Notes
Nutrition: ate my branson pre-race dinner of roast chicken, spinach, & sweet potatoes on Sat night, and a 1/2 batch of my sweet potato pancakes for breakfast at 4:30 am. a powergel at 7:05 and a bottle of infinit on the ride
Swim: (13:47 (for a 800m - heard it was short), 9 of 34 in wave, 3 of 12 in AG, 23 OA)
start was in knee deep water. felt pretty good on this swim. I could sight easily, and had feet going out to the first turn. I'd done a warmup swim to that turn & back, so I knew it was a little more than a 90* turn. A lot of people went really wide, so i ended up not having feet as i went towards the next corner. was easy to sight coming back to shore after the 2nd turn. i saw a few people to my right, but i still didn't have feet. unfortunately, if you followed the buoy line, you hit a sand bar that was ankle deep and the people to my right swam by when i stood up.
T1: 57.7 - slow. everyone that finished before me had a faster T1. need to practice. didn't help that the parking lot wasn't swept well, so i stopped to use a towel & get gravel off my feet.
Bike: (1:04:44, 23.2 mph for 25 miles, 2 of 12 AG, 5 OA)
I purposefully didn't start watch for swim,s o it wouldn't psych me out. used watch for bike & run, but didn't have HR data visible.
Pushed pretty hard on the bike. it had some gentle rolling, but nothing that i needed out of the big ring for. out & back course, so I saw I was in 4th place by the turn around. I kept pushing and knew i was close to reeling in a playtri guy but never quite getting there. Legs were really burning and i wondered if i was pushing too hard, but i was going to do my best to hold the pace and run into third.
T2: 44.3 all 5 beat me here, too. i did have a little trouble slipping on my shoes.
Run: (22:31 long?, 3 of 12 AG, 5 OA)
felt pretty good on the first trail section. tried to just relax and flow through the woods. after about 1/2 a mile, we were on the blacktop which rolled a little bit. passed the playtri guy and moved into third after about a mile. clouds broke and sun started heating up when neared the turn around. took water and dumped on my back as i passed aid stations (there were 5 for a 5k!). I got passed by one guy shortly after the turn around, and he put about 40" on me by the end. was really struggling to hold my pace and not let him get further ahead.
Finish: 1:42:46, 4th AG, 6th OA