Took my time getting my rhythm down. Made it to the first turn in 12 minutes! About halfway across the back side of the square, it felt like I was going out to sea a little bit as I was swimming. Swimming in a straight line is one thing I can do, so I didn't think too much about it. Even glided on a few breaths to thank the safety 'yakers that I swam past. Made the last turn and realised that there was a little bit of current. All I wanted was to come in around 40 minutes and be out of T1 at 45 minutes. A little long on the swim, but I ended up getting out of the water in 41 minute and then a short walk to transition. New swim Personal Record (PR)!!!!

No much, maybe go a little harder, but I did set a PR...

Good transition. I took my time to not forget anything.

Not much.

Started off on a briliant note - I didn't open the velcro on my shoes and spent most of the first mile fighting with them to get my feet in and strapped up... Oh well, no worries. Felt good keeping my speed going through the turns and curves. Had the spedometer between 18 and 22 mph most of the time with my power between 150 and 200 watts. Was feeling really good about my pace and was on track to do the bike in 1:15 - another Oly PR! Well, that changed around mile 15. Turned into a nice headwind and some sun and pretty much cooked for about 10 minutes and that was it for me. I've grown to tolerate heat well, just not direct sun. I've never been able to tolerate it at all. It took me over an hour to ride the last 10 miles. I even stopped for a couple of minutes around mile 20 because I was getting a little woozy. It sucks to look down at the powermeter and see 200 watts for a lousy 11 mph. Couldn't even get my heart rate above 160. Blech. I took my feet out of my shoes about two miles from transition to cool them off a little and just sat up for the last four miles or so. I spent the last 10 minutes convincing myself that all I had to do was come in to transition, change into my running stuff and get out of transition onto the run course. I could quit any time I wanted after that, but I was at least going to get out on the run course...

Not blow up? I guess only do races above the Mason-Dixon line until August, then only race North of the US/Canadian border until November...

I sat down after racking my bike to put on some socks and my running shoes. I had a fresh shirt for the run and put it on. Got my race belt and headed out. Well, to be honest, after sitting there for a few minutes I really had to push myself to move. At that point I wanted nothing more than to lay down and quit. I've never felt like that in a tri before and I didn't like it. A little bit of self-inflicted verbal abuse and I was on my way out onto the run course :)

Nothing.

I walked shuffled out of T2 determined to walk as much of the course as I could. If they closed the course and pulled me, then so be it, but I was going to do everything I could to get back to the finish line. I ran into Coach Joe coming out of transition and told him that I felt like crap (bad headache at this point and feeling warm and nauseated), but I was going to walk until they pulled me. He agreed that I would hate myself if I quit, so that was settled - I'm walking. Walking out of transition, there were a bunch of purple people cheering me on and telling me that I looked great. Seriously? Don't BS me, please. I felt like crap and looked like hell (after the race I realised that I was coated with salt - no wonder it hurt to wipe my brow). Actually it was kind of embarrassing to have people cheering for me when I was doing so poorly. Plus, the yelling and cowbelling was doing wonders for my headache. About half a mile later I hear someone calling me. It's Coach Joe! "Seriously dude, you don't need to walk with me. I'll be back in a couple of hours :)" "Well, I've got nothing else to do, so I'll just go for a stroll." I appreciated that he didn't try to pace me, cause that would have been cheating ;) I dumped water on my head and drank a swig of Gatorade at each aid station. Coach Joe picked up a can of diet Coke for me from one of the families spectating the race. Not one to break the rules, I wouldn't take it from him. Although once he sat it down at the aid station table and I had a race volunteer touch it, it was mine all mine! Made it to the turn around with a nice stitch in my side. Not sure if it was from walking, or laughing at Coach Joe quote movies (he does a great Napoleon Dynamite), but I was feeling tolerably coming back to the aid station before mile four. They were starting to clean up and I saw a couple of pieces of pizza that they were about to throw out. "Hey, you aren't going to throw that out are you??" Score!! Coach and I both got a slice of cheese pizza. That was the best tasting slice I've ever had :) And, it only took Joe a mile to talk me out of trying to develop pizza flavored gel in my kitchen upon my return home... Anywho, the caffeine and the pizza perked me right up and I actually managed to pick up the pace a wee bit and pass someone. Holy S#!t, I passed someone on the run?!?!?! COOL! Well, that lasted until mile five. I choked on a bit of the pizza crust and started coughing. The coughing brought my headache back in full force and that was about it. Every footfall made my head hurt even more. Stupid happy cheering people... QUIET DOWN, MY HEAD HURTS!! *ouch, no yelling Frank* :) About halfway through mile five, a couple more of my TnT peeps found me and we all walked it back together. I managed to make it back feeling a little better and when I saw the finish line, I cast off my bottle of Gatorade (one benefit of being slow is that they give you the whole bottle to carry instead of the little cup thing) into a trash can the size of a large Yugoslavian automobile (nothing but net) and ran across the finish line. I've run, log rolled, crawled, limped and cartwheeled across finish lines, but never walked and I wasn't to start today. Whew! I really don't remember crossing the finish line, but I remember sitting down to take off my timing chip and getting my medal. My honored teammate Ryan is going to have quite a collection of finishers medals this year :)

Quit? Not cook myself on the bike? Who knows...

Sit in a chair in the shade of the TnT tent.


I got cooked from the heat. I guess this was probably on of my worst races ever performance-wise, but I'm really happy that I didn't quit. I gave myself two hours for a pity party and then set the task of feeling good about my accomplishment. I helped raise some money for a good cause (St. A's TnT'er raised 2.1 million dollars this year - yep, that's million) and finished a race even when I didn't feel like it or want to. *sigh* Good stuff!