On the last few OWS I'd had in races I would get a little anxiety at the start which would slow me down. Sometimes I'd even have to breast stroke a couple times to get my nerves back in check. Fortunately this race I had none of those issues. I started strong and stayed that way the whole swim. Navigation was very good and I felt like I was swimming strong. I did get punched in the head by some dude passing me. I actually kind of laughed it off because that was the most significant contact I've ever had in a swim so I considered it a right of passage. :)


I would swim harder and kick more. I tend to get into a relaxed rythym and kick enough to keep my feet up.
This was a wetsuit legal race as well, so it would have of helped a lot if I owned a wetsuit. It's on my list of things for the future.

I got out of the water and saw my wife and Kristi (scotts wife) right away. I waved and started running to transition. As I was running I looked up and scott was about 20 feet ahead of me. My first thought was "crap" but my second thought was "awesome" because I'm generally a faster swimmer than scott and I felt like I had a strong swim. So I gave him a knuckle bump and told him great job on the swim.

T1 was a long run. I think it was a good 300 yards or so from the swim finish to the entrance of transition. In some ways this was good to help warm up the legs a little. The grass/dirt was still a little muddy and slippery so I had to run gingerly.

Scott and I came out of transition at pretty much the same time. He hadn't practiced mounting his bike with his shoes clipped in so he had to stop at the bike mount area to put his shoes on. So, I got a good 30 second or so head start on the bike.

What would you do differently?:

Nothing, was a smooth transition and I got into my shoes very quickly at speed on the bike.

I took off knowing I'd have a 30 second or so lead on Scott, but it wasn't a good feeling knowing he was back there gunning for me. I pushed it hard from the get go and never let up. There was one really long downhill that was freaky fast. I hit 43mph and was still spinning it out as fast as I could. There were railroad tracks at the bottom of the hill so that got the adrenalin pumping thumping over them at over 40mph. They did have them covered with blue carpet, so that helped decrease the risk a little.
At mile 10 there was a hairpin segment that I was able to see scott on the way back. I was about three minutes ahead of him which was good. That told me I was riding faster than him, but I knew three minutes might not be enough time of a lead on the run so I kept pushing it hard.


Not much, I gave it all I had

T2 was fairly uneventful other than my two neighbors in transition got there before me so they had their bikes shoved together without any room for my bike. I pulled them apart and jammed my bike in there, but it cost me 10-15 seconds.
Last weekend I got a horrible cramp in my left calf putting my shoes on in transition so I took my time this time. I didn't point my toes and eased my shoes on. No problems at all which was a huge sigh of relief. :)
off to the run

nothing

I started out very strong and felt great after the bike. I have my GPS watch and had planned to run a 7:30 pace the whole run. However, shortly after I started a guy in my AG passed me so I decided to tag along with him. After 2 miles tagging along with him at around a 6:50 pace I realized that it was stupid for me to try and hang with him and slowed back to my 7:30 pace.
I saw scott on the first hairpin and he was about 4 & a half minutes behind me with 4 miles to go. I knew it would be tough for him to make up that distance, but I was worried I pushed it too hard chasing that guy early. I held a 7:30 pace through about 4 miles and my legs started getting pretty fatigued. The last two miles I gradually slowed from a 7:30 pace to closer to a 9:00 minute pace towards the finish. I was really worried about scott catching me, until there was one more hairpin a half mile from the finish where I saw him. He was still a good three minutes behind me with a half mile left. woohoo, I was gonna beat him.
They put a nasty little hill in the last quarter mile before the finish which was no fun, but after I turned the last corner and seeing the blue carpet and bleachers it was incredible. I felt like I was a Pro racing as I ran down the chute with people cheering loudly and even camera's filming me as I ran by. The announcer called my name off and I ran through the finish with both hands held high. It was truly my best accomplishment in Triathlon to date. My watch had me finishing just under 2:33, but the official results had me in at 2:35. Either way, they're both PR's by almost 10 minutes.
Scott was 3 minutes behind me so I waited at the finish line for him and we gave each other a big hug. It was a great race for both of us!!!

stick to my plan and not get caught up in trying to chase somebody in my AG.

They had a ton of great food and drinks at the finish line. I had some peaches and a banana with my gatorade.


still need to lose 15 lbs. and train more


My only complaint about the whole event was they had the finish downtown at the pro finishline which was very cool, but it made it very challenging for my family to get from transition to downtown in time to see us finished. My wife didn't get to see me finish. :(
I absolutely loved that we got to finish in the pro area, but logistically it stunk for my wife and kids.
Also, they had a bus that took athletes from the finish line back to transition but because the roads were still blocked off they dropped us off on the other side of the lake from transition. we had to walk/run 1.5 miles from the bus dropoff back to transition. That wasn't fun an hour after you finish.