Matt's RR Mooseman 2011

37 degrees on the way to transition. 59 degree water.

I've been at this beach probably 35 of 41 summers of my life. I could only be more familiar with the area if I lived there. (and then it probably wouldn't feel as special).

I get to the swim start with a swim PR on my mind. I swim for about a minute. Massive face freeze pain. I take a short break to let that subside. Then continue to warm up. Better to deal with that pre-race than during the first 200m. (or at least that's what I think).
I line up right of center. I have a tendency to swim to the left when things aren't going well. This is the perfect lake for drafting. You can see everything. After about 200m I start to search for someone to follow. Unfortunately, I've limited my options because I'm pulling so far left. I'm right on the buoy line. I spend the next 300-400m trying to get into a groove but every time I look up I'm directly between buoys and everyone else is to the right of me. At the turn, heading for the beach, I caught feet for about 150m, then that guy flipped into a back stroke. I never got comfortable on the swim and knew I missed another chance to PR a swim this year. In T1 I look at my watch and see 29:xx. Disappointing. It was a 28:29 swim. 83 Overall I believe.

I took my time in T1. I toweled dry. Put socks on to try and keep a bit warmer and also pulled on a jacket. Not a bike jacket but it was close enough. I really wanted to keep from freezing up. I know this course very well. I decided I'd keep it fairly easy to start in hopes that when I got to the "devil's hill" I'd be ready to climb and my legs wouldn't cramp from the cold as they have other years.
When I got to Devil's Hill, there was a guy crashed out in the middle of the road unable to clip out. Someone was walking over to help him. At the same time a car is passing me in the other lane to my left and cars are approaching in the other direction.... I get around the downed cyclist and then can only climb as fast as the cyclists in front of the car that is now ahead of me. That, kind of ruined that experience. Just bad luck.
I make the turn onto 3A and that's when figure I'm warmed up and it's time to roll. I leap frog with a guy from the 50AG for awhile. He was a 70rpm'er. I probably would have been with him the entire course but he stopped to help a guy with a flat.
Other than devils hill and the descent into Bristol. I felt the course was wide open to me. I knew I wasn't breaking any records tho. I roll in at 1:27:14. 18.7mph. 128th overall.

Starting out on the run. One of the runners near me yells "I can't feel my feet!" Yeah, it's definitely a strange feeling. In fact I was almost certain that I must have left one of my running socks in my right shoe, because the toes on that foot feel like they had something in there with them. I had my GU in there this morning but I'm pretty sure I took it out. I kept running. (there was nothing in there, my feet were just numb)
It's pretty flat for 2 miles and SUNNY. Yes! HEAT! Mile 1 8:10, Mile 2 7:50, Mile 3 hills 8:00. Seeing 8:00 for the 3rd mile gave me a boost, I thought it was going to be worse than that. Not to mention my HR has been about 10bpm slower than my typical race pace. I was just having trouble getting my legs to move.
Back up the short steep hill and then it's on. I was able to get myself moving finally. I started passing people and I don't remember being passed. I missed taking my splits but my 10K was completed in 48:21, 7:48 pace, 103rd overall. (of 800? I wish I knew) Edit: 440 participants.

They finally sent us our results today (Tuesday) but it's only Age Group. It doesn't break down Split placement. Nor does it give us our T1 or T2 times. Second year in a row where this is all they've provided to us. Many people are upset by it. I now have a better understanding of why people call the Ironman brand, the WalMart of Triathlon.

I ended up 17th of 65 in my AG.

Here is the odd thing. I've raced this 4 times. Only 2 have been unaltered races. One was shortened swim, the other no swim and short bike. Here is how I match up.
This year I'm :39 seconds slower than my combined S/B/R splits in 2009.
This year I'm :01 second faster on my Bike/Run splits in 2008 when the shortened the swim
I'm certain I couldn't finish within a minute of my time if I actually tried.

It was fun. I love this course. We will be back up there in July to vacation and train.
To be honest, I wanted to make some nice improvements at this race because I'd like to move up to the 70.3 at some point. But I'd really like to rock the International Course at least once before I do that. Maybe next year.