This probably would not have been a bad swim for me except that my goggles leaked terribly. Chose a different pair than the ones that leaked during the Nutmeg Tri, but these may have been worse. Had to stop and dump water out of my right lense at least 6 times. Other than that I was happy with my effort level and navigation was reasonable. Got off course a few times (damned buoys on the right), but more striaght than crooked. Finished with white caps (prev wave) all around me.

I felt like I swam well, but, in retrospect, I'm pretty disappointed with this result. I've put in too many yards this year to not be any better than this. Goggles were a problem, but that comes down to preperation, and it all adds up.

Swim ended at the end of a pier where steps had been constructed. Not a bad set up, but it adds to T1. After I got on the pier, I wanted to get my wetsuit off right away. Well, I couldn't get the collar undone. Seemed like it took me forever. I'd yank on the collar, then yank on the zipper cord, and back and forth. Frustrating. This added to my swim time since I wasn't in the TA. The timing company doesn't split out transitions, so I think I was about a minute in TA.

Preperation.

Tried to go out hard and stay that way. There was a drizzly fog in the area, so my sunglasses were hard to see through after a couple miles. They eventually cleared up. Drank some Gatorade early on, but I seem to never learn that saltwater and gatorade is one of the few combinations that doesn't sit well in my stomach. On the verge of puking at about 16 min. in, but that didn't last long. Riders were spread out pretty well, so not alot of passing. One at a time. I was by myself for a good part of the race. Towards the end a couple males and the lead female caught up to me. The first guy, #361, passes me, but that just kinda ticked me off, so I try to pass him back. He won't let me, though, and surges ahead on my right! He was a bit of a pain to be around. I do get ahead of him after another try, but by this time there's a group of four of us together and it becomes harder to pass and/or maintain consistent effort. I eventually drop to the back of the group at about the time a really fast rider comes by and accuses the four of us of drafting. Whatta ya gonna do? I kind of coast on in, not wanting to get aggressive at the end since we were nearing the finishing turns.

Not sure. I'm pleased with my ride. Thought my effort level was pretty good, but I think I was expecting a liitle bit more. In my last 3 non-mountainous races this year I've avg's 22.6 (HIM), 23.5 (40K TT), and 23.0 (Oly), so I thought I'd do a bit better. Possibly didn't taper as well as I thought, but still a race PR.

Good transition. Socks and shoes went on quick, and, outside of a few 10ths of seconds I lost by heading towards the wrong end of the rack at first, I couldn't have done it much quicker.

Nada.

Started off feeling good. Was able to establish a groove right away. Not many people ahead of me, so it was important to keep my focus and keep my effort high. In a sprint, you can't expect anybody to falter at the end, so you have to go get them.
#361 was ahead of me, and, since he may have been in my age group, I had to run him down. I managed to pass a couple 20's (prev. wave) before the half way point. Coming up to the turnaroud, I started looking to see who might be 40-sumpin'. Ooooh, I counted 2 and 2 'maybes'. The closest 'maybe' was getting passed by the lead female about 200 yds ahead. That was my goal. Slowly but surely, I crept up on #200. I couldn't just run by him, but I kept making mini surges (10 steps at a time) to inch up on him. I finally got on his shoulder and passed him. Don't know if he let me pass or I tapped into a little extra juice. Problem was, he hung with me. Stayed right on my shoulder. I tried making small surges again to gain some seperation, but it wasn't happening. He was clearly planning on trying to outsprint me at the finish. A few yards from the corner (~75 yds to go) I make my move. In a glass case that reads "In Case of Emergency (or sprint finish) Break Glass" there's a little reserve of energy. Swung my hammer and tapped into it. Unfortunately, #200 had a bit more to give and he surged past me as we both sprinted past the lead female right before the finish chute. Turns out he was a 20-something. (So, he finished 3 min behind me and got 3rd place in his AG, congrats.)

Nothing. This was a well paced race for me. I had been a bit disappointed in previous races where I had a hard time keeping my effort level/HR up. Not so today. Despite the splits, I'm confident that my pace was quite even, maybe even a bit faster over the last 1.1mi. Third fastest split in my AG (by 2 sec!), so I'm very pleased with this effort (especially since I ran 20 miles last weekend). Seven seconds better than last year and a race PR.

Chatted with other finishers and waited for and cheered on friends and family that were finishing. Ran up to the van and got Brenda's Endurox for her. Ate a couple bananas and drank some water.
After the race, Brenda and I headed up to the Greene Turtle for lunch and beers. Watched my Terps beat GT. Relaxed. Great day!


Leaky goggles, not enough taper (?). But not much. Good race.


My goal for this race was to place in my AG, so I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a touch disappointed. But, that is really kind of a nonsensical goal because you can only control what you do. I also should have looked at last years results a bit more closely. This year's #2 and #3 finished better than me last year as 39 y/o's (#2 was overall winner in '05). M40-44 is a tough AG. In a way I did achieved what I set out to do because I finished higher than last year's 3rd & 4th place finishers.
Overall I'm very pleased with this race. I set a race PR by almost 3 min, including a race PR bike and run. I have room to improve on my swimming and that will be my focus (again) this winter.
The Osprey is really a superb race. It's in a great location and it's well run. From a participation standpoint, it has the best of both worlds, in that it is a local low-key race that is beginner/not-so-serious athlete friendly, but also attracts some top notch athletes, including the Navy Tri team (M40-44 is the 2ND worst AG to be in!).
I'm sad that the tri season has come to an end, but this is a good way to close it out!