Between the cold and not warming up, I was starting to have real doubts about my ability to even finish after about 400 meters. I settled down a bit and then was okay after rounding the bouy. My breathing was off the whole time and my time was pretty lousy, but I got through it. On the plus side, my navigation was much better than average.

I think the cold water really limited my performance. We'll see how the Cactus Challenge compares in two weeks.

I was planning on wearing arm warmers, a jacket, and gloves on the ride, but ditched the idea of the arm warmers and gloves and just pulled on the jacket. The weather had warmed significantly and it ended up being pretty pleasant.

I need to set up my transition area a bit better so I can get my wetsuit off as I put my helmet on.

The good news is that my average power on the bike was 190 watts. The bad news is that my bike split sucked and my average speed was only 18.5 mph. That's the worst average speed of any triathlon I've done. It's 1 mph slower than my first last year. It's 2 mph slower than CapTex which had 8 u-turns in it! It's even slower than my 1/2 IM from last year, despite the average being 7 watts higher. The course was very hilly, but with that wattage on my training rides which are just as hilly, I average faster than that without my Zipp front, disc rear, and aero helmet. Added to that, on the big downhill of the course, I only managed 44.1 mph.

I've become convinced since yesterday that there was something seriously amiss. It doesn't seem to be the drive chain, because I was able to get the wattage to the PowerTap. I doubt that it was the aero helmet that I wore for the first time and I doubt also that it was the jacket, since it's a very snug fit. That leaves the rear disc cover, which I think was okay, and my Zipp 404 front wheel. I do remember noting that as I started getting up to speed, I felt like something was brushing the inside of my right ankle. It turns out it was a current of air that I can't remember every feeling before when using the Zipp. I'm wondering if something is wrong with the wheel or maybe even if it was somehow seated in the fork incorrectly. I'm going to try and do some testing with it next week-end.

Anyway, somewhere around mile 17 or 18, Aaron came rolling on by me. He came out of T2 six minutes behind me but crushed the bike course. Nice job!

Nothing really. My average power was nice and high and I felt like the bike performance was solid other than speed.

I don't know my T2 time because it seems I didn't hit one of the timing mats. It was pretty fast, though.

Pretty solid run performance given how hard I went on the bike (damn that lousy speed is pissing me off....with apologies to those who would consider 18.5 mph really fast....it's all relative, you know ;) ). I came out of T2 with a guy in my age group about 20 yards ahead of me. I decided to keep my heart rate about 5-8 beats below LT and see if I could keep him in range and then kick it up on the second lap. I managed to do that pretty well, although he got a little more distance on me.

On the second lap, I very gradually started to reel him in, keeping my heart rate right at (what I think is) my LT. I got about 5 feet behind him with about 2 miles to go and then just couldn't bridge the gap without risking blowing up. But when we got to the killer hill on the second go round, he got part way up and then had to walk. I powered on through.

With about 1/2 mile left, I caught back up with Aaron. He has that flag to carry, plus he's actually tapering for IMAZ, so he was really taking it easy on the run. I would have slowed down and finished out with him, but I knew I had that AGer behind me and I mistakenly thought I might have a shot at hardware. Actually, if I had hit that 20.5 mph average, I would have taken 3rd. Can you tell that I have a hard time letting things go?

Nothing. I was pretty happy with the run.

Best post race ever for me because of all the BT folks there. Normally I just kind of wander around, get some food and drink, cheer some random people on, and then go home. This time I hung out with Aaron who came in a couple of minutes behind me, Brandt, who was doing the relay, and Haley, who was waiting for Laurie. Eventually we all hung out and waited for Celeste to cross the line. That was really inspiring to me. She was the last one in off the bike course and despite the fact that most of the racers were standing around enjoying food and beer, she made her transition and headed out. She was out there all alone on that second lap without a soul in sight other than the one water station. She kept at it, though, and actually scolded me about outside assistance when I trotted next to her with about 1/10 mile to go. Way to go, Celeste!


It's a small, decent race. I probably won't do it again because the roads on the bike course are really rough pavement. Of course, if we have a crowd like we did this year, I might not be able to resist!

Check my album for pics. I didn't take many, but what I did is there.