I was a couple of minutes slower than the last sprint distance in Clermont; it's OK because I believe the course was longer today. I checked on the times of several people including the top finishers today, who were there for the last race. They were all at least 2 minutes slower.

Nuthin'. Good swim for me; didn't hit anybody, felt comfortable, sighting was good.

Transition went fine. No drama..until I hopped on the bike. See below.

I hopped on my bike out of transition..and I had a flat. I hurriedly pulled the wheel, only to find that my tire levers were missing from the bag. I was pretty sure that it was a slow leak, so I hit it with the CO2, put it back together, and rode out. Cost me about 3 1/2 minutes.

I didn't really feel like I had much power on the bike, as my breathing wasn't great thanks to the flu. I sat down and spun and tried to make the best of it, and blew snot rockets. :) I took corners easy as my tire was losing pressure throughout the race; it probably had 40 psi or less by the end of the bike.

It still appears that my time would've been about the same as last sprint without the flat. I was passed a couple of times but went by them in turn each time. I did catch up to the eventual Clydesdale winner, a guy I raced against last year, and traded the lead with him most of the way back. Then he ran away from me. That's a fast big dude. :)

Not have a flat, not be sick!

No drama. I did take the time to put on socks this race; I got some blisters at the HOT running sockless.

I was panting like my dog, only with less drool, heading out. After a mile or so I was able to get my breathing (and presumably heart rate) under control and speed up.

I'm glad I went down and did the race, flu and all. A little something for everyone: drunks sobering up at Denny's, snot rockets and Shart Guy (more on him later...).

I stayed the night at the local home stay place; it's hard to beat $20/night when you're by yourself, and you can go back and shower after the race.

I am starting to recognize a lot of faces (and other body parts!) of people who're regulars at these races. It's good to have people to bench mark your progress against.

I had the last aftermath (I hope) from my Week O' Flats; I had a flat a couple of nights ago on the Calfee, and had to fix it last night before heading down to Clermont. I had pinch flatted, I thought, so I took the tire off, checked it, and put another tube in. Pump it up...Blooey! After inspection I thought I'd pinched the tube and put another in. Same thing..blooey again. Finally I got smart and found the cut in the tire. Luckily, I had new tires but I was out of new long stem 650 tubes. No fear, I put a patched tube in there. Aired it up, all appeared good. That bit me this morning as it had a slow leak and resulted in me losing 3-4 minutes on the bike.

OK, on to Shart Guy, or as Susan Haag referred to him, Fecal Man. :o Those of sensitive disposition might want to quit reading now.

I was on the last half mile or so of the run when I hear a guy overtaking me. He's puffing, and gives this big grunt of effort every so often..."UNNNHHH!". OK, whatever..he's passing me so he must be doing something right. When he gets past, I am appalled to see a HUGE BROWN SHIT STAIN on the back of his shorts. There's no real way to finesse this; he'd had a major shart, apparently. I wanted to yell, "Dude! Detour to the showers!" but really, what can you say?

Needless to say, he became the hot topic of post-race discussion, prompting Susan to surreptitiously check his times. He'd gotten 3rd in his age group. Maybe that's what it takes?! :) He did clean up and change before I saw him again, and I had to shush Susan when he went to claim his award and she started cheering, "Yay, Fecal Man!".

Anyway, it was a good race, with bonus entertainment, and I tried to use it as a half Iron pacing exercise on the bike. Not sure how successful that was. I note that there are TONS of fast guys in the 40-44 AG. Of the top 5 overall finishers, 4 out of 5 were in their 40s!

Enough typing; I need a rest as I'm operating on 5 hours of sleep and I mowed the lawn when I got home.