I have been on some shallow swims, but this one takes the cake. I didn't even get my feet wet. Because of poison algae, swim was switched to a run. I can't say I missed the major chop we would have encountered, but a swim would have been kinder on the legs. This was not a flat run. Worked pretty hard without blowing up the legs.

swim (Can't believe I just said that.)

I am destined to have slow transitions. I had nothing to do but throw on the bike shoes and go. Just can't do it fast.

Go back to school to get my Transitions degree.

WINDY, Bindy. This was about 5 minutes slower than last year. With the strong winds and my sub-par performances on the bike this year, I was actually some-what pleased with this. Bonus: no old man on his way to church pulled out in front of me like last year. This bike course was more crowed than Chicago rush hour on a friday afternoon. Many places people were three or four across. People were passing on the right (including me a few times), going slow on the left. Spent a lot of time, trying not to draft and not to crash into others. This race has just gotten too big for this course. Pushed hard the whole time and this was the best I had today. Only one spot where the tail wind actually really helped. Going 28 on a straight away felt awesome. However it was pretty short lived.

Get my bike fitness back to where my nice bike deserves it to be. The wheels are spinning for the off season already...so to speak.

Had to fire up the hibatchi and catch up on my reading. Then it was off to run.

Learn to get out of transition like it is a burning building.

Know this course well and its highs and lows. First half is pretty much all up hill. Tried to keep a pretty good pace through this section. Passed a bunch of people. Because it was cool today, never really overheated. Took a single fuel belt bottle with me and that worked just fine. Tried to pick up the pace on the second half and ended up negatively spliting each mile. For the second sprint this season, I was running along at a fairly comfortable pace and not really redlining it. This was about 20 seconds slower than last year's. Considering the 1st leg run and windy ride, I'll take it.

Push to the limit, on backside of the run.

Stood in line for pancakes.


basically tapering since May. You get what you give.


This is the Tri that started it all for me 4 seasons ago. It is close to home and I will probably keep doing it. However it is just too big. Also much of the race from body marking, to the start, to the bike, was (barely) organized chaos. This was the second race in a row where Midwest Sports has not been on top of their game. I was 5 minutes slower than last year and based on the wind and my performances this year, this was not a surprise.

Best part was seeing all my friends. Great to see BunnyT (congrats on your first.) Joe Runner, Cweninger, Sgoehner, Amyjotris, Firstnet911 (jockstrapping) and DjDavey (troublemaking) and my non-BT friend Kyle...and of COURSE I saw Scoobysdad!! I, however did not see Charles Benson.