After carbo loading the night before with good friends and teammates, I can barely sleep that night. What little sleep I do get is light and patchy at best. The alarm goes off at 4:35am, but I'm already sitting on the edge of the bed. All of my gear was packed the night before, and the bike is already on the car rack and just waiting for me to go. After a quick shower I'm on my way expecting a warm day I'm just wearing a skin suit, basketball shorts, and a long sleeve T. When I get out I quickly discover that I should have worn warmer clothes oh well. I bike the short distance from where I parked to the starting/transition area. I get there just in the nick of time to get the last end spot on the bike racks just like my coach said to try and get. I set up my transition area as best as I know how too, know just to kill the hour tell I start swimming. I talk with my fellow team mates and see my coach a couple of times, all of them giving me reassuring words. Ok 20 minutes tell I start in the first wave, woot go #8! I swim a few laps to get the arms loose then throw back my first gel 10 minutes prior to race start. I get set on the wall and am just waiting. I don't quite hear the announcer say go so am not the first one off the wall, but not the last. Ok time to take it easy and settle in for the long haul. Trying to keep focused on my stroke and not the other swimmers is hard, there was more then a few times where i'd look down the lanes and I'd think i would see few people (in reality they were there). Oh thank god there's my stop sign, only one more 25 DONT SPRINT IT! It's a little bit of a effort to get out of the pool with the 1.5ft gap between water level and pool deck, but its made all that much easier by friends and family cheering me on. I run through the building and into the transition area where people are still setting up including the guy right next to me on the racks but he sees me coming and moves his stuff right before i get there. Knowing im slow in the transition I try and make the most of it sitting down throwing on my socks, bike shoes, helmet and sunglasses, and away I go! Clipping into the bike i quickly make my way onto the course. I decide to try and take my 1st lap a bit conservative to make sure the course is still as I remember it. The local cops are great at stopping traffic at the lights, one of the streets is pretty torn up and makes for a rough ride. About 5 minutes into it I realise I'm totally on my own out here which is great. On my second lap I'm still on my own and now im really trying to book it, I slam my 2nd gel on this lap mostly to practice race nutrition. Ok third lap finally I start seeing people again, but they are extremelly slow and I pass everyone that I come on without much difficulty. As I turn off the bike course I realize that I can shatter my 1:30 goal as im still under a hour and only have the run left ok Chris time to motor. I come to the dismount line and get out without event (yea no eating pavement for me!). I grab my shoes and hat and off to the races. I hear the announcer calling me out as I hit the running course. Ah my home turf not only did I just run this course last weekend but its my college campus I've been running here for years. That being said if not for the race last weekend the course initially was not marked the best and I feel sorry for anyone who didn't study the map in good detail. Mile maker one, ok lets check, im thirsty but legs are still feeling good, ok we got this. After the turn around I really try and get moving, some people are saying im the first person they've seen and I still havn't been passed the entire time and I'm not about to let that happen now, so far into the race. Mile 2 ok one left keep it going. Finally I'm on the home stretch I'm seeing many people who were in the pool with me just starting their run as I hit the finish line, i try and cheer them on but im pretty out of breath. Whew finish line 1:15! broke my goal by 15 minutes and set a new PR. The race was well great, I feel a real sense of accomplishment, and now I can sit back and watch the pros and the rest of my teammates compete.