This was a doozy of a start. There were about 75 people in each wave and the start area isn't too large so there was LOTS of contact for the first several minutes of the swim. I was clocked in the head several times and I'm sure I returned the favor a few times myself. Fortunately, I never had my goggles knocked off nor did I suffer any in injury. After a few minutes the pack started to spread out a little and I was able to find my rhythm. I did notice that my shoulders felt tight and fatigued relatively quickly. I think perhaps that's a function of not swimming in my wetsuit since early June. An interesting feature of this swim is a shallow sand bar that runs perpendicular to the course so there are two opportunities to stand and sort of run through the water. The first was a welcome break from the chaos of the start. It allowed me to find some wind and get settled back into a steady pace. I made the first turn in about 15 minutes and knew that a sub-35 minute swim was in hand barring any problems. For almost all of the second half of the swim I was pretty much stroke for stroke with another guy in my wave. He and I bumped into each other a few times and I think it was his poor navigation, not mine. About 5 minutes before the end we crossed the sand bar again and this time it seemed to shallow to swim over so I ran in the water and cursed the rocky bottom. In hindsight, I'm sure it wasn't too shallow and I should have just kept cranking through my stroke. I was also starting to notice some stomach cramping going on - sort of like a side stich but up in the abdominals just under the ribs. I had a feeling that this was going to be a problem all day. Overall, this was a good swim for me in the end and I managed to cut off 5 minutes from my last OLY swim.

Need to keep at the drills and develop more solid technique. That's the only way I'm going to find more speed to get to that sub-30 time. Perhaps that'll be my 2007 goal. I also need to spend more time in my wetsuit to get comfortable with the different feel.

This is the best transition area anywhere aside from the fact that the layout gives certain people an advantage - ya gotta get there early and get a good rack spot. The best part is that you can ride your bike in and out of transition. Its pretty nice to ride to and from your rack. I got the wetsuit off pretty easily, got my shoes and helmet on and was off to the races. I'm pretty happy with a 2:17 transition but I know I could cut a bunch off by getting my head in the game in the last couple minutes of the swim.

Start thinking about the transition before I get there. Get some tri-specific bike shoes.

My stomach wasn't feeling too good right from the start and it would come and go in waves throughout. The first 10 miles or so felt really good. I traded back and forth a couple of times with a fellow Dork Rocket member and after about 13 miles dropped her for good. I then traded with a guy in a Colorado jersey a few times and had him dropped until the last mile. Damn. I felt really good about 55 minutes and had a really nice comfortable burst until the last 1.5 miles which were back into the wind. I really wanted to be off the bike at that point. I really should have pushed more through that last section. I also think I could afford to push the bike a little harder and not risk feeling any more crappy on the run than I already do. I also spent a lot of time riding the bullhorns. For some reason, my aero position has felt less and less comfortable as the summer's gone by. I think I'll stop in and have my fit tweaked so that I can comfortably crank in aero for a couple of hours.

Keep the effort at LT or slightly above. Stay in aero more.

Could have pushed this transition more as well. Even though we were riding to the racks, I should have gotten out of my shoes as I normally would. That'd have cut off a bit. I also shouldn't have stopped to take a drink as there was an aid station at the run start.

I was feeling pretty good for the first mile with the usual tightness in the hamstrings. That went away but it didn't necessarily improve how I was feeling. My stomach was still feeling tight and generally crappy throughout and I was disappointed to see that I wasn't keeping pace or negative splitting as I'd hoped. I got to the mile 4 marker and was really feeling sh*tty so I walked for 30 seconds or so. Feeling that walking wasn't helping I decided to keep plugging. I was keeping watch of my HR but wasn't able to convince my legs to go faster and keep at the higher HR that I'd planned on. Inthe last 1.5 miles I started chanting to myself "pay attention to the HR, not your legs" and that finally helped me pick up the pace. It was a pretty painful 13 or 14 minutes, though. Sometime during the last mile, I thought I might blow chow if I didn't stop soon and even got the chills at one point. I made it through the finish smiling and managed to keep the contents of my stomach where they belong though I've never felt so crappy at the end of a race. The stomach cramps that were an annoyance on the swim and bike were pretty brutal in the last 20 minutes of the run but I was happy to be able to push through that and was also pleased to manage sub-10 minute miles. I think next year's goal needs to be something like 2:40. Cutting off 7 minutes in a year doesn't seem like too difficult a task.

Focus more on HR and less on how I'm feeling. Block the pain and let the HR dictate my run.

Poured cold water over my head, drank some water and gatorade endurance (that stuff's pretty good) and chatted with my wife and friends. Had a banana and a couple of Oreo's. Tried pretzels and couldn't stomach them. I ended up waiting in line for a massage and chatted for a long time with two very nice women who were both about my age. Never got the massage as the one massage therapist on hand had to leave but did stay for the awards and drawings. I really wanted to win the Zipps they were giving away but it wasn't my day.


Time. I'm sure that next year I'll be faster simply because I've only been seriously training for about 6 months. Hopefully my coming half marathon will increase my run fitness and make me a little more speedy off the bike. I also need to keep cranking even when my brain's telling me otherwise. Unless I'm feeling like I'm injured, going to injure myself or throw up I need to keep cranking. All that said, I'm quite happy with my results. Had this been a full Olympic race (just 5k shy on the bike) I would have made my goal time of 3 hours. YEE HAW!!!


This race is extraordinally well run. It was the 24th edition of this race and they've got it running smooth as a top. It'd be nice if they could make the bike a full 40K but that's only a minor deal. I'd highly recommend this race to anyone.