Overall a decent swim, I felt comfortable through out and never rally struggled. I was slow, again, but still feel good overall about the swim. Nothing spectacular.

Minimal issues here, I had did have a little trouble getting my wet suit off due to it being caught in my watch but nothing major.

After reviewing the bike course prior to the race, I figured it was a little above my ability so I decided it would be a good idea to keep the effort low. I targeted low zone 3 on the heart rate, which for me is around 130-135ish. From there every time I found myself getting higher and up around 150, I would remind myself that a 150HR would lead to a crappy run.

lap 1 was a challenge to stay with-in target. I was surrounded by several riders who seemed to want to pick up speed and slow down this made it a struggle for me to keep a constant output. Overall though I did manage to hold my effort low, even when this speedy lady came flying up past me in the middle of a hill. Almost made me look silly and as if I was standing still, but I still kept the same effort. Somewhere around the half way point of the lap the hills end for several miles and the course turns into more of a steady decline with a few rollers thrown in. In this section I was able to maintain the same effort but pick up quite a bit of speed, that was until the last hill of the lap. This thing was a monster, well at least for this cornladrian! It has a slow steady decline at the beginning which wasn't terrible, until you hit a flat spot and think you have reached the top, only to make a left turn and have to go straight up a very steep hill.

After reaching the turn around point to start the 2nd lap, I was feeling good and decided to push the effort a little more. I was currently averaging somewhere around 16.3mph. The 2nd lap was uneventful for the most part, I did run into some back pain while going through the hilly section that caused me some problems. I had to constantly sit up out of aero and stretch, there was a 5 mile section where I stayed up on the horns trying to get some relief. Once I reached the downhill section I was able to relax and gain some relief. All was going along smooth until the last big hill, my legs felt heavy and I was struggling already, I wasn't sure I was going to make it to the top. I made it up the 1st section made the left turn and pushed as hard as I could to keep the bike moving. This was actually the only point in the course where I had to stand up, I had a thought of walking but was cheered on by a few spectators which made a huge difference. I made it to the top and cruised to the end of the bike of course.

Not much, during the 1st lap I thought I should be pushing harder than I was. But by the the middle of the 2nd lap I knew I had chosen the right effort. If I had gone any harder I would of definitely had more problems on the run.

I still need to figure out the ongoing back pain of longer! higher effort rides! ultimately I think it may come down to a weak core, so I am going to see if I can find some extra time to work in this.

Nothing crazy here, took my time to get situated and started out on the run. I did lose some time as I was heading out when I seen Sara and the kids sitting outside transition. I had to stop and collect hugs and high fives to get me started on the run

Oh my! I definitely under estimated this run course. I new it was going to be rough, but i did not realize it was going to be a mountain climb! Coming out of transition I felt good, legs were loose and I quickly fell into a steady stride, I had to slow myself down early on though because I was down around 8m pace and I assumed I would not be able to hold that. The goal was to be around a 10m pace so I attempted to find that and hold there. This worked for the 1st 3 miles, probably because it was more downhill than up and I was able to let gravity do the work. This lasted until about mile 3, this was where the fun began. 1st was a run down the front of a damn, which seemed fun at the time, but in the back of my mind I knew there was a return trip. From here the course went through a short trail section then came out and over a covered bridge and back on to the road. Then came the hill, I started up it thinking it was just another hill, 1/4 mile in I was still moving along and figured I was coming to the top, had to be just a round the bend. Made the next corner and more hill, the guy next to me started talking about mile 4 coming up shortly. I thought great that must be the top of the hill, then the marker went by and another bend, more hill. Finally somewhere around 1.5miles of running up this it hill I finally crested the top. That was a great feeling to make it up the hill and to still be moving. I actually managed to run up the entire length, extremely slow, but I ran all the way up. After the hill I still felt strong and quickly fell back into a decent running stride, this part of the course also had several rollers with the majority of them being in a descent (really wish I would of realized this earlier). At the turn around point I was still feeling good and running strong. I was not pushing the pace too hard but keeping a steady effort. I think one thing that had helped up to this point was my plan of targeting a 10m pace and to walk the aid stations taking in water at each station.

I held strong until around mile 9, this is when the hills started to wreak havoc on me, both physically and mentally. Somewhere around this time was when my 1st unplanned walk came, I was going up a hill and my legs had nothing left in them. I walked to the top of the hill and then started running again, I repeated this process through several more of the rollers as I just didn't have the leg strength to climb them. I came to the top of the large hill and once again enjoyed the affect of gravity, as I ran the 1.5 miles back down the hill. From here made it back to the damn, and that thing now looked huge. There was a dirt path going halfway up then turned into a broken down set of stairs. I didn't think I was ever going to get to the top of this thing, it was one foot at a time until I reached the top. After this point the last 3 miles were a blur, mostly uphill with a walk/run method that was probably more of a walk. I slightly remember going down these hills enjoying them, now they were taking their revenge on me and just kept dolling out the pain.

Maybe run a little slower early on, but I am not sure that would of helped. I was not prepared for the amount of hills that this run course had.

Not much other than enjoying the fact I was finally able to sit down


Nutrition was just about spot on fir this race, I think.
Pre-Race: cereal, bagel coffee, then shortly before swim about 1/2 a large powerade
Bike: roughly 600 calories of infinit, 1 gel and 1 1/2 packs of chomps, total calories in around 900-1000
Run: 3 gels, small cup of infinit and small cup of coke. So another 400 calories.
Not sure I could of taken any more in...