First OW wetsuit swim ever. Only my fourth OW swim ever, all of which are in races. It was an ok swim for me. I'm still not great with sighting, and I swim up on slower people and stop. At least with the wetsuit on, I could relax more in the water and save my legs for the rest of the race.

Seed myself a little higher so that I don't swim up on slower people. Practice more in the OW. I'm way faster than this in the pool.

I'm usually dead out of the water and walking/taking a break during T1. I ran outta the water this time to the wetsuit strippers. Told the girl to leave my pants on when she pulled my wetsuit off. She did.

Learn to leave my shoes on the bike.

People started off pretty slow in the winding sections of the course. I said, "Screw that" and passed a bunch of them. This is a race, people. I realized quickly that something got dislodged with my bike computer, so I had no speed or distance (and I've already broken the cadence sensor) for the entire ride. Got to the out and back section, put it in a big gear, and put the hammer down (yes, my little hammer). The out section felt really good. Now I know what it's like to pass people. I like it. Got passed by far fewer people than in my previous races. All I could think when they went by was, "Cool. I wanna do that." Turned to come home and realized that we didn't have a true crosswind. It was more like a quarterwind, and it was now hurting a little. I fought it a bit with my Blackwells, but it wasn't too bad overall. Turned back into the winding section and passed a few more people who forgot it was a race. Launched a water bottle near the end too. Anybody wanna buy an XLab Saddlewing? Dismounted about 20 feet before the line to avoid people in front of me stopped.

Practice a flying dismount. This was about as good as I could ride given the training I've done. I was disappointed at seeing only an 18.4mph average, but then I saw where I ranked and realized that it wasn't all that bad.

Needed some water since I didn't drink much on the bike and launched my water bottle. Spilled a drink right outta T2 and went back to get more. Had to drink something.

Not be a dumbass and go backwards for water.

I surprised the hell out of myself with this run. My 5K PR is only slightly faster than this. I am not a runner, and I'm usually dead at this point and walk a lot. I did have some extra motivation to do well with the bet between Laurie and myself. That didn't really keep me going though. I just kept talking to myself.

"I wanna walk."
"Why?"
"Because it hurts."
"Are you gonna die?"
"Nope."
"Then shut up and keep running. Are you gonna throw up?"
"I don't think so."
"Then shut up and keep running."
"I'm getting blisters."
"Has anyone ever died of a blister."
"Actually...."
"Shut up and run, doctor boy."

I gave in twice and walked a total of about 10 steps. That made me feel bad enough to start running again and faster. Seeing the BT aid station helped a lot too. I rounded the corner and see all these fools yelling at me. For those who weren't there, the aid station was on the corner of a loop, so you saw them twice in about a minute or two. Thanks, guys. You kept me going.

My best case scenario for this race was 1:30. I kept calculating my time during the run to see if I'd make it. I thought it would be close. Saw the finish line and hauled ass. 1:25 and change. Holy crap, how fast was I running?

My rank sucked on the run, but this was a huge surprise for me to run this well. It's motivation to do even better in the future.

Figure out my blistering issues. I've started running almost solely in my Nike Frees lately, but I tape my feet before normal runs to prevent blisters. My tape fell off in the water at this race. I just ignored the pain and ran, but I suffered for it the next few days. Maybe I just need to suck it up and get some callouses.

Walked around and saw Tag and Ron. Watched Laurie and Steve run by. Got drenched by the torrential downpour that started before we ran into the tent.


Lack of OW swimming experience. Lack of consistent training.


This was a well organized race and a very good race for me. This has renewed my confidence that I can break outta the BOP with some training.