Started out steady, and was able to maintain my pace for pretty much the whole swim. No stopping to do breaststroke or look around a bit--just swam and sighted and swam and sighted the whole way. Probably could have gone faster, but my pacing was much better than it has been in the past.

Could have been faster, but bike gloves are hard to get on with wet hands.

Practice! And probably run over the transition in my head as I'm nearing the end of the swim. I think I was a bit disoriented and didn't have a clear idea of what I was doing (even though I've done this a few times before), and that cost me some time.

Freakin' pedal crank came CLEAN OFF about 7 miles into the ride. Started coming loose and about 30 seconds later it was dangling from my shoe. And since the nut was missing, there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. Fortunately the support car (with extra bikes!) was nearby and got to me pretty quickly. The guy took one look at the crank in my hand, said "ohh... that's not good," and took down the last extra bike he had on his rack--which was just my size! He had some trouble getting my pedals off my bike, but put them on the other bike and we adjusted the seat. He gave me a quick explanation of how the shifters worked (they were different from mine), and then he gave me a push and away I went. I didn't keep track of the lost time (whoops), but I estimate that I lost at least 10 minutes. Over the rest of the ride I discovered that a) I MUCH prefer my seat (I was hurting toward the end), and b) carbon fiber forks really do dampen vibrations from rough road (the replacement bike didn't have a carbon fork, so my hands were a little jarred by the end).

There was also MASSIVE headwind (est. 20mph) on the first half of the ride. Before my bike broke down, I was averaging something like 12.5-13mph. And this was a flat course!!! It was brutal. I dropped down onto the drop bars, though, and was able to go faster that way (oddly enough, I didn't see anyone else doing that--no one who had a plain road bike sans aero bars was trying to go aerodynamic). When I hit the turnaround, though...!!! All of a sudden I was flying. It was great. Made amazing time on the way back, and even with the time I lost due to mechanical problems, ended up in a great position to make my overall time goal.

Check the tightness of my crank nuts before I ride!

Pretty fast transition. Legs were a little wobbly running with the bike, but I was fine. Easy switch from bike shoes to running shoes, and I put my race belt on as I was running, so I didn't have to wait for that.

Eventually I'll get bold enough to unfasten my shoes while I'm still on the bike, so that I can take my feet out as I'm riding... but not yet.

Fortunately the headwind on the bike was in the first half, so on the second half I didn't have to push very hard. Legs started off on the run feeling pretty good. Settled into a comfortable, sustainable pace early on and kept at it the whole way. I wouldn't be surprised if I slowed around mile 5, but around mile 6 I picked up the pace a bit, and for the last few hundred yards I went hard. Didn't stop to stretch at all, and only walked while I was drinking at the aid stations (only a few seconds at a time). Very pleased with that, given that this was the longest run I've ever done. Legs felt good the whole time: nothing crying out to be stretched, and my funny leg/groin thing didn't tweak at all (yay!). There were several times when I did feel pretty fatigued, but if I ate some gel or drank some water/gatorade I felt much better. I'm pleased that I averaged faster than 10min/mile. Oh, and I think I might have finally found the right lace tension in my shoes--no foot/toe numbness at all!

Not much! Maybe go a bit faster, but probably not much faster until I improve my running base.

Recovered VERY quickly. Waited a few minutes to eat, but I was feeling good again very, very quickly. This is probably one of the most encouraging aspects of my performance: I felt fine after just a few minutes! Of course, I started to feel tired (and stupid) later in the day, but immediately after the race I felt great.


Um. Broken crank! Headwind!


I'm going to be SO READY for Big Kahuna come September. It's going to be awesome. I wanted to see how this race went, and based on that, decide whether or not I thought it was realistic to do Big Kahuna. I will definitely be ready for a HIM in five months' time, no question about it. I might even be ready enough to do the HIM and then do the Chicago Marathon a month later. Maybe.