Caught Brett before the first bouy. I thought I saw Kirk passing me on my left. That was the first time I gave up on sub 2:30. After the first turn bouy, my goggles (back up - lost my normal race goggles in Macon) got really foggy. I could not see anything. 3 times during the swim, I had to stop, tread water, site the next bouy, then start swimming again. Again, mentally, giving up on sub 2:30.

Water had a ton of chop for being in inland lake.

Once I made the second turn and found the swim exit, I just put my head down and swam hard.

I was really surprised when Ninja called out 25 and change. Hmmmm, sub 2:30 back in business.

Go back to TYR goggles.

Took off speed suit and grabbed bike. I was mentally distracted and totally forgot to put on helmet which was now bouncing on the ground (had laid it open on the aerobars). At the mount line, I missed my pedals. I really need to practice my flying mount this season.

Practice flying mount.

First race on the new bike. I love that bike.

I had the bike course at 25.22 according to Garmin and powertap.

Tried to push the bike hard but figured two things: either Brett and Kirk were ahead of me or just behind me and I was soon to get passed. Sub 2:30, it was nice knowing you.

Just after 15 miles (water bottle handoff) I saw them both. Needless to say, I dropped the hammer in the hopes that neither would catch me. The good news is this caused me to negative split the bike. Towards, the end, I had no idea if the bike course was 24, 25 or 26 miles. I have gotten lazy with my pre-race prep.

Came back into transition with 1:37 on the clock. Sub 2:30 back in play.

For nutrition, I used a HIM bottle with 212 calories and 2 endurolytes. For my next Oly, I will drop the calories by 50 calories.

Standard t2 for me.

For nutrition, I used two HIM fuel belt bottles which have about 50 calories each in them and 1 endurolyte each. For my next Oly, I will go with a gel. I think having the extra weight of the water slowed me down a little.

Brett passed me like a rocket about 1/2 mile outside of transition.
1st mile was 8:06. I wasn't worried too much as I thought I could drop the pace as my run legs came around. They never showed. I figured it was only a matter of time before everyone else in NAMC passed me. At mile 4, Katie June (local teenage phenom) passed me like I was walking backwards.
Mile splits were.
1 8:06
2 7:56
3 8:08
4 8:02
5 8:36 - not sure what happened here. Guess I made a sandwich.
6 8:00

I felt like I got passed by everyone in my AG. I did repass one guy which I am happy about. With each mile, I thought sub 2:30 was slipping away. In fact, coming into the finish line, I had mentally settled for a 2:31 to 2:33. Ninja yelled at me "2:29:20" and told me to HTFU. I took off and finished with 2:29:48 on my watch. Success!

Went for a brief swim (probably 150m) to cool off. Then hung out and chatted with a bunch of friends I have not seen all season.


I need to work on my mental game. I gave up on going sub 2:30 too many times.

I am happy though that I broke 2:30 2 weeks after a HIM and after a week with a few HARD workouts in it. I did not get anywere near my wattage that I was supposed to (Avg 199 and am supposed to AVG 227 to 238 for an Oly) and no were near my run pace (should be closer to 7:40). Maybe I'm still recovering from the HIM and maybe the workouts from earlier in the week slowed me down. Regardless, I'll take the PR.


GA Multisports puts on a great race. I will do this one again next year.