I had my tempo trainer set at 1.05 for this swim. I sure wish I had a 50 meter pool near the house. It was great swimming the extra 25 meters before having to turn around. Anytime I can average 2 min/100 meters, I have to be happy with that. I seeded myself pretty good as I only passed one person and no one passed me.

Pay attention to how we need to get out of the pool at the end. I just assumed we would swim to the wall and get out. We were suppose to exit at the ladder and I swam by it by a little bit.

2/25 in AG. I did not wear socks to save a little time. Shoes went on fine, sunglasses on, helmet on and run with the bike to the mount line. I had sprayed anti-fog on my sunglasses but they were all fogged up from the start. I just kept them down at the end of my nose, but it is a little hairy jumping on the bike with your vision impaired.

I need to find a way to keep the sunglasses from fogging up. I welcome any suggestions.

It took about 1/2 mile before my sunglasses unfogged enough to push them up. While I was waiting for them to unfog, I hit a stray lane divider marker and it knocked out my mph sensor. So I did this ride by feel and HR. I wanted to keep my HR under 155 for the ride. I did not put on any extra clothing assuming that I still had enough "Iowa Blood" to stay warm. I calculated that the wind chill was in the high 30s whenever I was going over 20 mph. I just tried to ignore the cold and tell myself that I only had to deal with it for about 30 minutes. The course was a little hillier than I was expecting. I am not saying that the course was hilly, I just thought it was going to be flatter and faster. There was a little confusion at the end of the first lap. The cones were layed out as if you had to turn left. However, you had to turn right and go between the cones. They needed a volunteer right at the corner directing the bikers. The second lap went by pretty fast. The sun started to get high enough so there was more sun on the course. I was pleased that no one passed me during the bike. So I start getting prepared for the end of the bike. I reach down to undo the velcro, on my right shoe, and I can not grip it because my fingers are too cold. I finally get it done on the third try. My toes were also cold so the feet did not come out of the shoes as quickly as normal. Now, the transition is coming up too soon. I get my left foot out in one try but I am going down the "bike out" lane because I was preoccupied getting my foot out of the shoe. A volunteer yells at me to get in the correct lane and I steer between to cones into the correct lane. So now I am in the correct lane with my feet on top of the shoes. I really do not know what happened during the next 2 seconds. I either had a petite mall siezure or fell into a momentary coma. Anyways, I am awoken from my coma/siezure by a voluteer yelling at me to dismount. I was so startled that I slammed on both brakes. For the next 1/4 of a second I thought to myself, "Craig, there is no way you can go flying over the front of your bike". The next 3/4 of a second I thought to myself, "Craig, just relax and let it happen". So over the handlebars I go. I land on my back and the bike falls on top of me spilling GU2O drink all over me. I took a moment to assess that nothing hurt, lifted up the bike, got to my feet, and ran to my transition spot. I really do not think I lost more than 5 secs because I was up on my feet so fast.

Wear some gloves and skip the crashing part.

5/25 in AG. Considering the crash, T2 went well. I had to take a little extra time pulling the touge up on my shoes, again because of the cold fingers, but I did a good job of just grabbing my visor and number belt and putting them on as I ran.

Nothing

Again the cold fingers gave me hell trying to unhook my race belt. It took 3-4 trys before I could get it on. My plan was to keep my HR under 160 until half way and then let it go the rest of the way. It took about 1/2 a mile before I felt like I had my running legs. Even with my legs feeling good, the cold toes kept me from feeling really comfortable until the turn around. It felt so nice when the blood finaly started to recirculate to my toes. During the run, I saw Andy, Doug, Todd, and Jen. I felt really good on the second half of the run and was able to put forth a good sprint to the finish line.

Nothing. I was only 12 seconds off my personal best, for a 5K, and that was done on the first leg of a duathlon.

Relaxed talking to Andy and Ken. Then later hung out with Doug and BT lurkers Jen(B&L rep), Todd, and Jenny. When I checked the results, I was surprised to see that I was second in my AG. It was not until the awards ceremony that I realized that I would be first in my AG since the guy ahead of me was first place in the Masters Division. If I would have broken a bone on the crash I would have pulled off a "David Barron", instead I just pulled off a "Clint"


I guess I could have saved a few seconds without the crash.

On a side note, is anyone else amused by the fact that my swim, bike, and run times were all exactly to the minute?


Unfortunately, my perception of this race was that it was very cheaply run. If you want to re-use numbers, re-use them in the same race the following year. The awards were made of styrophome. They looked like something you would get at Party City for $0.79 each. How about something else to go along with the pancakes? Maybe some bacon? That's right, you can get away with making pancakes for about $0.03 each. They could have used several more volunteers also.