Not my best swim performance. My form was only so-so - I found myself thinking about the upcoming portions of the race a bit. For a change, I swam straighter with less zig-zagging, although I still want to work on sighting less. I did do better about drafting, and perhaps I picked some slower people to draft than I should have. Overall, though, I left the swim comfortable and not tired, which was the objective.

Sight less. Drills, drills, drill to make that technique totally automatic.

Moderate distance from swim exit to transiation. I jogged fairly quickly, but did drop in for the wetsuit stippers. (Awesome!) Pretty quick with helmet, glasses, etc. Pulled on socks with bike shoes b/c of blisters from yesterday. First time running in new Keo cleats. I was a little worried about them being slippery, but had no problems.

Didn't do a fully running leap onto bike, only b/c I did want to puch/land wrong and knock the seat all out of tilt. (Happened on the trainer earlier in the week!) Also, took me a bit longer than should have to clip into pedals.

Shoes already clipped in. Will be doing this, but haven't had chance to practice this and didn't want to test it on race day.

Only the second significant outdoor effort on the new bike, and it was a great one! That headwind was viscious, but I just concentrated on pushing through it. Didn't have a bike computer, so no speed or cadence during the race. Later calculated the following averages:
17.5mph outbound (~48min)
25.0mph return (~33min)
When I got passed, it was by folks that made me look like I was standing still. There were some fast people out there!
Raced with only one bottle (w/ Amino Vital) on the bike (only one cage mount, and I never got an aero bottle installed). Fortunately, I was lucky with the handups and had just the right amount of liquid for the conditions. (I did learn how hard it is to grab a bottle at full speed w/ sweaty hands.)
Used one Gu just after the turnaround. That gave my stomach plenty of tiem to settle before the run.

Because of how traffic was being stopped, I missed the final turn off the seawall back toward Moody Garden and had to make a u-turn through traffic to get back. I watched at least three people I had passed make the turn before I could get back. I was mad, so I pushed hard to get those positions back.

Get the disk wheel cover to fit the new bike. Would have been perfect for today. Need an aero or saddle-mount bottle for extra hydration.

Kept feet in shoes longer than some, which let me catch that last guy before T2. Smooth, fast dismount, although my bike 'bucked up' as I got off. (Did I grab the front brake somehow?. I had an image of Aaron (JeepFleeb) and his cut ankle at the last race.) My assigned rack spot wasn't the best, so I ran with bike through transition, unclipping helmet as I went. Slipped into shoes and grabbed race belt to put on once running. Good, fast transition

nothing

This turned out to be a great run for me. Much better than I'd hoped, and blew my 10K long-term goal out of the water. Grabbed a sip of Gatorade and water right at the start, then sips of only water for the rest of race. Felt like I was starting very slow, but looked at my watch saw a 6min first mile! Made conscious effort to keep it slower and better controlled after that. I was getting passed left and right by the army and navy folks. Dang they were fast!! (At least they were all in the 20-24 age group. Still they really skewed the overalls.)

It was great hearing my name from folks at the BT aid station. Thanks everyone! I was concentrating and used only handsignals for 'water' and 'thank you' the entire run. Hope those volunteers know ASL. The junior high cheerleading squads out on the course were also a fun touch.

Caught up with Chris (CoreDump) around mile three, and spent the rest of the race thinking he was right behind me. I chased one guy for the last mile, but near the final stretch, someone came running out of the parking lot between us. Don't know if he was resting, nature call, whatever. So now I was chasing two guys. Turns out they were both in my age group, and were only 6 sec ahead of me at the end. I had been gaining, too, and would have caught them with another quarter mile or so.

Push that much harder at the end. Start final ramping effort .75mi-1mi out, rather than at ~.5 mile point.

Beth was there at the end taking pictures, so I got the camera and waited for Chris (CoreDump). Got some great shots of his finish. Then we headed over to register for the massage before stopping in the expo booth for food.

I ended up 6th in my age group!!!

For a while I was in 5th, and only 7 seconds out of 3rd. However, another finisher's result was later added at 3rd place, which bumped me back to 6th. (Still only 7 seconds out of 4th) Chris said that the 5th place finish would have qualified me for Nationals. Of course, this led to the requisite jokes about needing to shave my legs. :)

Eventually found a bunch of the other BTers, so there was plenty of race talk and congratulation all around. It was great. I'll try to get pics posted soon.

Funny note: I now have a reverse-imprint of BT logo in the sunburn on my shoulder becuase I had on a BT temp tattoo. :)


Swim practice.


The best race I've done so far. Fantastic venue, very well organized, tons of volunteers and support, good amenities and expo. Logistics handled great, and race directors were responsive to email and forums. I am thrilled that Endorfun is now running races in our state. I'll definitely be coming back again.