Results:
3:21:xx official ones not posted and I didn?t do my watch right..
Don?t have splits but estimates
Swim 30ish
T1 2:30ish
Bike 1:24:xx
T2 1:45ish
Run 1:24ish

Started 65 degrees and overcast, ended 84 degrees and sunny (ICK)
Breakfast was 2 bananas, 2 Imodium, and a gel. Tummy was not feeling good.

Only being my 3rd Oly and doing them 1x/yr it is hard to compare (all different courses): 4:36 in 2005 (flat bike, flat run), 3:45 in 2006 (hilly run, medium bike), 3:21 in 2007 (hilly bike and run)

No clue my overall position, but I am thinking 7-8th Clydes. I was 2nd Clyde out of the water, 3rd off bike (barely), and then I got gobbled up on the run. VERY hilly course ? 1400ft climb on the bike, 700ft on the run. There was not a flat segment more than 50ft on the run.

Long:
This weekend started being planned last year when some friends did it and they noticed
a) there is a cool kids water park nearby ? in the middle of nowhere Iowa (Burlington is actually a reasonably real town)
b) very small race and my bud saw that I would have landed 3rd easily had I raced it last year

This race is on DS7?s birthday. The race is at Lake Geode State Park. DS7 has recent gotten into Geology. Too cool. When we asked him if he wanted to go, he was excited. So, according to him, this trip was all about him and ?oh yeah, sat morning daddy is busy off at some race? . Grandma and Grandpa came too and it?s a whole family deal. Wed ? Sunday, doing stuff like digging for Geodes in REAL DIRT with REAL tools and doing the water park, etc. Except DS7 gets sick yesterday, some virus, and gives me a little share. I?m in the potty way too much. Greaaaat. Does not bode well for tomorrow. Picked up Imodium from the store, just in case?

We went to the park night before, to check out the directions and make sure I could find it. Also, to map a bike route to/from. Well, guess what.. many of the roads here are not ?roads? but rather ?rock suggestions on where you can drive?. Glad I found out ahead of time. Basically, 1 paved route there. Checked out lake. Hmmm? is it supposed to be that GREEN? They said race temps likely to be OVER 80! So no wetsuit. Man, that lake was GROSS. Green slime over everything from shore for 20ft! And the STINK! We did the birthday cake and ice cream and presents pretty quick, it was a bit stinky! Good thing I was in 3rd wave!!

So, CC also has down a 2 hour ride today. Ug. I was planning to RIDE to the race (16miles) then RIDE home. At about 2am I decided no, I really did not want to ride BEFORE the race, so I changed my alarm Decent night sleep, still more potty issues (hence breakfast) and I?m off.

I got to Transition pretty early, so I was able to nab a choice spot. Since I had TONS of time to kill, I went out for a preview of the course and rode for about 20-25min. Man, the very first hill (100ft climb) is a bear? and that?s NOT the big 2 (270 and 220). Wow. Ok, mental note ? pacing. Got back, threw on the shoes, and went out for a run. Did about 1mile, again up that same hill (except run course turns, so only 75ft) ug. The RD said last night ?There is no flat spots in this run course? ? she was not kidding. Great. Exactly who?s brilliant idea was it for Mr Gravity Challenged to sign up for this freakin? race? OMG. Amazingly, almost no shin issues. Stretched anyway. Came back in time for transition to close, dropped the shoes got the swim gear and a gel and went out for a swim warmup. Most of the slime had been peeled away? most? I heard more than one guy (no ladies complaining? hmmmm) go ?OMG YUK? when they got to shore. Haha. 81 degree water, OMG. It?s been FOREVER since I have raced without a wetsuit. It?s clear I need more race-pace practice too. Wow. Got warmup, got out, got ready. Stomache was MOSTLY calm, only needed 3 trips to porta-potty. Imodium seemed to be doing it?s job.

In my wave, I got front and center like usual. I?m typically in the top of my wave anyway, and this makes it easier. We started, I dashed for 100m or so and was #2 in my wave, but then I lost it. I just died out, no freakin clue, but I was redline. I backed off and immediately got passed by like 10 green caps (my wave). ARG that is NOT allowed!! But I couldn?t keep it. Finally the words of Yoda? I mean CC? came to mind RACE YOUR OWN RACE and I just settled into MY rhythm. Or didn?t. Well, I tried. But I felt like I completely didn?t know how to ?DO? this. It was weird. For the next ¼ mile I just flopped around and tried not to get passed by anyone else. Mostly worked. About the turnaround (1/2 mile) I managed to get it under control. Passing some Pink caps (5min ahead) helped considerably I think, although some Orange (behind) were passing me at this point ? which never happens. Grrrrr. Also, I didn?t hit my watch right so I don?t know my exact start time. Whatever. 2nd half of the swim not too exciting. I counted 12 pinks passed and 7 oranges that passed me. I dropped a green who was drafting off me (sorry, no free rides) and he then passed me, which I finally was able to respond to by passing him and leaving him behind in the last 100yds. I dolphin dove the last 50yds (thanks swim coach for suggesting!! Since I stink so bad running, soon as I am able to touch bottom I just grab dirt and propel myself forward with a series of jumps ? very fast way to steal some seconds and almost no effort). The mat was maybe 50ft out of water, so I stumbled my way over there and hit the watch. It read about 30min, wow, that? blows consider REAL time would be longer. My 1.2 target is 33-35, this was only .9. Wow.

Ok, HR at a point where I can pick up my WOG to transition ? it?s not very close ? maybe another 300yd? So it takes me a bit, but I finally am running by the time I get there. Normal transition, nothing special to report. 2:30ish time.

The bike starts with a steep hill. About a 75ft climb in a very short period. Not what you really want to wake up your legs! I was ready though (gears already close to granny!) and I was ready. Spun up the hill, managed to not spike out my HR, but I got passed (GRRR) but not by any Clydes so it?s OK . First hill is followed quickly by a 50ft one right after! After that, it was more ?normal? area for a while, except some construction spots but they were REALLY good at trying to cover it up for us and keep the course clean. Kudos to the Vols/National Guard/Iowa DNR who were out in force. The wind was rough for the first several miles. After a bit though I didn?t care as I hit 39mph on the first major downhill (about 200ft descent) and you guessed it? the first ?Real? hill. 270ft climb in a very short period. It was rough. Everyone was taxed, but the worst thing in the world happened. I got passed by a CLYDESDALE ON THE CLIMB! Oh, no that?s not allowed! I tried but my legs were frying, I had to spin it. He pulled ahead and I used him as a rabbit for another 10miles but eventually he lost me. The wind was just plain wicked, I swear it was coming from the south and then when we turned east, it was coming straight on there too! I had some pretty wicked slow speeds during the first 10-15miles, except the descents, which there were few. Although as soon as we turned north I settled into a 22.5mph pace without ripping up my legs. I held this for a good part of the rest of the race. Except of course for the next two REAL hills!! I broke 42 on one and 38 on the other. I held over 30 for well over a mile, that was cool!! Finally the end was near, you get back to the park but then they have you go away from the park for about a mile (on brand new sexy pavement, mind you) and do a hairpin turn while calling out your number (to prevent cheaters from cutting the course). Did that, got passed by another Clydes! HEY! I held onto him for dear life by the wind was to my face after the hairpin and I slowed to 18 and he kept pulling away. The final section is really technical, so bad they had hay bales up to keep us from eating forest and the road really bumpy. Wow, a bit scary but weeeeeeeee! 1:24. This was actually a fairly disappointing result, but given the hills, not much to do. I have so few Oly?s under my belt I just don?t know how to pace them. Sprints ? yeah. ½ Iron ? yeah. Oly ? uhhhh? not really. I flipped between burn-me-up-sprint speed and don?t-burn-up-speed ½ Iron and I really need something in the middle. Oh yeah, during I had 1.5bottles of water + elete and 3 gels. Normally I would do 2 but since I basically didn?t have breakfast and I was getting spacey, I decided to eat while the eating was good. I knew it was going to get hot and I knew my tummy would shut down eventually. Always does in heat.

T2 was pretty boring and so-so speed. I just HAD to stop and dig out a Qtip, I still could not hear anything from my right ear as it was clogged from the swim. I dug out the clog and carried on. 1:42 I think? Lost 15 for the ear, but felt SO much better.

The run? what can I say? RD didn?t lie. Starts with a hill. Middle is hills. End is hills. And it was getting REAL hot. I could tell we were in the 80s. I did what I could to pace myself on the uphills and not redline. Pleasantly the shin was not a big player. I stopped 3x to stretch for maybe 30s total. That is a dramatic improvement from prior races. It was tight up until mile 3 but that was all. Really the killer was the HEAT and the HILLS. My splits improved over time, I think, but I was still suffering. Made worse by the fact that SEVERAL Clydes caught me and I could not hold on

Some of the course was shaded, but not most. Excellent Vol support. Many aid stations. Baggies of ice. Sponges. Water, the works. WELL DONE to the race organizers.

The kids were coming to meet me at the finish. Last race DS4 wanted to run the finish line with me, but I didn?t see him and I missed it. This time I was determined not to miss it! So I found them and he ran to me and we ran over the finish line together. I slowed a bit to allow him to keep up and he was thrilled to death. I had them give him my medal and we went to the food tent together ?because he raced real good? (his words). He was so proud and very happy to be a real racer now too cute. Anyway, we grabbed a huge pile of food including extra cookies for DS7 in case we could get him to eat (not) and went down to the lake for a bit to rest and eat. Did that until awards, in which case we split up so they could take DS7 back to the hotel as he really didn?t feel good and if he didn?t feel good I didn?t want him to have to hang around at some boring race awards where daddy wasn?t going to win anything anyway! I handed off all my gear except what I needed to ride back to the motel and hung for awards.

The race was, overall, REALLY well supported. I cannot say enough nice things about it. However, there were many ?computer? problems and they had to re-do awards after awarding them. One guy in the wrong AG got an award he didn?t deserve, ooops ? can we have it back? Yes, thanks. Relay teams where 3rd place got 1st place and so on. Then fixed. NO CLYDES/ATHENAS even awards, uh, we?ll mail it to you all ? sorry. And then the raffle. Supposedly you were supposed to put your race number somewhere. Uh, where? News to me, so I of course didn?t win anything. I waited for a few BOPers and heard there were still 2 on the course. I really needed to go, so I decided to ride the course backwards to go find them and root them on and let them know they were not forgotten! Which I did before I took off! I would have preferred to stay for their finish, but it was looking like another 15min for that and I told the wife I would be back at a certain time and time was running short for me to get back (awards took waaay longer than expected).

Rode to hotel, averaged 19mph in zone2! Because it was new sexy asphalt for a huge chunk (10miles @ 25mph avg) and wind was to my back for a change!

Anyway, good race. Decent performance I guess, and a good day overall.


------------------
Yup That's me[/URL" target="_blank">