Drove to location the night before and had a good-sized pasta dinner. Got up at 5:30 A.M., had some yogurt, waffle, and o.j. at the hotel's continental breakfast around 6 A.M. Drove to the T2 and set up, then drove to the T1. Didn't do much at all before the race, not wanting to expend extra energy. Got in the water and got my head wet to test the goggles and get used to the water temp.

I took an inside, in front start. I was nervous about my goggles as I'd had some leakage earlier, but this didn't turn out to be a problem. For some reason, I didn't hear the count off to the start, which threw me off. I forgot to set my watch, which sort of threw me off the whole the race (although this turned out to be a good thing, since it made me go a whole lot faster in order to meet my under 3:00 goal ;). The start wasn't as furious as Blue Lake. I didn't feel as fast either, I wasn't as buouyant in the Orca suit as I was in my surfing suit. Also, the altitude really hit me in the beginning and I was really fighting for air. Eventually, I got into a good side to side motion, and although I struggled for oxygen, I worked through it. After the first buouy I swam a little wide of the next two, I think there was a bit of a current and I had a hard time keeping on track. After the halfway point, I swam alongside a few guys who stayed pretty much on track. The traffic was a bit frustrating, especially when we caught up to the wave in front of us. The last 200 meters or so I started tiring, and I was looking up more often for the finish.

Overall, though my time was impressive, just 8 seconds off my PR in the pool. I didn't enjoy the swim too much, but my performance was good. I only wish I had set my watch so I could have gotten out of the water, seen my time, and patted myself on the back!

Set the watch! I also, almost wish I had stopped for 10 seconds or so and just enjoyed the view. Felt like I was forcing myself to suffer too much!

Ran fast out of the water. Had my suit unzipped, my goggles off, and my cap off before I got to the station. I was SUPER dizzy after the swim, and could hardly stand up at my station. Almost fell over. This was where the body glide and the ORCA suit came in handy, because I would have never been able to get a surfing suit off as fast. This is where I discovered that my handlebar water bottle didn't have a lid (oh, that gauze stuff was supposed to be used for something). As I ran out of transition I spilled about half my sports drink on myself, the bike, and the pavement. Oops.

Still the transition turned out to be fast! Again, no big disasters and no complaints!

Andrea and Ava were there to say hi! I should have turned and given them at least a quick smile!

What a kick a** ride! Holy flying bicycles! A personal best by far!

Having learned from Blue Lake I got to speed first, and then took my first GU shot. The handlebar bottle was a nightmare, besides not capping it, and having liquid fly all over the place, I'd also cut the straw too short, so I couldn't drink and watch the road at the same time. The whole thing was pretty funny. My breathing was still out of whack from the swim at altitude, but I forced myself to drink a bunch anyway in the first few miles, was glad I did.

I was happy with my speed in the rolly beginning section, averaging about 19.5 mph. I rode hard but resisted the urge to push myself out of the saddle. I played cat and mouse with a 29-year-old for a while. Occasionally I'd catch myself getting too comfortable, and I'd notch up the pace a bit. Around mile 10, I took another GU shot as part of the nutrition plan before the climb. This was good work, as I climbed well, and dropped the cat. I poured the contents of my drop tube water bottle into my handlebar one, which was pretty stupic. I spilled about half that, and ended up running short of liquids about 3/4s of the way through.

I climbed between 12-14 mph and passed a lot of folks. The top of the climb was sort of non-descript and before I knew it I was threw and climbing! WOOHOO! Great views and a tremendous 28 mph pace almost the rest of the way! What fun!

I actually pushed the downhill quite hard, and started worrying a bit about the run ahead, knowing that it's my weakest event. The sun came out too, and I was concerned about dehyrdation. I took the last little lip to the T2 transition pretty slow and spun the gears a little.

Overall this went fine. I fumbled a bit getting the bike shoes off, but that's to be expected. Grabbed two cups of water at the aid station--was a life-safer

Thinking back on it, this is the part of the race I'm the most proud of. The first half mile was a climb, hot, and I felt shot from the bike. Like I'd said before, I hadn't set my watch for the swim, so I didn't know what my time was coming out of the water, so I wanted to make sure I had a respectable enough run to beat my 3 hour goal. Basically, I just hung in there. I got passed by a few age groupers in the first mile and I was feeling pretty low, but when I saw that my first mile was 8:15, I knew I was right on schedule and that I just needed to buckle down.

The frequent aid stations were great and I took full advantage, I really didn't want to fade. I started to cramp a little from the liquids, but I decided I'd rather deal with slight cramps than dehydrate. This was a good call. Miles 2 and 3 were slightly slower, but I took heart that they were uphill and that 4, 5, and 6 would be more downhillish.

Things started to get fun near the end, as I caught some age groupers who were wilting in the heat. It was still hot, but we hit a couple sprinklers which felt great. Mile 5 hurt, and was the slowest one, but right near the end of it a put my head down and grinded it out. Mile 6 I did at 8:08 and passed this guy who looked like a monster triathlete and another guy who was so delirious he started running backwards. Felt great. I put my head up at Mile 6 and sprinted the rest of the way. Wanted to look good for the wife and kid. Almost keeled over at the finish, but man it felt good!

Had the usual rough time catching my breath, but it was actually better than Blue Lake. Had a beer and leg of chicken!

I did so awesome in the race--I beat my goal by 16 minutes! In the future, I would focus on my running. I didn't really do any running speed work, like I had swimming and biking.

There were so many people there. Seeing so many folks into this stuff was very motivational. It helped that I had such a great race!

Race Reports Modeled with Permission from
Endurancecoach's Triathlon Post Race Analysis Sheet.