I was surprised that the swim went so well. The waves weren't bad but the current was noticeable and affected everyone. Halfway through the swim my breathing was labored and I was breathing every stroke or two, but I noticed that I was staying with my heat and catching others from the earlier heats. ONE note to RD's or future RD's... if you are going to hand out colored swim caps to differentiate heats, don't make one color the same color as the buoys for marking the course. Halfway through I thought I was almost at the turn but I was just spotting the cap from an earlier heat's swimmer. Anyway... I figured it out and made it. As I walked up the beach (I was sure I was going to die:) ) I remembered that I could check my watch. It said 9:44. That included the 50 yd dash, and the walk onto the beach. So... cool. And I didn't have any problems with the washing machine. I just swam with everybody. I got kicked (someone scissor kicking) and I wacked someone in the face with my elbow. But once the race began, I didn't give any ground.

Trot out of the water.

Getting out onto the course was a little rough, what with my thoughts about dying and all :) . But I got out and moving. I needed some extra water since the salt water was really strong in my mouth. Rinsed some out and drank some. I was just having a hard time convincing my body to get moving.

Practice some swim to bike bricks with full transition.

Getting up to speed was the hardest thing. I didn't feel that I got there until a couple miles into it after the first big hill, but I was still passing people, so it couldn't have been terrible. I kept well hydrated, and after making the turn to start the second lap I ate a power gel. I had taped it to my handlebars, so when I pulled it off, the top tore just right. The sun had warmed the gel nicely so it wasn't so viscous. That worked well. I found that hills can be friends, especially on the downhills. I cranked the gears up and pedalled like mad going down. I almost bit it on the sharpest curve that also happened to be at the bottom of a large hill, but it all worked out.

My second lap was quicker than my first and it went really smoothly.

I think my performance here was good. I never got out of the saddle and did will even while on a MTB. I was really nervous about that for some reason.

I don't know... other than the swim/bike bricks I mentioned above... getting used to getting up to speed.

The most difficult thing here was the race organization... the area that was labelled "racers only" was not really for racers only. I had a 8 year old kid walking in my path and I was trying not to run him over, but he just never saw me. I kept yelling "Excuse me!" but to no avail really. And people had just dropped their bikes in lot rather than racking them back up. Very uncool, I thought. But I got my bike back to the rack and grabbed my hat, my gatorade and got moving.

Can't really say...

The run was the low point for me. I knew coming in from my bike, that if my knee held out I would have a chance at coming in at 1:45. For a while I though that would happen. My legs just felt numb for the first half mile. I made the first turnaround and kept going. Shorthly after that, I felt my knee start to twinge. I alternated running with walking, and soon was walking more than I was running. I carried my own drink with me to ensure that I stayed hydrated. But with walking it wasn't all that necessary.

The waves came in and drenched my shoes making them lead weights on my legs. And the sand really collected in there. When I made the last turn for the last fifty feet to the finish, I was surprised to find that I had to run over some rocks to pass through the finish line. Not fun. especially with my knee.

Not have knee problems. Run without shoes on the beach.

Most of my run had been my warm-down. But I walked around... grabbed a cup or two of gatorade, some orange slices... Hugged my wife. Then I went and played in the ocean with my son. Ate some pizza that the family had.


Clearly the biggest problem was the knee.


The organization was kind of all over the place. NOt a very secure bike transition area made me a little nervous. Almost running over a kid really was uncool. Making the next to last turn on bike route and having to deal with traffic was uncool. It would be nice to know split times rather than just total time. The starting in heats went really well. Much better than last year evidently.

I would probably do this race again if I were on the island at the time the race was scheduled, but I won't go out of my way to do it again.