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When it was time for our wave to get in, I was steeling myself for the cold water shock, but it was fine. I don’t believe that it was actually 59 degrees. The air was chilly, so maybe that’s what made the water feel “warm”. Either way, I jumped right in and headed over to the starting line. While we were treading water at the line, the sun was coming up, and we were trying to hear the last minute instructions from the lifeguard over the blasting music, my adrenaline kicked in. It was at that moment that I remembered, “THIS is why I’m doing this!!”

Swim:
Time: 35:28

The swim went fine. I felt comfortable in the water right from the start. But in this case, I think “comfortable” meant “lazy”. I never pushed the pace and as a result, my time was a little slower than I might have hoped (around :33), but, as will become a theme here, I haven’t been spending enough time [fill in the blank; here = “swimming”] to realistically have been much faster. The water was flat and I didn’t notice a current in either direction. Visibility was pretty awful; I couldn’t really find anyone’s feet in front of me, so I barely did any drafting. I never got cold, for which I am very thankful. I’m sure the neoprene cap helped a ton, but it also made it nearly impossible for me to keep my head down, which wasn’t all that comfortable.

About a week ago, my BlueSeventy Hydravision goggles (which I’d been wearing since just before Ironman Canada) stopped sealing on my face so I bought a pair of the TYR Nest Pro goggles, which I’d had before and liked and they sealed on my face in the store a little better. The Nest Pros are comfortable and have a fairly low profile, but during the race I discovered that I really prefer the BlueSeventy’s. (Good timing to find that out!) The visibility and field of vision from the BlueSeventy’s is way better. On the way back, the sun was directly in our faces, and between that, foggy goggles and the murky water, I couldn’t see a damn thing. Whatever, I was able to follow the splashing and made it back to the boat ramp/exit just fine. I was mostly just happy I didn’t come out of the water shivering!

T1:
Time: 5:29
My T1 was awful. My run from the boat ramp to my bike went great – I moved pretty quickly without spiking my heart rate too much, but once there I lost all momentum. I struggled to get out of my wetsuit. Then, I started to put on a windbreaker, changed my mind. Put on arm warmers, then had a hard time putting my socks on. My shoes weren’t set up well, so that took extra time. I also put on a beanie underneath my helmet. I figured that was quick and could save a lot of warmth. It was just an extra couple minutes probably, but those are “free” minutes and usually I’m pretty good in transition. Again, since this was my first triathlon and first time wearing the wetsuit since last September, I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised I wasn’t mentally prepared.

Bike:
Time: 2:49:48
My parents and brother were waiting near the bike out and I got a good, loud shout as I passed by them!

Since the Ironman in August, I’d only done a few rides longer than 35 miles and nothing over 50. Oops. For the first 20-or-so miles I felt great. I didn’t feel like I was working very hard and was averaging about 21 miles per hour. I didn’t know enough about the course to know if that was sustainable, but I was thinking it might be. Oops, again. Between about miles 28 and 41, you get three substantial climbs. The first one is about 0.6 miles and is about as steep as anything I’ve ridden in a triathlon. (Maybe a little less steep than the hill at the Harriman races, but nevertheless, it’s steep!) The next two felt only slightly “easier”. I spun easy up all the hills, but my legs were still pretty wrecked by the time I got through them. I didn’t have any “pop” in my legs for the final 15 miles. My back and neck started aching a little also, probably because I just wasn’t used to being on the bike for that long. My stomach never felt great on the bike, but I was able to take in my calories and didn’t feel like I had to stop. It was just a distraction.

Riding through Pendelton – including parts that cyclists normally can’t ride – was cool, if a little boring. One of my favorites parts of the race was all the “Tank Xing” signs throughout the base. At one point, a group of Marines marching in formation was stopped at an intersection to let us pass. That was fun to see also.

Wearing arm warmers and my beanie were just about perfect. I would have been way to warm in the windbreaker. Towards the end of the bike I took the arm warmers off and would have ditched the beanie too, but didn’t want to stop to take off my helmet to get to it.

After the race a lot of people were complaining about strong winds. I never really noticed much of a head (or tail) wind. Maybe that’s because I just attributed my slow speeds to lack of bike fitness! There were some pretty sick cross-winds that almost knocked me off the bike a few times. If I’d been riding a disc, I’m pretty sure I would have been on the ground!

Despite all that complaining, riding the “new” Guru felt great. And there’s very little question in my mind that my bike was one of the nicest looking ones on the course!

A few hundred yards before the end, my entire “cheering crew” – Elizabeth, Dad, Mom and Aaron, Loren and Charlie (watching me race for the first time) and the three dogs – were shouting me in.

Seeing and hearing all of them helped me find a little pop to get through T2.

T2:
Time: 3:16
T2 was smoother and more efficient than T1, but my time is still terribly slow. I would have been OK, but I had to stop to hit the porta-potty for a quick pee. I’d had to pee for a couple hours, but couldn’t do it on the bike and didn’t want to stop. Fine, but a 3:16 T2 is pretty embarrassing. I did get to see @AshleyLarkin (from Twitter) in T2 – she was volunteering and shouted encouragement to me on my way out.

Run:
Time: 1:40:39

I started the run feeling great. I saw the family again on the little bridge a quarter mile or less from the start. I’m generally pretty good running off the bike and Saturday was no exception. I concentrated on taking the first mile pretty easy and still comfortably ran a 7:06. I consciously slowed it down and settled into a 7:20 to 7:30 pace for the next four miles. I got to see the pro men finishing up right as I was headed out of transition and the pro women (including stud/women’s champ Mirinda Carfrae, who ran a 1:17:34, faster than all but six of the men!) just a couple miles later.

The day was getting pretty warm, and there is not a lick of shade on the course, but I felt good. I think I was smiling the whole time. I never pushed the run too hard, but once I settled into my 7:30 pace, I was hoping to maintain that for the duration. I saw a few friends during the run (mostly going the other way), including Jeff, Lynne and Will (all of whom had great races!). I didn’t see Scott (because he was way way ahead of me) or Steve.

The run is two loops and I saw my family four times during the 13.1 miles. That was great and gave me something huge to look forward to. I had heard that some of the run was on the sand, but maybe they changed the course because it was all on pavement this year. It’s a fair course, with some little rolling hills and one semi-climb from the beach to Pacific Street.

I’m relatively pleased with my run time. I didn’t push too hard and still averaged 7:40’s for the whole thing. I slowed down a lot in miles 10, 11 and 12. But I finished pretty strong (I ran the last 1.1 miles in 8:11) and I did the whole thing with a smile on my face and was able to engage the people cheering and enjoy the fact that we were running next to the beach. I don’t feel like I got passed by too many people who got off the bike with or after me. I guess that doesn’t mean a whole lot other than that I finished the bike with runners slower than me! I probably could have run a couple minutes faster on Sunday. And hopefully could have run a couple minutes faster than that if my bike fitness was better and I hadn’t run 32 miles 6 days before.

Post-race:

I crossed the finish line, spent some time talking to speedsters, Scott and Jeff (above), got a massage, had some food, found Dad and Aaron and made my home for a nice shower and my Zoot Recovery tights, which totally hooked me up, again (10 mile strong run on Sunday!).