1:15:37- WITH A FLAT!!!

Had a great race this morning- I beat my goal time even while taking a flat. Felt great!

Woke up at 5:15 and put everything in the car, woke the bride and took off around 5:40. Got to the site at 6:00 and headed to transition. I had noticed a slow leak in my rear tire last night, fiddled with it a bit then but sure enough it was pretty low this morning. I figured I'd change the tube in transition and be all good. So I took off the back wheel, was waiting for Bekah to come back with my extra tube, and so I figured I'd pump up the front tire. I unscrew the little cap and the flippin valve stem on the front tire goes flying out like a missile and disappears to parts unknown. So now I need to change both tires- one slow leak and one faulty valve stem- which I do but I'm rushed and it's about 6:40 when all is done and the bike is ready. I'm in a bad mood but Bekah is extra sweet and says some kind words as I put the rest of my transition setup together.

The swim looked choppy as last year, 1-2 footers coming fast and breaking both on shore and about 200 yards out. I lined up to the leftish area of the main group as usual. The gun went off and it began. For whatever reason my stroke was leaning a bit left the entire time, but I was able to keep a good pace and feel like I was moving well. The trip out to the first buoy (triangular course) was rough as we were going into the current and breaking waves the whole way, but once we made the right turn things got faster. For some reason the race organizers thought it a good idea to have the center section of the swim pass over this really shallow part where it was about 2 feet deep and waves were pounding in. I got tossed a bit by a wave and my goggles came down by my chin. I stood up and walked about 10 feet, fixed the goggles and kept pounding. Made the second turn, rode a couple of waves back in and came out of the water about 15 yards left of the main line. Looked at my watch: 10:40 coming out of the water- I was stoked! that was way faster than I'd expected. Crossed the timing mats at 11:10 Off to T2!

Transition went quick and smooth- took all of 30 seconds end to end. Got on the bike and headed out, mashing on my shoes. no sooner had I had them strapped and started to really push when I heard a loud POP and PSSSssssshhhh... Flat- rear tire. Shit. I cursed loudly and pulled off into the grass 250 yards from transition and threw my bike down in some normann-stadler-esque frustration. Very lucky thing I had brought 3 tubes with me!!! I started to change it in a fury as rider after rider passed me. This was really frustrating but I tried to stay calm and do everything smooth. The new tires continued to be a bitch to work with but after an agonizing 6 minutes and 3 seconds (my GPS keeps good time of how long you're not moving) I was back on the road, pissed off and pushing hard.

I did not get passed by a single person on the bike, and I probably passed 85 others. I was literally riding down the middle of the road saying "on your left" with every other breath. I kept my GPS speed well above 23mph for the first 6 miles or so, pushing hard and not taking much liquid or gel. At about mile 7 my legs were burning hard so I took it back a gear, drank some gatorage, ate a gel and got back to it, back above 23. When we got back out to fort weaver road we turned straight into the wind and it was all I could do to keep it above 21. The race is advertised at 13 miles, but there's no way. My GPS usually measures short by 7-10%, but today it only measured 11.2 miles- I'm guessing we rode 12- tops. Here's what the GPS showed after the bike- time is less because it stops every whenever I'm moving less than 5 Mph.

Back into the transition area I kept flying, hopped off the bike and headed out on the run- t2 took 40 seconds. I looked at my watch coming out of t2- 36:38! The chip says i did the bike in 35:30- I hadn't been keeping track of the two transitions on the watch... Even with a flat I was faster than last year... wow!

I was pretty stoked for the run, figuring that with the time I'd made up on the swim I could get close to my original goal of 1:16 despite the flat.

The run was .2 miles longer this year than last- more along a sidewalk by the lagoon. I started off feeling like I was a little slower than max speed, but I was moving along well, getting loose. Hit the first mile marker in about 8 iminutes and sped up. Hit the first aid station soon after and dumped what I thought was water but wasnt on my head and about 45 seconds later started to feel the sticky... ewww. Hit mile 2 in 7:25 and was starting to feel it, but was pumped that it was going well. Passed the girl that had been in front of me for 20 minutes just before hitting mile 3 in 7:43, and turned to the final .7 mile stretch where I started to really push it out. About 300 yards into it I started cramping on my side but kept pushing. I was in real pain for the last 100 yards but came around and saw the clock by the finish say 1:15 and knew I was home free. Sprinted in, made my finish, and was absolutely stoked. Total run time was 27:48, which works out to a little better than a 7:35 pace, about a minute per mile faster than last year. I'm wasted here --------->


So here's the final breakdown:
Swim: 11:10, pace 1:30/100M
T1: 0:30
Bike: 35:30 (including that 6 minute Flat)
T2: 0:40
Run: 27:48 7:30/Mi

Grand Total: 1:15:36, 80th/223 overall
Subtract that damn flat and I'd have been in 37th overall (21st on the bike) and 7th in the age group... good stuff.