Started out good. I was in a pack and felt fast, like I was getting a good draft and moving along. As we rounded the first turn I went a little wide and found myself swimming all alone and feeling significantly slower than I had been. I saw the group I had been swimming with about 10 yards ahead of me an off to the right. I kept trying to put in an acceleration to catch up but was never able to. From that point on I was swimming by myself.

Water was totally still. Sighting was good. I am glad I wore my wetsuit but this is the first time I have ever felt too warm in my wetsuit. By the 1/2 way point I was reaching up to the neck line to let in some water to cool off. It wasn't a problem but it was noticable.

Fastest women (5 minutes behind us at the start) caught me with about 150 yards to go. It is neat to watch good swimmers go by but also frustrating because I just can't do what they can.

Sta with my draft pack. That group finished about 90 seconds in front of me at the end.

I am surprised this wasn't longer. I struggled a little bit getting the suit off and putting on socks. It felt like it was taking forever. I decided to put on shoes in T1 instead of doing it on the bike.

Nada

As soon as I got on the bike my legs felt "dead." I could definitely feel yesterday's long(ish) ride in my quads. There was also a bit of a headwind and I am a whiny baby, so there.

I started pretty well and just held what I felt I could hold. It was not nearly as much as I wanted to see on the power meter but I didn't feel like I could push a lot harder (this is a common theme in many of my races.....) I was passing people but not a lot. I had one guy, who I know, blow by me about the 5K mark. I kind of thought I was in better shape than him so it was a little disheartening.

About the 10k mark a guy pased me but then sort of promptly slowed down right in front of me. I fell back 4 bike lengths but to stay behind him I was hardly pedaling. So I picked up the pace and passed him back. Instead of falling back he latched on to my back wheel and proceeded to draft off of me for the next 25K or so. He was right on my ass. Every once in awhile he would pass me but he wasn't a strong enough rider to maintain the pace if he was in front so he would slow right down, I would drop back out of the draft zone and then within 30-45 seconds I would pass him again and we would repeat the process. If he would have followed the rules and fallen back four bike lengths I think I would have never seen him again but with him latching on to my wheel I was stuck with him. He was blatantly cheating but at one point when he came by me he said, "I'm really not trying to draft off of you." Me, "well then don't!" I hope people realized that I was following the rules and not participating in this guys shenanigans. Finally at about the 35K mark there were a few sweeping turns that I went through very fast, he fell back and was never able to catch back up to me. I am sure he found someone else to 'use.' Anyways....

Not my best ride but I made it through.

I've got this part of the race down :)

I felt like absolute garbage coming off of the bike. My legs had no 'pop' and I was just not in to this psychologically. This was one of those, "why do I do this?" starts to the run. I also knew that there was a monster hill on the course that eveyone had been talking about before the race. I just kind of slogged through the first two miles at about 7:00 pace. When I turned the corner and saw 'the hill' I was a little underwhelmed. Don't get me wrong. It is pretty huge but I have been running up some pretty steep stuff lately so not so big of a deal. Half way up the hill I caught my buddy ho had passed me on the bike and we ran to the top together, about 7:25 pace to get up the hill.

After the turn around while running down hill something clicked and I suddenly started to get in to the race. For the first time in the whole run I started to look ahead and try to pick off runners. I still wasn't blazing fast but I got in to the 6:20s-30s and finished off the last 5K pretty strong.

This run was hot and humid and I was glad to have it behind me.

Not much. Pizza. A coke. Needed to get home to family so I left as soon as they would let me get my stuff.


Workout the day before.

Something is 'off' a little bit with my body and fitness right now. I just don't feel right. I am hoping that I can train through this and come out stronger on the other side.


I crossed the line and the clock said 2:17:20 but the results have me at 2:17:37/ No big deal but I can't figure out where the extra 17 seconds came from.