Once I was in the water and realized it wasn't going to be a terribly crowded and thrashing start, I was thinking I could have a really good swim. Really, there was no reason not to. It was a straight shot, we weren't sighting into the sun, and you could never get too far to one side or severely off course because of the river banks. As I was sitting in the water though, I was having mild bouts of anxiety about the race (it was like this on and off for most of the day or two leading up to it) and then I just figured that it was my race and of course there are going to be a lot of people faster than me so I just needed to do what I can and be happy with it. Focusing on me instead of everyone else seemed to lift a lot of that tension and then we were off.

There was minimal contact and instead of flooring it, I started out nice and easy just as planned. I picked it up some after about 200 yards and got into a good, steady rhythm. My plan was to stay just above a moderate effort until the turn around and then push it some more on the way back. I had some feet sporadically, but I realized the feet I was on were too slow, not to mention his navigating was worse than mine. When I finally decided to pass, I had no problem and was kicking myself for not doing so earlier. About 3/4 of the way back, I got passed by someone from the wave behind me (started in 8' intervals). Whoever it was they were flying. They had 20 feet on me in the time it took me to sight twice. I kept doing what I needed to, but found myself in the middle of no-man's land with no feet out there. Then I saw the finish and picked it up a little more. I got out of the water at 38'04", which was well beyond the 35' I had hoped for.

Running up the mat there were two guys in front of me walking and talking. Since it was rocks outside of the mat leading up to T1, I couldn't go around. After waiting for a few seconds to see if they'd move, I just busted through like it was 4th and inches. I was too out of breath to really talk, but kind of got out a "scuse me."

Thinking about my swim a little bit, I definitely have the endurance part down, but lack a little bit of the strength and that's all on me. As I got busier at work in the last few weeks, if there was a workout that needed to be skipped, I'd sacrifice the swim. Whether that was 30" or 3' for this race I don't know, but I'm sure it played something of a role. Also, I could have pushed a little harder on the way back in. I probably took it too comfortable and could have stepped it up a notch. That said, I didn't feel wasted at all coming out of the water which may have served me well for the rest of the race.

Aside from trying to take off my wetsuit, put on shoes and socks while dancing around on rocks, T1 went well. Also, since it's a point to point race, we had to pack up T1 into a plastic bag which also took a second or two. But I didn't lose anything in this race by a second or two so that's mostly a non-issue.

Bring a towel to stand on. Oops.

This is probably the most technical bike course I've been on from the standpoint of having a lot of corners as well as rolling, winding roads that had plenty of places for error. I saw 3 people that had crashed (one in a stretcher - hope he's alright). Really, it's one of those courses where if you start to lose focus, you could find yourself eating pavement. Part of that's also due to the mix of chip seal and some shadows that make it hard to see everything. It can be a little hypnotizing. To be clear, that's not a knock against the course or the race, but it's not a casual ride where you can just put your head down and hammer.

Coming out of T1 there's a small hill and you mount your bike on the hill. I saw a guy running his bike to the top, passing several people so I followed suit and mounted at the top. Worked great. Then there's about 4-5 miles of flat to slightly downhill before a really sharp turn that was also great to settle in, spin the legs and get ready to go. I loved that part of it. As I was going I felt really good and my legs were strong. I was passing plenty of people and everyone out there was really encouraging. I got more good jobs, way to go, and otherwise encouraging comments in this race than all the races I've ever done combined. In addition to that, riders were very courteous about pointing things out as if it were a group ride. Whether it was an ejected bottle, loose rocks, or anything else, people were great about helping others avoid it.

My plan for the ride was to average between 200-210 watts. I checked my average after 1 hour and was at about 215. I kept to my nutrition plan pretty well so I didn't lose too much power at the end. However, after the second gel I started to feel it come back up. Or maybe just not go down all the way. I really thought I might barf but kept going. Same thing happened after the third one so I ended up one gel short for the ride. Also, when I opened my Clif Bar early on, my Endurolytes fell out of the bento box. All of them. Finally, my bottle ejected from the saddlewing at some point near the end. I had taken about 3/4 of it, but still wanted the rest. I probably ended up about 150 calories short of where I wanted. Not devastating, but I would have liked to have them.

As I rolled through the second hour, I was still over 200 watts and feeling good. At some point, I let off a little bit and pushed around 180-185 watts on mostly flats and small rollers in anticipation of a hill that's at mile 45 (I think). It's steep but short. Feeling good, I had been looking forward to it. I put on a good effort to get up it and probably passed 15 people in that short section alone. I knew from there it was mostly smooth sailing to the end of the bike.

Coming into the bike finish I wanted to be under 2:40:00 and I would have sworn I was, but apparently not. There was one point on the course where I had to stop for about 45" (as did everyone) because a firetruck and ambulance were going through the intersection. Not a huge delay, but maybe that's my sub-2:40:00. Who knows. Either way, my average watts were 206 right where I wanted to be.

As I was getting ready to dismount, we come in and there are 3 speed bumps since it's in a high school parking lot. The guy about 20 feet in front me crashed his bike going over the first one. And he hit the pavement pretty damn hard. I felt bad but then looked up and saw a couple people running out to help him and they stepped right in front of me. Not trying to be an inconsiderate dickhead, but they almost made me crash too and after maneuvering to avoid the fallen rider,I couldn't maneuver anywhere in time to do anything else. Fortunately, they got out of my way just in time.

Nothing. I was really happy with this bike time and the effort on a tough course. I need to re-check my ergomo but I think there was 2000' of climbing on the course. I'll edit this if that's not true after I download things.

Running into T2 with my bike took a while because my rack was a ways down and I was behind a slow person. Aside from that, the process went really smoothly. When I got off my bike though, the first two things I noticed were that my left hamstring was tight and so was my lower right back.

Not a lot to do differently.

I started the run slightly concerned about how my legs would respond because I pushed harder on the bike than in my last HIM and I still had bike legs. Once I got going though, within the first mile my legs worked out and I did the first mile sub-7. I knew that was too quick but my effort wasn't high at all so I went with it. Next mile was around 7:15 then 7:45 and then 8:00 which was right where I wanted to be. I was surprised that I moved through the first four miles that easily and quickly since, again, my effort was not that of whatever the average pace is for those first 4 miles.

Somewhere in mile 4 there's a decent hill, but fortunately it's shaded. After that it's completely exposed. I don't know if it was the hill, the sun, the bike, or some combination thereof, but after running a couple miles in the sun the wheels started to fall off. I got to mile 6 and was walking through the aid stations. If they were selling, I was buying and in large quantities. Water, Gatorade, Water, Coke, orange, water for my head and move on. Where I was moving through them quickly just picking up something in stride earlier, I was now having a full on picnic and I wasn't alone. With just a little less than 6 miles to go I looked at my watch and it dawned on me that if I had the run of my life I could get in under 5 hours, and besides, what's a little 10k? I started thinking about everyone doing the Peak and figured it was hot as hell there and figured everyone got through it with good times and they were all sitting around drinking beers, which is what I wanted to be doing. So, intent on trying to go under 5, I picked up the pace to see what happened and for how long. What happened was that I ran about a 7:15 pace for a half mile and that was it. There was nothing more I could give. The best way to describe it is that it felt like I was a toy and someone screwed the bolts into my hips too tightly to limit their freedom of motion.

From there my mission became moving from one aid station to the next, hanging out there and moving on so I could finish. I ran all the parts in between, but took a nice 20-30" at each station (every mile). Once I passed the mile marker I knew I was home and just tried to hang on. I got passed by one guy but hung on to his feet to the end and passed him in the chute.

It's tough to say. I don't think going out at the pace I did was the reason I didn't have a better run. I've thought about how I just need to suck it up a little more, but for the 1/2 mile I tried and it didn't happen. My pace between the mile markers (and overall) isn't super terrible, but it's nowhere close to how awful I felt. If I ran 10s - 12s, that would be more consistent with how I felt. I don't know how I actually gained 3 spots in my AG other than assuming everyone else felt just as poorly.

Got my picture taken, had cold water sponges put over my neck and shoulders and laid in the shade behind the PowerBar tent. My body felt completely wrecked and didn't know how to respond. I literally felt like I should be laughing, crying, screaming and sleeping all at once. So instead I just tried staying out of the sun. Once I got up we walked around a little to get some food and then I got a massage, which was great. We didn't stick around much longer though because it was so damn hot and there wasn't a ton of shade.


The sun? Need more heat training probably. Still, this was a PR at the HIM distance for me so I can't be completely disappointed. The run was sub-par but it was still a solid race even though I know I have more potential when all three parts come together.


This race went off without a hitch and is very well run. There were tons of volunteers and support, and the athletes were all friendly as well. My only complaint would that there needs to be more shade for the post-race activities. There were people eating their food in the dugouts of the baseball field, sitting alongside the high school to capture that 1 foot of shade, etc. Otherwise it was fun to be a part of.