My plan was to run it around 22:30, I was aiming for a 4:30/km (6:56/mile) pace. When the race started I stayed with the MOP and I figured they would run at the pace I had planned. I realized pretty fast that they were running way faster that I was expecting.

First km was ran in 3:53/km (6:15/mile) and I knew I had to adjust pretty fast or it would be really hard. By kilometer two my ITBand started to bother me a little bit. Nothing bad but at that exact time I knew that the run after the bike portion would be painful. I tried to keep my pace to finish the 5k as fast as I possibly could without going too fast and burning my legs for the bike. I finished in 21:33, which was way better that my 25:03 last year :)

Training, training and training ... without getting injured.

Everything went really good, I ran in put my helmet on and my sunglasses removed my shoes and off I went with the bike. Jumped on it and started getting speed, everything went fine up to when I tried to put the shoes on, at that time I had some problems and I lost some speed while trying to put them on.

Practice more to start with the shoes on the bike.

The course was really nice, mostly flat with some really small hills. The problem was the wind, it was blowing at 30km/h (20mph) with 50 km/h (32mph) gust. It was a 11km lap that we had to do three times.

When I jumped on the bike my plan was to get as fast as possible with the head wind and then use the tailwind to get the average as high as possible before turning back into the wind. The beginning of the course was really tough on me, I was really tired from the run and I had a hard time pushing as much as I wanted to. The speed was there but I was seriously thinking that I would die ;)

The road were not blocked and the traffic was a problem a couple of times. At some point I almost had to ride on the sidewalk because a car was in my lane.

Overall I passed a lot of people on the bike, I would say close to 12-15. And I got passed by only two so overall I am happy. But I still think I need to train more and get faster ;)

Stop the wind? :p Seriously I need to train harder on the bike. I had a strong leg but still 44th is not good enough to make me happy. The winner rode at over 40km/h avg so I know what I have to aim for :)

My feet were so cold I had problem running, and my ITBand was really, and I mean REALLY pissed at my at that point.

Not much, I am pretty happy with my transition. Man that run with the bike was so long, my guess would be 300 meters maybe.

That run was painful, I mean really. At some point I though I would have to walk a little bit to give the ITBand a break. I tried to keep a pace as fast as I could but it was really hard. I lost almost all the places that I gained on the bike during that run.

Not getting hurt during a half mary two weeks before the event ;)

Not much, I stretched and walked.


My ITBand injury and my overall speed. I need to train more.


The race was ok, not more then that. The fact that they didn't have enough volunteers to check every street we had to cross didn't help and the streets there are just horrible, and I am used to ride on some crappy streets believe me ;)