LAKE STEVENS 70.3 (6th Place Finish)

Swim -- 24:45

The swim at Lake Stevens is generally a fast one.  The water is clear and with many buoys the sighting is excellent.  On Thursday I had an excellent workout in the pool and I was excited to race this weekend and come out in the first swim group.  After the a short warm up of about 500-600 meters I quickly realized that today I was feeling a bit sluggish.  I was lacking the power I usually have in my stroke.  Knowing this I prepared to swim a smart race and conserve my energy.  I wanted to find a good set of feet to swim with and just sit behind them and not work too hard.  The gun went off and it was a fast start.  I tucked behind the wake of another swimmer and this is where I would stay for the first 1400 meters of the swim.  My choice of swimmers was not excellent, we were sitting in about 6th and 7th place and at the turn buoy 2nd through 5th were only about 20 meters ahead of us.  However, over the course of the next 400-500 meters the front group extended its lead to about 50 meters.  Feeling the pace was a little slow, I swam to the front and pulled the final 400 or so meters.  I exited in 6th place, about 30 seconds down from the first group. 

Bike -- 2:23:04

Jeff Symonds had a bit quicker transition than I, and he exited T1 with about a 5-10 second advantage.  Jeff is a superb cyclist, so I wanted to ride up to him and then have him set the pace over the next 56 miles.  I rode hard for the first mile or so, caught Jeff, and then dropped my chain.  I dropped the chain right on a downhill and it cost me about 10 seconds.  At over 35 mph, Jeff was gone.  I would ride solo for the next 10 miles until I was joined by Stephen Kilshaw.  I was happy to see another rider, because I was still feeling weak.  About mile 20, Stephen and I would catch super fast swimmer Gavin Anderson.  The three of us would ride the rest of the course together, alternating taking leads.  With two miles to go we had a short climb and then a left turn.  I made a bonehead mistake and rode up next to Gavin but did not go ahead of him as we turned left.  I instead drop back 10 meters.  A referee was right there and under the USAT rules this was a legal position, but under WTC rules, it was not, and the infraction would cost me a 4 minutes.  I rode towards T2 with Stephen and Gavin and as they rode into T2, I made a detour to the penalty box and started to serve my penalty.  Without the 4:00 penalty I would have ridden a 2:19, not too bad on day when I did not feel excellent.     

Run -- 1:20:04

After serving the penalty I decided to make a go of it and try to run down at least one athlete and move up into 6th place.  I also had the goal of not having any athletes run me down.  Again I felt a bit weak on the hills, but on the flats I felt great.  I ran well and put together a string of sub 6 minute miles.  At the turn around I saw I had taken some time back on Gavin, but Stephen was running great and putting time in on me.  I kept focus, stayed positive and said I was going to run my way into 6th.  With about 2 miles to go, Gavin's gap on me had been brought down from 4:00 to 35 seconds.  With a mile to go a spectator told me I was 22 seconds down.  I decided to give it all I had and I ran as hard as I could.  With about 400 meters to go I caught Gavin.  I felt great but I then thought, how I am going to run the next 400!   I kept my focus and kept running well.  I turned right towards the finishing chute, peaked over my shoulder and saw I had a good lead, and ran to the finish with a smile on my face.  6th place, another top 10 finish, I was very happy with it.  On a day when I did not feel excellent, I put together a good performance and was proud of myself for overcoming my sluggishness and my penalty.  

After taking a few easy days of training, and still feeling weak, I realized that my Crohn's had flared up again, but this time in different location and with different symptoms.  I think the travel between New York, North  Carolina and Seattle was too much.  Coupled with too many nights of only 6 hours of sleep I was in a hole.  My sluggishness is a result of my blood volume dropping some, and it's impacting my strength and power.  However, with some good rest and careful eye on my diet and sleep, I should be back to full strength soon.