Ironteammate Louis and I arrived at the Lake and we set up our transition. Then it was time to decompress the mind and the bowels... A quick warmup swim and then it was time to line up with my wave. Our wave started and I waited a good 15 to 20 seconds to let the ultra competitive swimmers out first. Then I jumped in and just tried to swim at a pace that I knew I could sustain. Sighting to the first buoy was tough due to the sun, but eventually I reached it. The return was much easier, although more crowded since I was catching up with the slower swimmers from the previous wave and the fastest swimmers from the wave behind me were starting to catch up. I got out of the water and started to jog and get out of my wetsuit. I felt good heading into transition.
No major hangups at T1.
The Bike went well. 2 loops. I passed a lot of people, although quite a few in their disk wheels passed me as well. The only hitch was that at the turnoff between the first and second loop, I got a little confused since it was a new bike course this year. I saw cones that guided the turn towards the Right, so I started to slow down to make the Right turn. Then I noticed that some of the cyclist in front of me kept going straight. After a slight hesitation, I figured I better keep going straight. Right choice. One of my Ironteammates was DQ for skipping the 2nd bike loop. I finished strong heading into T2.
T2 was going smoothly and I took off on my run feeling good. Then I realized I didn't have my racebelt on. I had to go back and get my racebelt, because I didn't want to risk DQ. Probably wasted a minute, but the worse thing was when I started running again, I felt slow. I couldn't pick up my pace. I felt like I was jogging. My stomach also was very gassy. I had taken 2 bottles of carbs, a PowerBar, and a packet of PowerBar Gel chews on the bike. Now my stomach was sloshing around during the first loop of the run course. I realized that I was now a few minutes behind the pace I needed to beat last year's time by 20 minutes. I saw Coach Brad at the end of the first loop and he asked me how it was going. I told him not too good and that I was behind schedule. He told me that was OK and to go out and see what I can do on the second loop. That somehow motivated me and gave me the encouragement to try my best even if I fall a little short of my goal. I started to run and pick off runners in front of me one by one. I noticed that no one was passing me on the run. Perhaps all the faster runners had already finished. In hindsight, I was probably throwing down some 7 minute-miles. I finished strong with no idea if I accomplished my goal. I knew I had a PR, but did I PR by 20 minutes. I felt like I just might have, but it was going to be close. The minute I wasted in T2 bothered me.
