Did I say 2:28? I meant 3:10:58

Now for the big report on St. Anthony's Triathlon.

The race was great and the weather was near perfect. Not a repeat of last year's storm at sea. We raised over 2.1 million dollars at this event. Met a guy named Ed who had almost exactly the same story and dates as Lisa. Ed participated and finished the event. Just barely since he does not know how to swim.

Oh yea, David Young raced with TeamBigWave and finished SECOND in the TeamInTraining wave. A super fast swim. Esp for someone who is just learning to swim. An excellent bike. Quick feet on the run sealed the day and we have a podium finisher amongst us. More on David in a later report.

I ended up going 3:10:58 and was very happy to do it.

The swim was much different this year. Calm and flat. There are 4 orange bouys in each of the three legs. Normally, I start thinking about getting out of the race by the second bouy of the first leg. This time I did not start to think about quitting until the second bouy of the second leg. I ended up going 32:16. My dream goal was 30 and my real goal was 35. So I will take 32. Of course I did swim off course a fair amount so I know that things can get better.

Out of the swim and Lisa and Jody were there. Shocked to see me out so fast. Then a run through the mud into transition. I had trouble getting my wetsuit off and that added one minute to my transition but not horrible.

The bike was around 1:21 and off of my goal of 1:15. I was very happy with the consistency of my effort. But I struggled against the wind at times and had speed ranging from 14mph up to 23 mph. Let's just say that the headwind on the home stretch made me very happy to see the finish line.

At the end of the bike comes the dismount. So one foot stays clipped into a pedal and the other comes out and hits the ground. Then you swing the free leg over the bike and disengage the second pedal. As I went to lift the first leg over the bike, I realized that a MONSTER cramp was coming. Now the bike and I are faling in front of the crowd and race officials. Did I mention that it is against the rules for anyone to help you? So I have to drag the leg over and limp the bike and myself back using a pirate style, peg leg type of technique.

Ready for the run with the best of intentions to get in done in one hour. About 200 yards into this effort I realize that it is not going to happen. No gas for that kind of effort. But my coach was looking for an even effort both out and back. And I did at least pull that off. Coming down the line to the finish I was really struggling. I know they announced my name and I remember hearing it in my brain about 30 seconds after it entered my ears. I went right for the ice cold towels and Lisa helped me over to the tent. After about 30 minutes things were coming into focus. I fill you in later on some of the data but that's the report for now.

One more thing

That David is kinda fast, hey?