Top 3 in the swim!!

Went HARD. Took out quick from the go and started passing. Went hard to the first bouy (150yrd) and then went into a moderate cruise. Figured I would go on a 2 stroke/breath pattern in the cruise mode.

Took a foot to the stomach, immediately swam over the person. Sorry.

Actually sprinted the swim very hard. Swam until my hands raked bottom before standing and running out of the lake. Time includes a decent run up the embankment toward transition.

Swim more. The two weeks prior I had 2 swims and none open water. More swimmming would definitely benefit.

Includes long run up embankement, and through transition. Seemed 75yrds or so. I was on the second rack from the start so I had a long way to go.

Bike was in the correct gear.

Ran out of transition, blew over the mount line and across the road to clear roadway before mounting. Had shoes on, threw my leg over (pedal was banded in the 3'oclock position), and rode off.

Practice on the flying mount.

Went hard. Immediatly passed by racer 73, who I leapfrogged for a bit. She passed on the uphills, I blew by on the downhills.

I sat and spun mostly on the uphills and was passed often there. On the descents, I made several of my passes.

Mile 8 of 12 was a horrible accident with a biker and a van. Race directors slowed us throught the site, and it was enough to make it hard to keep racing, seeing the condition of the rider.

Continued hard back up the last hill (1mi to go) coming toward transition. Dismounted (shoes clipped to the bike) at the line and ran into transition.

Bike setup: Aerobottle of water, 1 16oz gatorade. Drank 1/2 water and 3 gulps of gatorade

Work on hills

Great transition. Used speed laces on the shoes, racked the bike, slipped shoes on, dropped helmet, grabbed race belt and was gone.

Fully tightened the shoes on the run.

Seems I managed the fastest T2, not sure if that's right or not though.

This is where I lose it every time.

About 1mi in, felt the heart was beating out of the chest. The HRM was showing 160s, but felt much higher. Took a 15" walk break (#1 of 4) and walked the water stops. Took 1 cup water & 1 cup heed on the course.

Just seemed I couldn't push the run as hard as I wanted.

I'm thinking the 3mo off at the first of the year and the relatively low run volume hurt.

Run more.

Walked through the chute, grabbed a water and banana and congregated among fellow racers.


Lack of real hard training in the last two weeks plus lack of real running since the first of the year.


Great race as always.

Made an absolute rookie mistake and left the timing chip at home. Took my times from my garmin and the race director approved it. Only penalty was that I was ineligible for any awards, but that's okay. Would have needed to get 13' off my time for 3rd place.

The accident on the bike course was pretty bad. A downhill biker collided with an uphill climbing car (who changed lanes to pass). The biker was motionless when I passed and only 1 race volunteer was on the site assessing. I was in the downhill when I came on it and was running the brakes to burn off speed. A couple miles later, I was brought to a complete stop for the arrival of the ambulance and fire truck. Honestly, after seeing that, it really changed my perspective on the race.

The good news is that he was awake when loaded on the stretcher.

Still, the race was fantastic as always!