Was using nose plugs after minimal practice. Lets just say you cant practice getting pushed, kicked, and hit so the nose plugs went bye bye in the first 100 meters. Had to fix goggles after that early fight club action then took a minute or two of bad swimming to regain composure and press on. Thought it went well after the crappy start. Boats and kayakers were too darn close. I was keeping right in line with buoys and had to swim around some dill hole in a kayak. Whatever.

Swim faster!

They didn't give out our T times. Thought it went well. Thinking about buying a one piece so I don't have to put shirt on after swim. Long run to the mounting line but there were lots of supporters cheering so it was cool.

Since my AG started last you can only imagine how many people were in front of me....There were around 900 racers(I heard 1600 racers but upon doing a quick count of the race results came up with 900+) soooooo thats who I was passing because I ended 66th overall. Seemed like an awful lot of people blocking the road. I mean they were riding 3 wide chatting away. I'm surprised I still had my voice from saying "on your left" so much. Then again it kept me very alert. Only 4 people passed me on the bike, 2 of them AGers. But I wasn't sweating it because I was racing my race. I didn't get flustered I just kept on keeping on becasue I knew my strong point was just miles ahead. I enjoyed the hills since i don't get to see too many around Jacksonville. The wind on the other hand I could have done without. As for eating I ate a cliff bar early in the ride then a bag of Cliff Jelly Beans every 30 min. Liquids: Aero bottle of water to start, two bottles of Gatorade, then a bottle of Evian from the aid station. Evian! No wonder the entry fee was expensive.

More time in the saddle before hand. If I can increase my speed to around 22mph I would be right with the top of my AG. Can anyone say hello offseason.

Again no transition times... Bobbled the socks. Everything else was cool.

Not bobble socks?

So I had to pee really bad the last 10 or so miles on the bike but I powered through knowing that I could hit a port-o-pot on the run. I didn't pee on the bike because I had to check out of the hotel room already and had to drive home. I could not go back in the lake because there is no swimming and I couldn't find an outdoor shower. So I didn't want to smell like pee all the way home. Anywho....Started running and I was feeling grrrrreeat. Still passing all the people who started ahead of my AG so it made me feel good. I caught the two AGers who passed me on the bike within the first mile and then I just started running. I felt good and was trying not to push too hard. This is the last race of the season and I spent the entire day before cruising Disney World with my family. I could have run faster but why, this was for fun and thats what I was having. Tons of people everywhere and no one stayed to one side or the other. They were running dead center so I was running zig zags basically the whole course. No one passed me on the run which made it easy to continue to have fun. Aid stations everymile with poweraid and water. Beautiful day. Was coming to the home stretch and saw a guy in front of me and was about to start my super sprint to smoke by him but then I remembered I was just having fun so I cruised in slapping a few high fives to the awesome crowd and slowed down to make sure no one else was in my finisher picture. Since I found no toilets on the course I just powered right through to the finish got my medal and went to take a monster pee. Came back to get waters, poweraid, and find the family.

Nothing.

Looked for family. Found out that they were not allowed to walk in to the event after it had started and they weren't letting busses in either. They basically missed the entire thing. Rowena (wife) was pretty pissed. Luckily we had the whole goggle fiasco so she saw me enter and exit the swim. Seeing her get so angry made me feel good because she loves that I love this. Just another reason I love her.


nose clips, wind,


I had a great time. Rowena is gearing up for next years race so I'm looking forward to training with her. Excited about the results since I was having fun the whole time (minus the first 100 on the swim). Didn't notice any of the problems people complained about last year but I had used their comments to help make my race better so thanks to all of those who endured not so fun races that made mine fun. Oh yea, Disney World with the kids for the first time was awesome! Some of the biggest smiles i've ever seen and that was from all of us. Me, Rowena, Madeline, Gracie, Christopher, and Silly Grandma.