I was pretty happy with this swim. Looking at the course was pretty intimidating. I did the Olympic race at Turtleman the week before and this course looked a LOT longer. I always hate starting late and as it turned out I did. I was in the 2nd to last wave-#8. Oh well. I thought I did much better navigating on this swim. Only thing I wish I could have done better was drafting. I never once found a good pair of feet to follow. Swam up on quite a few people from as far as three groups in front of me. This was a good feeling. I could have went harder but I was trying to remember that I had a long day in front of me.

Not much. Try and find a good draftee if possible.

Very slow transition time but that was just fine. I decided before hand to walk through transition and keep things under control.

Nothing

The bike was great. People said this course was rough but I liked it. You had to really watch the road for the bad patches to make sure your tire didn't go into one of the long cracks. Equipment was abandoned all over the place from people hitting rough parts. I bet I saw at least 100 water bottles, a few aero bottles, 5 or 6 gel flasks, some co2 cartridges, everything. But, I really liked the course. You were either climbing or rolling down hills constantly. I felt very good on the bike. Legs felt strong and I really didn't feel like I was pushing very hard at all other than on some of the steeper climbs. Saw family at about mile 5 and that gave me a nice little boost. There was a 10-12 mile stretch around mile 30-40 that was into a pretty stiff wind that I should have layed off a little. I really enjoyed this course and was very happy with my results on the bike. I set a eating plan to take 2 Cliff shot blocks at 20 and 40 minutes and a Gu on the 60 minute mark. Followed that to a T. Should have drank more Gatorade. Only drank 1 bottle on whole ride. I did go through 2 full aerobottles of water. Probably still not enough. Never had to pee for entire race.

Nothing. I could have gave more but I didn't. Maybe I should have held off some for the run. I'm not experianced enough to know if the bike was what caused all my run problems. It really didn't feel like I went that hard on the bike though. I think if I would have held off more I would have been dissapointed in myself.

Another purposely slow transition. Although I didn't mean to make it this slow. Had some serious chaffing issues starting on underarm areas so I had to dig in my bag to fing Bodyglide.

Have Body Glide out and ready.

This is where things went drastically horrible for me. When you go out on the run you have a flat for about a mile and then you have to go up a pretty tough loooong hill for another mile or so. I was feeling good for the first mile. Saw my family and that gave me a huge lift once again. Legs felt good and everything was cool. Saw Birkierunner coming back from his run and he cheered me on, he was looking very good at that point and I'm sure he had some impressive #'s to post. I was still feeling good at this point. Then I started to suffer. with a variety of problems. I was having a lot of trouble breathing. Once I got out in the flats. There is absolutely no protection from the sun. Even though it wasn't that hot the humidity was at 82% This will quickly lead to my next problem. My hamstrings were cramping up and my adductor muscles were really sore. Because I really only wanted to finish under 6:30 and ideally at 6:15 I thought I had plenty of time saved up and I would do a casual 11 to 11:30 miles. The problem was, everytime I started to walk I had a real tough time running again. I just couldn't seem to catch my breath and my body was really sore. Right knee started twanging around mile 4 and I knew it was going to be a lond day. What made things really tough was the humidity. I'm a pretty heavy sweater and when the humidity is high the sweat doesn't evaporate. It runs right down my legs and into my shoes. This lead to my next problem. At about the turn-around point the blisters on my toes and balls of my feet were forming. I have to figure out how to solve this because it has been an ongoing problem for me. On the way bike was right into the wind for the entire way, this didn't help either. I basically powerwalked the last 6 miles of the run. It's all I could do. Besides that, I was passing people who were running while I was walking. I think all of us in the back of the pack were having a tough time out there. I just couldn't go any faster. I tried to run in the last 2 miles but lower body was having nothing to do with it. Just as I crossed finish line the wind started to howl and the skies opened up.

Longer bricks? Figure out how to keep feet dry? I'm not sure. I absolutely have to get more weight off. I need to lose at least 40 more if I want to get any better at this running thing. This was a very dissapointing run. Two weeks ago I did a 14 miler and felt very strong the whole way through and felt I could keep going.

Cross finih line to see my chering family and then try to work out some kinks. Legs were suffering really bad at this point and I thought both hamstrings were going to go. Walked around for about 10 minutes and then the sky just opened up. Huge downpours of rain. Kelly had ushered the kids back to the car and we loaded my stuff up out of transition right before it started to rain. I really wanted to go back for ceramonies and talked to some people but I just couldn't fathom getting out of the car at that time. So, we left.


Overall fitness and doing long bricks. I brick after most of my rides. The problem is I usually only run for 1-1.5 miles. I think I need to stretch those out. Lose weight. I want to drop another 40 before next tri season


Despite my dissapointing run overall I was happy with the race. I met my first goal and I finished. I came close to my 2nd of finishing under 6:30. Not quite, but close. I figured out what I need to work on over the winter. I also realized that I love the idea of longer races. I will go to volunteer for Ironman Wisconsin and I will sign up for Ironman WI 2008 the next day. I have a lot or work to do, but I have 1 year and 3 weeks to do it. Thanks for reading my report.