Well, I unintentionally grabbed a lot of spandex-covered ass on this swim. I dunno what was going on, for the first 1/4 of the race it seemed like every time I reached my hand forward I was grabbing somebody else's ass. I mean, it wasn't like I meant to do this, but don't you think that the law of averages would dictate that I'd grab the occasional shoulder blade or calf or swim cap? But no, it was ass ass ass ass ass.

Despite that ass-nastiness, I had a fairly good swim. I controlled my breathing quite well coming out of the washing tub, and felt long and lean in the water. About halfway through, I consciously changed my stroke to roll more and stroke more slowly and smoothly. Those are the kinds of adjustments that I just wouldn't have been able to make without experience and lots of TIPS -- that's Time In the Pool for Stupidnickname.

The third quarter of the course was getting choppy; so I got a few facefuls of water. I saw more people getting picked up by the kayakers than I had seen before at an HFP race; I don't know if it was the chop, or possibly some more newbies had been pulled out of the woods for this race, which HFP builds up to over the course of the year. Can't tell.

I was about to my limits of swimming by the time we came around to the finish, which was a good thing. But it means I have to swim more if I'm going to increase distance in next season.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, I came out of the water first in my age group -- what's up with that? Perhaps my "race when everyone else stays home because of the rain" strategy paid off!

Sight better. Figure out how to draft.

I don't have a wetsuit and I don't do the shoes-on-bike trick, so a lot of the T1 stuff doesn't apply to me. I did okay here, not great -- the run up the muddy hill from the beach is included in the swim time, not in the T1 time.




Learn how to do the shoes on bike trick, start training barefoot.

I loves my bike. I totally do. I zipped along on this road -- the headwind/crosswind was heinous on the first quarter and last quarter of the loop, but on the back half of this route, I was zipping along, sometimes at 24 mph average. Loved it, loved it, loved -- talked to a bunch of people along the way, ate a Hammer gel and some whole wheat fruit newtons and a bottle of water along the way. (I had put three whole bottles of water on the bike, which is what I normally take on my long bricks, making sure to drink two whole bottles on most bricks and having one extra for very hot days, but since it was so cool that morning, I decided that I wasn't sweating all that much, wasn't in direct sun, and didn't need all that water -- so I made a judgement call, and it seemed okay. Yet another example of superior judgement being available from experience.)

Saw phoenix on the second loop -- she was just starting her first loop for the half. Go phoenix!

It's a bit disheartening to come of the second loop on the bike and see people already coming back off the run -- I assume they were sprinters, not elite olympic distance, though I could be wrong.

I see from the official race results that I was also first in my AG off the bike. Sure didn't know this at the time . . .

Nothing? Get lower and more aero on the bike to stay out of headwind, perhaps.

Good transition, could perhaps be faster.

Learn to do the shoes-on-bike thing.

Well, this is where the rubber met the road -- I didn't see them pass me, but two members of my age group appeared to pass me on this run, one of them beating me by more than ten minutes on this segment. So, unbeknownst to me, I was in first place in my AG up until this time, and then fell two slots. That having been said, there was no way on God's green earth that I was going to beat the guy who beat me on the run, taking first place in the AG -- he ran a 43 minute 10k, for god's sake. That's a 6:30min/mile pace for 6 1/2 miles -- that's amazing!!!!!

I had a fast (for me) first mile at 7 minutes, then I had a slow second mile (felt a bit of pain in my stomach, a few cramps on this) at ten minute/mile. Still, I thought (and so did other people) that the first mile was measured short and the second mile was measured long. Whatever.

From that point on, though, I thought I got better -- picked it up until the last mile, really, and thought I was doing well. The last mile I was getting a bit punchy; running back over the dam, I swear I was singing the words of Tom Petty's "Running Down a Dream," and I was getting a bit spooked about how the words of the song matched up with my reality:

For the last three days
The rain was unstoppable
it was always cold
no sunshine.

And I was thinking to myself, "YEAH! that's right -- it's been raing for three days here . . . HOW DID TOM PETTY KNOW THAT?!?!?!?"

So, pretty much, I was losing it; at about the limits of my ability. I was praying I wasn't going to get passed by anyone in my AG, and I didn't see anyone . . . the other guys in my AG must have passed me earlier . . .

Still, had enough left in the tank to finish strong, so it worked out alright. Walked through some of the water breaks, drank gatorade and poured water over my head, but ran everything else.

Train more. My a$$ hurts a bit today, afters -- clear sign that my butt/glutes aren't quite up to the challenge? More conditiong, more mile.

So, in the finish line chute, I got told that I was third -- I yelled "YEAH!" so loud that I think I scared the pants off the girl who was handing out awards. I didn't notice if I actually scared the pants off her, I was so excited. This was my goal for my last sprint -- to place in my AG -- and I was disappointed when I didn't do it. So, what I needed to do to place was increase my distance, thus decreasing the size of my AG, and wait until it rained for three days straight, thus decreasing the size of my AG.

Walked around, met cincymatt in the TA as I packed up my stuff, got some food, got a shower in the outdoor showers, packed up and left. Felt bad that I wasn't going to stay around to cheer phoenix on, but I had to get home to watch the Steelers get beat by the Bungles, dammit.


It could rain more, thus cutting down my AG to one . . . in which case I would take first (cough cincymatt cough).

Hmmmm. I think I did fairly well for my first oly. I think I could run faster, and I know I could bike faster . . . it's just going to take time, training, conditioning, and experience.

HR training, here I come.


I like HFP. It's a cheap, small, low-stress race out in a small state park. What's not to like? I think I'm going to do the series next year . . .