started behind james cotter and jason mcmillian in the center. start was hectic and i swam up the back of them with people doing the same behind me. felt trapped and was kicking frantically to keep people off me. had a couple women behind me claw the chit out of my back. the reason i know if was women b/c i saw them looking fierce right behind me before we started. as we hit the turnaround buoy i was swimming a bit wide in order to get out of the chaos. on the way back to the exit i drifted right a few times and felt like i was out of gas. when we hit the exit i struggled for a few seconds to get footing. overall i was satisfied with surviving that mess and next time i will try to position better so that i dont work as hard at the start.

worked on kicking so i dont tire after fighting people off. dont start in middle as everyone converged on me and i got stuck.

ran well thru transition and found my bike with no problem. pulled a macca at kona and struggled to buckle my helmet for what seemed like 10sec. had a chitty mount of the bike. had troubled getting my footing and then had to ride up the first big hill with only one foot in my shoe.

work on my bike mount. i really suck at this.

pleased we the bike even though my legs felt spent from the swim. was caught in no mans land with no one to ride with. i blew past a few of the females who out swam me and then one woman acutally past me early on so i used her to pace me thru the bike. she seemed like a TT beast (think its was fiocca) and past her right before the turn on the access road. looked like the crosswind at that point was working her disc wheel. really hammered it home with the tailwind.

get my feet in my shoes quicker and corner faster with a bit more confidence

this was the worst part of the race. as i put my bike on the rack the whole thing collapsed. with the rack went kelly handel's scott plasma (she later told me the same thing happened last year and it cracked her frame) and another high $ bike. i started to pickup the rack as other race ran past me. i thought so much for this race and just then some helpers came to fix the rack. i just laid my bike on its side, put on my running shoes, and took off.

check the rack prior to selecting my spot.

started off with an error by exiting T2 and heading back towards the swim. some people yelled wrong way so turned around and headed in the right direction. at that people a yelled for some water and got a cup of hot g-rade. another bad omen. but then i put the pedal to the medal and caught i few folks within the first half mile. i felt like i was moving well and spotted rob and a few others up ahead. by then the leaders passed me on their way back so i tried to get it moving quicker to keep the time loss at a minimum. at the turnaround i was gassed and just held on for the last mile without being able to go any faster.

pay attention to which way to run

drank some water, talked to a few folks and got stretching help from the advanced rehab tent.


nothing


J&A put on a great race as usual!!!