I was still undecided Saturday night if I would do this race or not. The training wasn't completely there, a broken toe from 3 weeks ago was still tender and a tweaked hip from a ways back knocked out some of the intensity that I should have been training to. Still, I set the 2 alarms and went to bed early, depending on a flip of the coin at 3:30 a. Heads, I got my tail out of bed and left.

I packed the car the night before just in case, I guess I knew I'd go. I headed out to Beltsville State Park, about an hour and 40 minutes away. Twenty minutes into the drive, I rounded a curve in the the highway and, you guessed it, there's a deer standing smack dab in the middle lane, transfixed on my headlights. Funny, just 2 minutes before I thought that there might be deer out this time of morning.

No time to brake so I swerved right, thinking that since she's pointed towards the left side of the highway she'd continue on in that direction and we'd both be on our merry ways. Well, this deer never studied logic. She jumped around and ran directly at my car hammering the left front fender. I was thankful she didn't flip up onto the hood, big deer and small cars don't mix. The rest of the drive was less eventful.

I pulled into Beltsville State Park just as the sun was coming up over the mountains--many mountains. I checked the damage to the car (yeow!), unloaded and headed to transition: set up my site, pumped the tires, put on my wetsuit and headed for the lake. The RD said the lake temp was at 65 degrees, not balmy, but not bad--actually felt pretty good. The water was calm with fairly good visibility. I was in the 9th wave so there was plenty of time to warm up.

We got off around 9. There were only about 30 people in the red cap wave and after sizing-up the competition I decided to head to the front, on the buoy side. The course was a single loop rectangle, the first turn at the Beltsville Dam and then down a long straght-away to the finish. I found my rhythm early and just got down to business, no crowds, no thrashing. As I was climbing out of the water at the finish my right hamstring cramped badly slowing getting out of the water and to the T1 mat. Still, a good relaxing swim, 38:05.

T1 was not great, but then I never worry too much about trasitions, besides I had to tape up my toe, 6:00.

Smooth out on the bike and feeling pretty good thru the first few miles. After about 20 minutes I noticed I had forgotten my sunglasses, left them on the ground where I was taping my toe. Not good! Headwinds had started up and my eyes were getting sandblasted. The wind continued throughout the bike leg. If the headwinds weren't making it tough enough, the climbs were outright muder. The bike course was 3 loops. I knew coming into the 1st aid station at 16 miles that I had just hit my best loop at a little over 52 minutes. It was going to be a long day!

I also knew I'd need to push the downhills to make up for the slow long climbs, catching a leg up when I could on the long rollers. This worked fairly well into the 2nd loop and the second go at a fast s-curve descent. About half way down the bike began to violently shake and wobble. I was headed into the ess with bikers headed up the hill on the other side, the cateye read 52 mph. A visual of the bike sliding out from under me, throwing me into the oncoming bikers ran thru my head. No real time to think, I started massaging the brakes hoping to get it under control.

A few hail Mary's later, I was stopped and shaken at the bottom of the hill. After a little composure time I got back on the bike. The brakes and I became good friends for the rest of the course. The times slowed considerably and I had to spin up the climbs without the benefit of free speed from the downhills. The last 6 miles were brutal, zig-zagging up the climbs and trashing what was left of my legs, 4:17. THAT SUCKS!!!

T2, great eff'n fantastic, I was off the bike, 5:48

I started the run slow, working out the stiffness in my legs, hitting the 1st mile at about 9:02. The course began on grass and hardpack thru the woods leading up to the Beltsville Dam crossing. The day had gotten hot and the sun was really beltin' out a tune in the open areas. The aid stations were handing out wet towels, much appreciated. I maintained some sort of pace knowing if I walked that it would only take me that much longer to get this thing finished. Run, 2:22:24.

Black Bear was a bear, but a great scenic and challenging course. The bike leg was magnificent, I found it harder than IMWI at half the distance. I wish I had been in shape to do it justice. If you're in the area, this is a must do race and CGI puts on a quality event, but beware, if you're not at peak it will KICK YOUR BUTT! There ain't no free passes at Beltsville.