My goal was to just swim, not take things too hard (as recently as last week, I was still having trouble in the pool - really tired after 1000 or so). I started off in the front, but let a bunch of girls get out ahead of me. I was able to draft off of them for a bit. After a few minutes, my Garmin buzzed to say it was going to sleep - I hadn't actually started it, so I did then. After we got to the first buoy, we hit the back of the previous wave, so I had to do some more dodging. My navigation was really good - every time I looked up, the buoy was dead in front of me. I did a decent job rounding it (though lost my bearings a little - its' not a 90 degree turn) and doing the shot side of the rectangle. Things got very crowded coming back because we ran into the early Olympic waves, but I was able to keep to the inside (still going straight) and stay out of most people's way. I just took it very steady (I hesitate to say slow, but I wasn't pushing at all). Rounding the last buoy, I had a good heading and was able to pass a few ladies who were probably in my wave on the way to shore (hard to tell, though - all the women were wearing pink caps). I swam until my arm hit the bottom, took a few more strokes, then got up and tried to trot to transition. I made it over the timer and then stopped to walk - I was too shot to keep running.

Turn my Garmin on before the start (I wasn't paying close attention and it took me by surprise - if the starter was making any announcements, we couldn't hear him from the water.

T1 was a bit slower than usual. I walked to my spot and took a minute to get my bearings and get the garbage bag off my stuff so I could see what I needed to grab. It took me a bit to get the gunk off my feet and get my socks on. Everything else went smoothly, but I just took longer than I usually have to. While I was dithering, Simon and Don came into transition, so I waved at them on my way out.

On a better day, I'd run through transition and have my things arranged better. As it was, I was glad to have my sunglasses shoved in my shoes to keep them dry and a garbage bag over my other stuff.

I got on my bike and headed up the hill out of the park, but was only able to clip in my right foot. I tried all sorts of angles and positions, but if I stomped too hard on it, it made me slip dangerously. Halfway up the park exit, I pulled over and got off to check it out. Everything looked fine, so I got back on the bike, kept climbing, and tried some more. At the top of the hill, already frustrated, I got off and sat down to check out the shoe, which looked fine. (Don McDermott passed me there and asked if I was ok.) I decided just to keep going and keep trying to wiggle it in. The beginning of the course (mostly downhill) went well. When I got to the first uphills, though, I had some trouble. I was mostly pushing with one leg, which was frustrating, and my left foot kept slipping off the pedal if I pushed too hard. I just kept telling myself to go slow and steady. I was so focused on dealing with this that I hardly noticed the rain at the beginning of the bike course. After about seven miles, I pulled over near a turn to try one more time to fix things, even loosening the cleat a bit (here I was passed by Simon, Denise, and Kevin). It still didn't work. I suffered through the rest of the course, struggling on hills and trying to make up for it on (wet) downhills without killing myself (I did very well on that, usually beating others on descents). I got up to 38.5 mph on one road toward the end, which was cool. The sky had cleared a bit and the sun was coming out at this point. By the time I got to the Three Bears, I was frustrated, though, and even considered getting off and walking up some of the way. I started off Papa Bear ok, but quickly was down to my smallest gear and just cranking laboriously. I decided not to stop because I was afraid to clip my other foot out at such slow speeds. I just put my head down and did it. The other two hills were equally annoying. I couldn't stand in the saddle because my left foot would likely slip, so there wasn't much I could do except endure it slowly. It was a relief to get back to the park road. I went down a bit slowly because it was a fast downhill and I didn't want to crash on the turn into transition when it came up.

I don't know. I stopped three times to fix the shoes, but I still don't know what was stopping them for clipping in. I think I did well considering my current conditioning and climbing hills with one leg.

When I entered transition, I snuck down along the edge because I was racked there and most of the racks were quite far from the fence. I had to lift my bike over stuff at the last rack, but was able to make it in there easily enough. I took a moment to get my composure while swapping gear, then turned to run out. I had seen Simon getting ready and leaving just ahead of me.

Under the circumstances, nothing. My stuff was a bit scattered, though - I don't think I left it that badly, so maybe someone else messed it up? It should have been more organized.

This was not good. I started to run out of transition, but immediately was faced with a hill that my calves were not prepared to handle. My right calf and glute felt hard as rocks from the bike (the left side, which hadn't worked as hard, was ok) and I just couldn't take it. I decided just to run the flats and downhills and walk the hills from the beginning. It was really tough. My running mantra became "That's ok." I'm walking, but that's ok. My run pace is awful, but that's ok. My calf feels terrible, but that's ok. I'm finishing embarrassingly slowly, but that's ok. It was a bit pessimistic, but it kept me going. By halfway through, I had to walk on some of the flats as well and was really feeling tightness in my right leg. Some dehydration chills hit me toward the end of the race - I should have brought my bottle with me. I had been stalking Simon the whole time and he was in as bad shape as me, so the distance between us stayed basically the same. When he finished the uphill from the parking lot and turned to head toward the finish, walking, he caught a glimpse of me, walking up the hill behind him, and I ironically shouted "I'm coming for you!" I did start running intending to try and catch him on that road, but had to keep stopping because I still felt awful. I managed to run through the whole finish chute, though, and even accelerate up to the line, so that was face-saving at least, but I never caught him.

I'm very undertrained right now, between car accident rehab through March and a bad case of the flu at the end of April (my flu cough even came back a little after the race). I haven't run more than 3 miles this year. I wasn't expecting a great run, though this was even more challenging than I anticipated. If I'd been clipped in properly on the bike, it probably would have been a bit easier, but not a lot.

Said hi to Simon at the finish line and he dragged me to grab food immediately. I piled too much food on my plate and, once I started eating it, stopped feeling queasy and just plowed through it. In retrospect, I was a bit dehydrated so I should have had more to drink, but the food was needed too (though I don't usually eat that much afterward). Sat around with club members for awhile, started to listen to the awards (we thought Fabrizio's 12-year-old son would get one, but the AGs started at 19 and under), and then went to pack up our stuff. When we were packing, I heard them announcing my AG, but I had already looked and seen I'd gotten fourth, so I tried to ignore it . . . but they started to call a name, said something I couldn't hear, and then called my name in third place! I ran over and took my award, a bobblehead trophy, while protesting that I didn't think I won it. The RD said that the 1st place person had gotten DQed, so I'd moved up. (The results still don't show this, but whatever. I'm home with it now and it's a cool trophy.) With that, I actually did gather my stuff and drive home to an epsom salt bath.


Injuries, sickness, and the undertraining that they caused. I knew it wasn't going to be pretty going in.