Pre Race:

I got my race number on Wednesday night ahead of the race. I was able to get my number on the bike and my helmet before packing my car Saturday night.

Reconnoitered the race site on Friday afternoon with the family. Got to see the swim start and finish and transition before the brought in the barriers to shut it down. No swim in the race area but we did swim in the lake at one of the swim beaches. Warm water – hint of things to come.

Got a transition bag on Saturday. Laid out transition Saturday night. Packed my bag. Came back a couple hours later and laid out transition again. Packed it all up and put it in the car. Left myself notes about the things I have been forgetting on the long bike rides – drink bottles and food.

Race Morning:

3:30am alarm after a not so restful night.Kids not sleeping not pre-race jitters. Grab food and drinks and in the car by 3:45am. Transition opens at 5am and I want to be there then. Uneventful trip down. Parking was about ½ mile from transition. Was happy I found my headlamp. Parking area was dark. Had a little operator trouble with my bike pump that made me think I had a flat. Worked through it, Grabbed my transition bag and headed to the transition area. Chip pickup & body marking. Into transition and setup. Out to visit with Marietta and Nikki. Running into tons of people I know. Ilana Katz, GFA peeps, some one I used to work with.

Swim Start

The water temperature at the start was a balmy 92 degrees. That's hot. Time trial start was great. Started at 7:15. Not in the water until 7:40am. Swim was pretty uneventful. Did get inside the bouys on the 1st leg. Easy around the bouy. Next section was easy. I started the chrono function on my watch prior to the start. Was tempted to check my watch during the swim but did not. Make the last turn and it's time for a lesson learned. Turning into the sun and I have on clear lenses. A little tint or shade would have been nice because I could not see the bouys. Followed the other swimmers. An interesting item to note was that the shortest distance from the bouy at the last turn to the exit ramp was not along the remaining bouys. I took the shortest route. Done in 32 or so minutes. That will be my benchmark for future Olympic swims.

This swim was a huge relief for me. I felt anxious in the water at John Tanner and Sweetwater. John Tanner I was wearing a snug wetsuit and at Sweetwater I was wearing a tri-top I though might be a size too small. I wore no top for the swim for West Point and felt fine. There were lots of other differences but for now I'll go with no top and sacrifice some time in T1.

T1

Being the at the end of the time trial start in the water I get to T1 and most of the bikes are gone. I did this race as practice for Chattanooga in July. So I had a lot of gear and took a lot of time in T1. Heartrate monitor, tri-top, race belt with number, helmet, socks, bike shoes. Did an energy gel and got some water and off to the mount line. Tried one more time with cleat covers. They allowed me to run to the mount line but cost me the time to remove and stow them. Basically a net zero time difference but a higher heart rate at the start of the bike. I'll skip forgo the cleat covers at Chattanooga and see what I think.

Bike


Nice course. Out too fast. Scale told me later that I did not drink enough. I did the bottle exchange only to trade a little bit of cooler water regular bottle of water not a squeeze that was +90 degrees. My Garmin is set to record a lap every 4 miles. It's a nice round number that means 12 minute laps are near 20mph. 1st lap is 12:30. After that I did not catch a lap time for the rest of the race but reviewing my data I could tell that the hills, heat and too fast a start on the bike had my last 3 laps more than 14 mins each. Passed a guy with 89 on his calf – it was pretty close to the finish of the bike though. Looked like they did a good job of sweeping gravel off the course from when I drove it on Friday.

Done – around 1:30. Just about what I thought I'd do. Can tell that Silk Sheets has helped.

T2

Dismount and walk to the other end of transition where my bike is. A little miffed that somebody racked there bike above my stuff. Again take a nice leisurely time in transition. Gel and water. New socks and shoes. Visor. All the bike stuff is off and hopefully the guy who racked above me won't bother it too much when he gets back.

Run

Hottest dam run ever. I go out what feels easy but turns out to be a shade over 9 minute miles. Turns out to be too fast. Water at each mile. Probably did not drink enough. Start walking at 2.5. At this point I am past the dam proper and on the levee. The road curves so I still can't see the turn around. Decide to turn my interval timer on and start run/walk. Time was set for 6:1. Too much run/not enough walk. Run when I can and walk a lot. About mile 4 I decide to give race walking at try. Thanks to Coach Karen Kaye I can make 13-14 minute miles instead of 16-17. Heart rate is staying down. Mile 3.5 I decide to pull off my tri-top to see if that will cool me down. It worked. Poor Marietta got to see me sans shirt. She did not laugh but I think it had to do with her saving her energy for the rest of the run. If the part of the function of a team is to motivate you it worked. See Marietta outbound while I was on the return side of the run pushed me a long a little. I walked and race walked until 5.2. Then I said to myself if I run I can be done in 10 minutes. So I did and I was. Was very happy to see Barbara and the others at the finish to cheer me on.

Results:

Swim: 32:46 T1: 3:53 Bike: 1:27:06 T2: 4:54 Run: 1:09:32 Total: 3:18:09