Went out and hung with the first pack out the the turn, then lost them. Found some feet to the next turn, then could only find swimmers from other previous waves getting in my way... I swam an inside track to try to avoid them. I felt some fatigue in my arms - probably what I would expect considering my heavy training week leading up to the race.
I was 30" slower than last year :(

Learn how to draft better. I simply need to work on hanging onto those DAMNED feet. I tend to drift off because I don't like the bubbles from the person kicking in front of me, but I need to stay with them better.

a tad faster than last year, and considering the bad spot for my wave, this was a fine transition. Since it wasn't an A race, I didn't worry about going too fast - funny, but only the winner in my AG had a faster T1 than I did!!! Maybe I should take that relaxed approach more often :)

Nothing really - except the flying mount - which I will work on again, but I basically got blocked as the guy infront of me dead stopped and I figured I might as well just stop and mount at that point...

This was a tough ride. Old Stage NEVER ends!!! Which was fine. I actually felt like I climbed it pretty well. Then I backed off a bit and just tried to ride around 200 watts. Turns out my avg was just below that, so not bad. I could feel the Triple Bypass and my other 7 hours of riding leading into this race - this is what NO TAPER does to your legs on a bike :)
I took in 3.5 gels and 2 full bottles of Heed plus a few sips of water - the rest went over my head and legs.

Nothing - I had a big week leading into this race and this is what I would expect with that in consideration. This is where I lost the most time even though I was almost 3' faster than last year on the bike.

I had to move around some stuff (neighbor's wetsuit/ cap goggles) to get to my shoes and it was a little tight in there, so it took me an extra few seconds. Again, I just was pretty non-chalant about this. My wave DID have a good spot for this transition, so the time looks way fast. It was 5th in my AG, so OK.

Have more space :) RUN faster :)

Well, I started out strong, feeling good - except my stomache didn't really want that gel I was carrying... Then I saw Ben and ran along with him for a while (he gave me 2 endurolytes, which I hoped would help the junk feeling and the quad cramp that was just starting...) Then Martina and Megan Boord passed me and I figured who cares anyway - I'm not going to catch them back - this is a B race and not worth killing myself for 2 days over. I think slowing down was a bad idea because then my body wanted to stop. I did walk from the turn around back to the aid station just before it to try to relieve the cramping and see if I could ingest some gatorade or the gel - I did get some gatorade in and some water. Started running again and within the next mile I felt good and picked it back up to "race pace". Finished OK with no kick or anything - not worth it in the heat and with nothing at stake.

Not slow down?? Take endurolytes sooner??

jogged a tad with MArtina and Kathleen - then walked. AND ATE!!!


I didn't treat this as a race, so my training limited me. And the heat I guess.


Another great race by 5430!!! Although I wish bike support was there earlier than 6AM since bikes need to be back into transition by 6:30...