The horn went off and there was not too much contact. There was a mooring buoy right in front of me and I did have to climb over someone�s legs to avoid ramming it. After that it was pretty clear. I breathe on my left side and the buoys, as well as most of the swimmers were on the left. About 200 yds in I could feel my legs start to tire and I backed off the effort a bit and just got into a comfortable groove. I didn�t bother looking for any feet to draft, just pictured myself out on Quaker Lake for my normal OWS. We were swimming into the wind and there was a little chop but not too bad, at least the waves would be pushing us on the return trip. As I reached the turn-around I saw 2 swimmers ahead of me and moved over to maybe catch a ride back to the beach. One came around the buoy and I was just getting ready to settle in and draft him when he starts doing breaststroke. REALLY?? WTF? I basically jumped sideways to avoid a kick in the groin and settled back into my own pace. The other swimmer was all over the place, out by the kayaks one minute and on the buoy line the next. He was a fast swimmer but with no black line to follow he swam a little extra. The breaststroke guy latched onto my feet for a good portion of the swim back and jumped around me at the last 25 yds. I came out of the swim feeling like it was a warm-up and not a race.

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Coming out of the water I flipped my zipper up and tried to pull my speedsuit down and the zipper got stuck about � way down. I could not get my arms out and I heard Marmadaddy yell �GOGGLES!�. I spotted him and felt a little like the Tim Conway character, Dorf, as I reached for my goggles and threw them to Mike. It took a while to get the suit off my arms but after that I was fine. I decided to walk with my shoes on instead of clipping them to the pedals. Overall it was a slow transition but at least the �rumbly in my tumbly� was gone.

Practice transitions more

The ride starts off with a big climb right out of transition. I have burned myself out on this climb before and I wasn’t going to let that happen this time. At the base of the hill I just put it in my low gear and started to sing “What goes up ……. must come down, spinning wheel …….. gotta go round.” I was passed by a few people going up the hill, as I crested the hill I went by one guy that passed me going up. I explained that I was a bit “gravity challenged” going up but look out coming down. We went back and forth over the next few miles, keeping a legal distance apart of course, I’d pass him on the flats and he’d pass me if there was the slightest grade. Andy Getzin passed by me at the top of the hill and as he rode by I sang “Her name was Lola …. She was a show girl” trying to pass it along to him. My plan backfired when it stuck in my head for the rest of the race. My legs were feeling good and I was staying on top of my hydration with about 24 oz of water in my NeverReach and a 24 oz bottle of Gatorade Endurance. As I descended down the hill to the lake I had to let out a big “WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!”. The volunteers were cracking up when I went by. I caught someone else that passed me going up the hill early on the flats next to the lake. When we turned up the hill to get back to Rt 89 a couple more guys passed by me. I grabbed a water at the aid station and poured it over my legs and back, it felt good but would have been much better if it were cold. There was a nice headwind coming back to the park, I passed by Mike Ariel and think I called him Nick. I always seem to get them mixed up, skinny guys all look the same. I was wondering why I would be passing Nick on the bike, didn’t make sense. My average speed was in the low 20’s when I got back to Rt 89 and I wanted to at least get above 21 by the time I got back. I cheered a lot of the athletes heading north along and kept saying “ENJOY THE TAILWIND!!” I started the descent down the hill and had to let out another “WHEEEEEEEEE!” or two. (Thinking about the pig in the Geiko commercial) As I got to the bottom of the hill I almost forgot to take my feet out of my shoes. I got one foot out, made the turn into the park and had a bunch of people yelling “WRONG WAY!!”. Really? Seriously? I turned around, went down the right chute and headed for the dismount line as I pulled my other foot from the shoe. Had a good dismount and wondered if that little mishap cost me my 21 mph average.

Bike more

Avg T2

As I ran out of transition I felt that little “rumbly in my tumbly” again. Uh oh! It’ll go away, yea ….. that’s it, it WILL go away. I was not pushing this run at all, just getting through it and having fun. I’m not even a mile into the run and I’m already looking for a bathroom. Ugh!! It WILL go away! Please go away! I said hi to a lot of the volunteers and saw some BCTCers on the bridge as I went under the road. When I came up the other side I asked Ed if he could go over and go to the bathroom for me. I was seriously thinking about going waaaay out of the way to use the bathroom across the street but kept telling myself that it would pass. (I should know better!) I started up the path and saw the leaders coming back down already. WOW!!! They were moving! The bowels were not being cooperative and I started to think about if I remembered a john up by the turnaround or not, I didn’t think there was one. There is one thing I like about being in the first wave, being a good swimmer and a decent biker; there are not many people on the trail for the first loop of the run. I started to head into the woods when I heard a runner coming back down the trail, I smiled and kept running. I spotted a tree with some nice, big leaves on it and grabbed a couple as I darted down into the ditch. Thirty seconds later (maybe 40) I was feeling much better and didn’t see or hear anybody. Whew!! The rest of the race was a lot of fun. This is a great course for seeing people. Two loops, slightly uphill going up to the waterfalls and slightly downhill coming back. I was chatting a lot and high fiving a ton of people. A woman yelled at me for fooling around during a race when she saw me giving rabbit ears to bbeavan in front of the camera. I told her that racing triathlons is all about the pictures.  JC passed by me on the way up to the falls on the 2nd loop. I ran with him a bit but he eventually walked away from me. When I got to the falls I looked at my watch and thought I could make it back for Matt’s start if I turn it up a notch. Downhill’s are my friend! About a mile down the path I was coming up on JC’s tail. I commented to him about how the stitching on his shorts really bring out the best in his ass. I figured I’d catch up to him and have a buddy to run to the finish with but he had different intentions. When he heard me behind him, he turned on the juice some more and just crushed me. Next time I will be stealth, hang out behind his feet and pass him at the finish! I think I may have a hard time keeping quiet though. We’ll see. I came into the finish line with about 1 minute to spare and headed right down to watch Matt’s race start. What a day!!

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