Well my goal was less than 40 min's and I would be happy. I told Eric that I had a dream I did it in 33 min's so under 30 is better than a dream for me. After my race 2 weeks ago (750m) I just wanted to finish this thing without help. Swam freestyle the whole way and got into a rhythm pretty quickly. The back straight was tough to site since we were swimming directly into the sun and I never saw the bouys until I was right on them. I also didn't know how many bouys there were as markers along the course and everytime I came upon one I thought this must be the finish only to find out they were orange and course markers, not the turn bouys. Overall, fantastic swim for me.

I probably could swim this faster, hard to believe but I just kind of set the cruise control and focused on just swimming. I would also count the number of marker bouys to know how many there are between turns.

Getting out of the water we had a good long run up hill to tranistion that was probably 1/4 mile thru a grassy field. I had my bike set up so as I crested the hill it was the first thing I saw in the back of the transition area. I liked the location. Wetsuit was stuck on my heels and needed to sit to take it off. Other than that transition was pretty good. It was nice to see my son and Eric there cheering me on. I was told my 4yr old ran the whole way from the water to the transtion area following me yelling out that he was there. Very cool to see family and friends there.

Nothing much.

I had ridden the bike course, or at least most of it so I knew what to expect. The first couple of hills were tough for my legs to adjust to since they weren't quite warmed up for the bike. The first 13 miles were into the wind and on one of the first hills I was going like 8.5mph. That wasn't any fun. In to the wind I had a hard time keeping the bike above 17.5-18.5mph and was hoping to eventually have that at my back. I was able to average 22-24mph on the way back for most of the ride. I was only passed twice and passed quite a few on the bike. However, I didn't have many behind me after my swim so there wern't many fast cyclist left I don't think.

Just more bike training. I have ridden about 800miles on my bike and need to go into the off season with a purpose. Planned hill workouts, bike trainer ect...

A decent transition, after dismounting bike you had a steep incline thru the grass to get up to the transition area. Only problem was I forgot the race number belt and had to turn around and get it.

Not forget race belt but I can see I have improved from my previous races.

Didn't really have any legs to start this but being on grass and soft ground for the majority of the run was nice. There were some dirt roads we had to run on that had rocks the size of your fist all over the road/ground. I did my best to run off the dirt road and in the grass as much as I could. On the run start it became overcast and quite cool which helped a lot. The sun would peek thru occassionall and you could feel the heat. After the first lap, Eric yelled out my time of 2:24 and told me I was going to break 3 hrs. I had a little over 2.5 miles to go and I knew I could run that in less than 35 min's. I was stoked on the last lap and picked up my pace a bit. I took a gel at the 4 mile marker and water at the aid station to last me thru the final push. At least I mentally picked it up, I don't know if I was actually faster or not since my lap splits were messed up as I screwed my watch trying to set a split coming out of transition.

Just more training. Pacing was good.

Walked around and drank some Endurox R4 and water. They had plenty of sandwhiches but food was the last thing I wanted. Talked to Jeff, Jeff and Eric and recovered.


Training. This was my first Olympic distance race and only my 3rd race so far.


I thought this was a good race. A little unorganized but it was put on my College students and I think they did a decent job. I will do this race again next year. The best part of this race for me was having someone there with me. My other two races have been solo. Having Eric cheer me on and remind me of things I needed were awesome. The best thing was seeing my son as I came out of the water, he was so excited and then to see him as I was taking off my wetsuit and knowing he ran the 1/4 mile or so up hill to transition is awesome. Could I have done this without them...yes, do I think my time would of been as good...I don't think so. Knowing they were waiting for me kept me going and kept me pushing myself. I don't know if they realize how big a help and motivation they were but they were awesome. Eric took a lot of pictures and video taped parts of the race...very cool. My goals were: 1)to finish 2) to finish in under 3:30 3) optimistic goal 3:15 4) stretch/dream time under 3 hrs....mission accomplished 2:47!!!

75/133 overall including College division: 50/80 for the open division: 8/10 age group