it. It starts on time and had sky divers carrying the flag, the volunteers were fantastic, the crowds were great, it's well-marked with plenty of aid stations, and they had the pros come in at the end so you could watch them fly through. Pretty neat to be able to watch Tim Deboom, Amanda Lovato, etc. roll through while you're hanging out afterwards. No reason not to do this race again.