This could have been a long and REALLY bad race even though the weather was nice. MY SWIM SUCKED!!! Check out Gina's report for the pre-race activities.

I was in the second start wave, which started one minute behind the elite wave in the red caps. We only had one minute to bob over to the start. Oh, can I just say right here that deep water starts SUCK!! Read on….So I bobbed over, looked in front of me and saw one or two people, looked behind me HOLY CRAP!!!!! look at all of those folks behind me. I'm in serious trouble. I had planned on starting mid pack somewhere to get a faster pair of feet. Nothing I can do now because the horn just freakin' sounded. This was a thrash-fest. At one point, I sighted, spotted the buoy a llllooonnnnggg way off, put my head back down and a body went perpendicular to me. Yep, folks, at a right angle to everyone else around me. At that point, someone appeared directly in front of me and before I could react it was left arm on back, right arm on head, woops, dangit, swam right over someone. If that person is reading this, I am truly, truly sorry. Well, somewhere in there I sighted and took a wave in the face and panicked and completely hyperventilated. This is where my swim leg totally fell apart. From here to the first turn, Lord knows how long that was. It seemed like 45 minutes. Folks, I kid you NOT!! I swam better at my first swim lesson at 5 years old when good old Mr. Hackney threw me in the deep end. At one point, I really hate to admit this, I rolled over on my back so I could freaking breathe. At that point, I decided to sell all of my gear in the transition area after the race to the first person that offered me anything. Heck, I'd have swapped a Clifshot for my P2k. Anyway, finally calmed down and found clear water. That is until that freaking motorized aid boat crossed the field 10 YARDS AHEAD OF US!!! I'm sorry but the folks at AA Sports are still complete morons. In addition, the water was choppy. I'm talkin' bordering on small craft advisory here folks. About every other time I sighted, I got face full of good old lake water. MMmmmm. As I headed for the last turn I noticed a few caps from the wave behind me but also noticed a few red caps from the elite wave. Swam up the ramp until my hands touched bottom and headed to T1.
Swim: 28:02 1500m (Don't even want to think about my placing in the field: 231/534 Overall; fuggidabot the AG cuz Overall was depressing enough)

Hopped on the bike and headed out. I took in so much lake water and was so deeply anaerobic for so long in the swim that my stomach wouldn't even take water. In addition, I was so depressed about my swim, I was just spinning along like it was an LSD training ride. COMPLETELY DEFEATED. After I realized the speed sensor on my bike computer wasn't reading, I almost turned this into an aerobic training day. I soon realized, however, even in my funk I was passing some folks. Then I realized that some of the folks were in my swim wave/AG. That brought me around. I then remembered what my buddy Craigster said in an email about my new race wheels. HAMMER EVERY FREAKING RACE YOU ENTER, MY BOY!!!! Head down, flat back and HAMMER TIME!!!!! I started zinging past folks. Hit the last turn around got the ever-welcome tail wind off the Columbia River. I made a comment about that to a guy that I passed at the turn around. We ended up running the entire run course together. More on that later. One very cool thing happened at the end of the bike leg. Spectators had lined the last several hundred yards of the bike leg and were screaming for everyone coming. WOW, what an adrenaline rush!!
Bike: 1:03:45 (23 mph average - 45/534 Overall; 12/64 AG)

Overall place after bike: 97/534

T2: Slow as molasses. I think I saw 5 or 6 people pass me out of the corner of my eye as I wrestled with my shoes and Hammer Gel, of which I took in NONE!! Dangit.

Run: Ran back out through the crowd of folks. I ran out of the transition area with a guy (Richard from somewhere in Washington) and we started talking and joking around. He said, "ok, time to pick off some folks." We both cracked up and a race official at one of the turns said, "Hey guys, no smiling or laughing on the run course. HEY HEY HEY, no TALKING either. Are you guys NUTS?!?!?" Uh, yeah, kinda. We ended up running the entire course together. I thought he was gonna drop me going out of the park, but I ended up pulling in behind him. Each time I tried to run up next to him, I felt like I was gonna blow up. Anyway, we ran close enough together (mere steps apart) that we made comments to each other the entire way. We steadily picked off about 10 guys. This was the most fun I have ever had on a run. Rich, if you're reading this, thanks for the pacing and wise cracks!!! As we hit the 5 mile marker, I saw one last guy ahead that had an M5 on his calf. I said to Rich that I thought we had room to pick off one more guy in my AG. Shouldn't have said that cuz Rich laid down the freakin' hammer. Rolled in for what I thought was a top 10 AG group finish, but this morning it looks like someone lost his chip. The results at the race site said 10th but this morning there is someone with a swim time, no other splits but a finishing time in 3rd place. Weird.
Run: 39:38 10k (36/534 overall, 7/64 AG)

Overall: 58/532
AG: 11/64

This was a huge race for this area at almost 1000 racers: 525 in the Oly and the rest in the Sprint. There were tons of college teams, high school age racers (that's very cool) and in general some pretty fast, fit folks.

Talked to Eric H, Scott in PDX, Sam-I-am, Wildarcher and some other tri-buds from the area and waited for Gina to finish. She came blasting through the finish and we went and got some grub.

What I learned:
· Keep your head in the freaking game NO MATTER WHAT!! Craig, if you are reading this, feel free to email me that line every other freaking day. I lost my head on the swim and didn't pull it back into the race until several miles into the bike. Once I came around, I had a heck of a lot of fun. I missed having all that fun for about the first 30 minutes of the race.
· Sorry swimmers, but the swim don't matter a bit. Out of the water, I was 256th overall and ended up somewhere like 50 or 55th out of 525.
· NEVER start towards the front. It is a hammer-fest up there.
· If you are going to take a gel before the run, tape it to your top tube and down it in the last few minutes of the bike.

Thanks for reading this far. Now it's time to peak for the Victoria New Balance 1/2IM. I love this stuff!!!

Have fun, train and race safely and go fast
-Jeff