Race morning started a little differently than most, usually I am abnormally awake for 3:45 in the morning and have no problem eating. Saturday, I could not get myself out of bed and everytime I ate, I wanted to gag/puke... not a good sign for an A race. I got the required food down and just tried to think positive thoughts... In the transistion area I saw a guy wearing a Trifuel hat, turns out Jsk was 5 bikes down from me!

Swim- First swim in a big lake with waves, tested it out the day before and I really liked it. I had a few sighting disasters, but all in all, it was a great swim, exited the water and my watch read 28:??. I almost jumped right out of my wetsuit!! I was thrilled because I had held back the whole swim and still had my best time for a swim yet.

T1 - Runnning to the bike I saw the guy who had his bike next to mine wandering and looking lost. "dude, your bike is over here!!" That was my mitzvah for the day.

Bike- This is where I had worked the hardest this season and was really excited to let it rip. I flew the first 35 miles, again, trying to hold back a bit because I knew the wind was going to be into our face for the last 20 miles. Even having held back on the way out, the wind coming back was brutal. Lost almost a MPH on my average in that section, I just tried to remember to stay patient. I passed a guy on a P4, that was funny, and recieved one of the best bottle handoffs I'd ever gotten. I held out my hand for a guy 20 feet away, and someone else put a water bottle right in my hand. Perfect placement. Impressive. Avg speed, 20.77 MPH. I think I should have gone a bit harder on the section of the course with the wind, It was going to be slow coming back either way.

Run- My nemisis... Run felt awful the first three miles, stomach not good, legs not good everything just miserable. I knew almost immediatley I wouldn't get my goal of 5 hours, but really wanted to fight it out. The run was a mix of 6-8 minutes of running and 30-40 seconds of walking, which in retrospect isn't the worst thing because I avoided the dreaded 1-2 mile walk. The course was really nice and well aided, the one big hill was a welcome opporotunity to walk and served as motivation to run in the parts leading up to it. Final time- 5:18:?? A PR by 20 minutes!

Summary- I didn't get my goal but I fought really hard despite knowing it wasn't going to happen. I've known all season that I need to run more, but have put it off because the next race for me is a my first mararthon, so all I'm doing from here out is running. Can't wait to race this distance again, I think I'll crack 5:00 next season. Congrats to Jsk for a great race, it was nice meeting you.