Wildflower 2007

woke up early, put some breakfast foods in my stomach, gathered my gear, and headed down to prepare my place in transition.

The pro men went off at 8am, the pro women at 8:05am, then a new wave every 5 minutes. i went off at 8:25am. the swim started off pretty strong, i kept hooking onto the feet of people that were opposed to swimming in a straight line. Left should felt a little weak through the swim, but I was still able to finish it feeling pretty good, (time 0:34:41, slightly slower than expected, but well within acceptable limits considering the conditions and my lack of swimming)
entered T2 pretty quickly, got my left leg out of the wetsuit, and was hit with severe vertigo. I opted to sit down and get my right leg out. Added my helmet and race number, grabbed my bike, and out to do some climbing. (total time elapsed in T1 - 0:01:59)

the first 2km of the bike were pretty damn bumpy, lost my splash guard for my profile drinking bottle (it was only a matter of time). Then the first climb starts, a bit windy, and fairly steep. I just kept spinning got to the top, and picked up the pace a bit. My legs felt a pretty flat until kilometer 40 or 45 (about 1/2 way point). After wich they started coming around, and i was able to make up some of the spots i'd dropped in the earlier portions of the bike. I spent the next 15km waiting to get to the hard climbs, that was were i was going to let things loose and see how the day was to be.

Things worked as planned, i was able to pass a grip of people over the 10km climbs, and used the last 20km to pick up the pace a bit more, and loosen my legs up for the pending run.
The last 2kms leading into T2 are downhill, so i tucked in and let it fly (gravity is a good thing). I stepped off the bike after 2:53:45 (slower than expected, but still acceptable).

T2 went pretty well, i quickly found my spot, racked my bike, removed my helmet, put on my shoes, and grabbed my gel for the run. The first 6.5 kms went well, averaging somewhere around 4:40min/km, but i had some stomach issues waiting to surface. around 7km, they reared their ugly little heads, and began eating into my pace. I've decided my stomach pretty much shut down and the walking started around 7.5kms, primarily uphill, i was still running downhills (after all, gravity is a great friend most of the time), and flats, but significantly slower. It was decided, this day was officially converted to a hard training day, i could push through and probably save 10 minutes or so, but i have 2 more races coming up in the next 4 weeks, so losses are cut, i will be back at the drawing board to figure out what went wrong.

around 13km i was able to find some semblance of a rhythmn, and clicked off close to 5km at a slightly faster pace, then came the shuffle, that lasted until km 19.5 ish, then it was the same downhill from the bike earlier. thank you gravity, the last 1.5-2km was likely my fastest for the day. i was relieved to be done, the heat and hydration issues proved to be a bit more than i was prepared for. I managed to take a sweet 1:54:07 out there enjoying the run course (likely 20 minutes slower than i should be able to pull on the same course once i nail the nutrition portion). once again, nothing to stand up and shout about, but something i'm ok with for now.
all said and done, i was out there for 5:25:53, about 25-30 minutes longer than anticipated, but reasonable. the race is in the books, not a bad showing, and i have a new area to focus on, getting my head into things and working on the nutrition.

lets see how i deal with the heat and humidity on May 20th in florida. that will be a good indicator of my ability to figure out nutrition and hydration.