WOW! What a freakin' rush!
1/2m swim - ~13 or 14m bike - 5k run

I'll skip all the pre-race stuff Gina posted…

Swim: ...so the horn goes off, I slowly take off and let the maniacs thrash through the blender. Not even a quarter mile into the swim and before the first buoy I feel this body FLOP across my legs. I thought, "oh, well, might be a little early but why not start the KICK for shore now?!?" Swim was fairly uneventful except for the fact that I went out much harder than I expected and almost maintained it through the entire swim. To my utter amazement when the times were posted: 14:42. I came out of the water FIFTH in my age group (30-34). How in the H&#$ did THAT happen!?! I could barely swim 50yds in one shot 3 months ago. Thanks for the help, Hazen!

T1: ripped the seal mask and swim cap off as I'm trudging through knee deep water and my calves begin to cramp. UH OH!! We had an uphill run that must have been several hundred yards long to the bikes. OUCH OUCH OUCH. Calves kept cramping as I tried to get out of the wetsuit. [note to self: EAT MORE FREAKING BANANAS!] Ran the bike to the "bike start" with calves cramping, and I almost couldn't clip in to start because of those stupid calf cramps. [thought to self: oh crap, are those my sunglasses or is that my tinted SEAL MASK?!? - Thanks TG!]

Bike: REALLY uneventful except for all of those %^#*$ hills. One thing, though - there seemed to be TONS of drafting and pack-riding for the first 5 miles. What's up with that? I must say I had a blast passing $5000 bikes on the climbs. That was a huge boost to my confidence. I was feeling pretty intimidated before the whole thing started. Time: 44:30 (6th in age group - man, that is WAY cool, I must say).

T2: Uneventful. No calf cramps. Bike shoes off, running shoes on. You gotta love yankz.

Run: I thought I would never get up the hill and out of the transition area. The run went about as well as I could have expected. However, I miscounted the hills on the way back in (out and back run course) and went charging up what I thought was the last hill like it was Bunker Hill…..oops, one more hill. Ouch. Made it in 23:26

6th in AG, 44th overall.

Post-race FOOD: great ceasar salad, fruit, rolls….and…guess what…..PEANUT BUTTER!!! WOOOOHOOO!!! Talked to OR Joe and met his wife - very cool. Nice to meet y'all.

I really appreciate all of the advice and help from everyone on the board. Hazen, thanks for the help with my swimming. You are the MAN!

Out,
Jeff "aka JoJo" in PDX

PS - I forgot to add that the Australian National Team used this race as a warm-up for the nationals. The first female out of the swim was 14 YRS OLD! Yep, there were some speed demons out there.