This was a different course than what was on their website, but was still decent. the only problem was that in the line of bouys, there was not a single bouy from about 600 yards, to about 950 yards. It made it really hard to sight, and make sure you were not off course.

I seeded myself about 1/2 way back in the first wave, and it seemed to be about the right place to be. There was only one person who attempted to swim over me and I did not have to swim over anyone to get moving. There was one guy who I was able to draft off for a while, but quickly realized that he was not that great of a navigator, so I bid him adeau.

On the way out, my performace was dead on where I wanted it to be, I was hoping for a :37 minute split and when I hit the turn around bouy my watch said 18:22, which would have brought me in just under the :37 minute mark.

On the way in, the aforementioned lack of bouys did not do me any favors. I was having a hard time navigating for the first 500 yards of the way back in. Appearantly others were as well, because I even had a head on colision with another swimmer. Luckily for us, I was just popping my head out of the water to sight, and he was right there. I stuck my hand out and he ran into that.

Once I got moving again my swim was ok. Towards the end, I could tell that my shoulders were getting a little sore, and that I was not reaching and staying as long as I had on the way out.

Learn better technique so that I can increase my speed

My T-area was about 15 feet from the bike in/out of the transition so it made it pretty easy to get out quickly. The only problem was that I had to run up a hill and through the rest of the ~1600 bikes to get there.

nothing

Once I got out of transition, the course takes a sharp left and then a right and goes over a grassy area...I didn't think I signed up for a cyclocross HIM! :)

It took about 5 miles for my HR to come down to where I wanted it to be at, which was right around 140. At first, I thought I was pushing to hard, but then realized that it will take a while for it come come down and to just concentrate on putting a solid effort in and keep the pedals turning.

For the first 15 miles the bike course is shared with the sprint course, and it was really hard to remember that I should not counter attack anyone who passed me becasue they will either blow up, finish before me, or were on the short course. I was able to use some of the people who passed me as pacers for a while and then let them go.

At mile 15 there was a bottle exchange, but since I started with 2 full bottles of Gatorade, I did not need to grab one. I decided to get a bottle of water just to pratice the hand off, since I knew that I would need to get a bottle of gatorade at mile 30.

At mile 30, the hand off went realtively smoothly. I chucked my bottle, and grabbed the first one I could...no problems. At about mile 31 was the huge down hill into the river valley. It was a nice break from pedaling, and my speed topped out at 36.4 mph.

At mile 34 there was a little hill, but it seemed to go on FOREVER! on the other side of the hill was the WORST patch of roads that I have ever had the displeasure to ride on. That stretch lasted about 4-5 miles, and was absolutly horrible. There really is not anyway to describe it besides that I was averaging about 22mph before on the flats, and with the crappy roads, I was down to about 18-19.

At mile 38 was a LOOOOONNNNGGGGGGG climb back up out of the river valley. I was able to granny gear it up about 80%, and then I stood and finished it off. After that my legs were pretty cooked, so I took a little longer to spin the legs and get them back to normal.

The last 15 miles were pretty much into a head wind of about 10 miles per hour. I did not think to much of it when I saw the forecast, but it is amazing how even a little headwind makes the bike that much harder, after you have already ridden 40 miles.

At the 40 mile mark I had planned to pick my HR up to about 145, but decdied mot to becasue I was already a ways about my goal pace of 20.3 Mph, and thought that the run will be tough enough, so I will just stick with the 140 mark. Realistically I felt good enough to do it, and looking back I probably could have brought it up to the 150 mark, but I am glad I didn't.

There was one more hand off at mile 45, where I attempted to grab water, but missed. Oh well, my nutrition at that point was spot on. I had taken a gel every 30 minutes (5 total) had eaten an 1/8 of a Harvest Powerbar every 30 minutes (15 minutes after the gel) and was dinking gatorade every 10 minutes, except when I needed to wash down the granola bar. I ended up stoping the granola bar intake at 1/2 the bar because it was drying my mouth out too much and just continued with the Gel/Gatorade plan.

Another thing that I realized is that it is really lonely out there. It really felt like a hard training day because I was not about to really attack to course. Once you got out there people spread out enough where you really didn't see a ton of people, unlike the sprints and other races that i have done.

I could have pushed a little harder, but that would have made for a really tough run. Overall, this was a great ride, and I am very happy with my split.

Normally I would have taken my feet out of my shoes and left them on the pedals but for some reason my head was not with it and I did not realize that the trasition area was coming up as quick as it did. So I ended up unclipping and running with my shoes on, no biggie

take my feet out of the shoes before I ge tot transition. Overall though this was 1 minute faster than I was expecting so I can't bee to upset.

The first 2 miles were right on target of 8:22/mile, the 3rd was at about 8:40, and then the wheels came off. I ended up walking a few aid stations just so I could get enough water as it was REALLY hot, and there was very little shade.

At about the 3.5 mile mak I had a lady in a Emergency Services Truck ask me if I was doing okay. I said yes, and she asked if I was sure. I guess by that point I looked about as bad as I felt! :)

At about the 5 mile mark I felt like I was going to puke at any second, but I kept on moving, knowing that if I puked, I was still going to finish the race.

At mile 6 I made a deal with myself, I would allow myself to walk one aid station to fill up the water bottle and to get enough to cool down, as long as I ran past the next one. Well, that strategy seemed to work and I was able to make it through the rest of the race that way.

With about 2.5 miles left to go I got to the 2nd to last aid station. I filled up my bottle with water, and since I had been drinking only water to this point, I really wanted something with some sugar in it, so I ended up downing 3 glasses of gatorade. Then the nice lady asked my if I needed some electrolytes. I looked at her hand and she had a handful of e-caps. I took about half of what shee had (probably 8-10) crammed them in my mouth and washed them down. She gave me the wierdest look I have ever seen...I think she thought I was trying to OD or something! :)

With about 3/4 of a mile left I turned a corner and there were some people sitting in lawn chairs and they said "you are looking really straong...keep going" I looked at them and replied with a smile "you guys are a bunch of liars!" They laughed, and I managed to smile a little more, knowing that all I had left was 1 more turn and a little down hill and I was done!.

My nutrition was pretty spot on again, I took a gell at mile 4 and another at mile 8. I kept hydrated with water for the most part, and dumped water on my head when I got to the aid stations.

Overall I was hoping for a 1:50 split, but being as this was my first race of this length, and I walked a few of the stations, I am pretty satisified with the 2:01.

train more. Even though I ran a couple of 1/2 mary's and did plenty of races, and got in one long brick of 62/6.2, I will definately get a few more long ride/run workouts in for next time

staggered around, got some gatorade and some fruit. Loaded my stuff and hit the road


current level of fitness, not enough long training days, and long bricks, and this was my first shot at this distance


This was the 2nd year of this race and it was pretty unorganzied. I will probably go back next year as it will get better, but it is a far cry from what I am used to in all of the other races that I go to.