Normal swim for me. Passed a breaststroker the first 100, then swam on my own till the last 50. Kept getting to close to the rope and slammed my face up against it once. Luckily nobody got a picture of that!

Got out after passing a guy the last 50. Managed to not get passed this time, so that's something I guess.

For some reason, whenever I'm sharing lanes with someone I have issues getting to close to the rope. Not sure why. Overcautious I guess.

Otherwise, my swim is about the same speed as it was this time last year, just with less effort. Even when I try to swim harder, I go about the same speed.

BRRRRRRRRR!

This was slow! Had to put on arm warmers and a long sleeve shirt. Had some issues getting my shoes on.

Start a campfire and make smores.

Felt ok to start with, was about 20 mph the first lap. I figured I would warm up and be able to hammer the second lap. Right before the hill on the backside of the course, I got passed by Ahmed. Noticed he slowed down a lot going uphill to fiddle with something on his bike. I figured it was the only chance I'd ever have to do it, so I stood up and hammered up the hill, passing him.

After that, he got back up to speed and left me behind of course. Think I made him mad or something.

Lap 2 I started to feel the burn. Not the burn of pushing really hard, this was different. My thighs were freezing since I didn't have anything besides shorts on. That coldness just sucked the life out of me the rest of the lap. Did manage to pick off a few more riders, but I didn't feel very strong.



Wear tights!

Also, had a minor nutrition issue. I put my gel in my tri top pocket. But then I put my long sleeve shirt and race belt on, so I had no way to get to it. Not that it mattered, it probably would have been frozen anyway.

One more thing - I managed to hit my Lap button with about a mile to go. So my Garmin data was incomplete. It registered the last mile as T2. Oops.

At St Pat's, I had trouble in T2 because I couldn't feel my feet. This time I was numb all the way up my thighs.

Had to sit down to get my socks and shoes on. That took a few tries. Hard to get socks on feet you can't feel.

Walked to the chip line while trying to get my Garmin set up for the run. Took quite a bit of ribbing from the gang about that - "This isn't swim bike walk!" etc.

Space heater?

No legs and no desire to run. Shoe came untied about 1/2 mile in, but I didn't feel like messing with it. Just wanted to be done.

Had to use the "pass this guy before this spot" trick. First mile was on target, but I was cold. When I started seeing snowflakes, I had to laugh. At that point I could tell it wasn't going to be a PR day. Just focused on trying to pass people and not let myself get passed.

It worked, I passed 26 people on the run and didn't get passed by anyone. All things considered, I'd call it a pretty good run. It wasn't as fast as I was shooting for, but that's OK. Not every race can be superfast. And compared with the overall times, it was on par.

Not sure if missing the gel on the bike cost me, but it would have been nice mentally to have that.

Tights would have been good. Legs still felt burnt by the cold.

Hmm, since I didn't really break a sweat, warming down wasn't a problem. Did some walking around and stretching, got some clothes on and went back inside the pool for some pancakes while Shannon ran.


THE COLD!


Beginning to think this even is cursed. It's been cold and windy the last 2 years. Maybe they should change the name to the "PleasantMan" or the "BalmyMan" Triathlon.