GOALS:
* 58:00-1:02:00 swim, 5:15-5:25 bike, 3:05 run
* Sub 9:35
* Top 5 overall (no pro men this year)

ACTUAL TIMES:
Overall Place: 47th OA | 13th AG
Overall Time: 10:14
Swim Time/Place: 58:54 / 107th | 22 AG
Bike Time/Place: 5:40:18 / 161st | 31st
Run Time/Place: 3:25:16 /  27th | 10th 

SWIM:
Ave HR: 147 bpm
Max HR: 163 bpm

I started the swim start on the front line about 3/4 of the way towards the shore away from the bouy line and pier. My goal for this swim was to keep my heart rate under 150 bpm and swim very smoothly and relaxed. I did this for the most part except for one acceleration that I made to get out of traffic.

The gun went off and I started off calmly and very long smooth strokes. I think I was the only person doing this as tons of people passed me and all of the sudden I was in a washing machine. Even with contact I was calm and just tried to remain relaxed and keep the heart rate down. There was a good amount of traffic for the first 10 mins or so and then I finally got in some clear water to the outside. I checked my HR every once in a while to ensure that I wasn't blowing it and everything looked good between 145-150 bpm. Felt overly easy. I got on some feet near the turnaround point and remained there for the rest of the swim to shore. Once at shore I walked to keep my HR down and got back in the water slowly and started swimming again on some feet for the remainder of the swim. At no point did I feel tired, sore, or winded. Very calm and relaxed and came out in 58:54 which isn't too bad for me at this heart rate range. Everything seemed to be on target here.

BIKE:
Ave HR: 143 bpm
Max HR: 161 bpm

My goal for the bike was to keep my heart rate around 140-145 for the first loop and then 145-150 for the second loop and just see what kind of time that produces. Earlier in the year I did a 112 mile solo ride and went 5:12 with 5000 ft of climbing in this HR range so I was thinking I would go around 5:15-5:25 on this course as I went 5:23 here last year. This didn't happen.

I got on the bike and stayed under control on the 7 miles of rollers heading out of town and took in only water for the first 30 mins. After the descent to Keene I started fueling for the day and may have fueled a bit too much at once. I took down about half of my 815 bottle of Infinit (~400 cals) and then took down both of my Clif Blocks packages (400 cals) within a 30 min window. All the while I was keeping my HR in the 140-145 bpm range which is 25-30 beats below LT. My stomach didn't handle this well and I felt nausious from that point to the end of the bike and had to keep my HR down below my target zones. I also continued to take in my fuel though and finished my 815 cal bottle + my 489 cal bottle along with Clif Blocks (400 cals) and 3 water bottles (60oz) and my 28oz water bottle. So I drank 144oz of fluids, 1704 cals, and 1280 mg of sodium (Infinit + 2 endurolytes + clif bloks) on the first loop. This was probably TOO MUCH.

On the second loop I continued to go backwards. I had a hard time getting my heart rate up to the upper 140s and the wind picked up. I continued to feel ill. In my special needs bag I swapped out my empties with another 815 cal bottle of Infinit, a 326 cal bottle of Infinit, and a 330 cal bottle of Mtn Dew and I also picked up another 2 bags of clif bloks. I continued to feel ill so I tried to just take down water for a while so I threw out my 326 bottle for a water bottle near Jay. Throughout the second loop I only took down half of my 815 bottle and 3/4 of my Mtn Dew....no clif bloks....for a total of 655 cals and 250mg of sodium. Along with that I took down another 40 oz of water. So 2nd loop totals were 72oz of fluids, 655 cals, and 250mg of sodium.

During the 2nd out and back I could see how much time I'd lost to the leaders and knew I wasn't going to be able to run them down and thought my day was over. At that point Watkins came up on me and I tried to push with him but just didn't have it in my legs. Eventually he pulled away and I was on to the last climbs back to LP. On the climb to LP I decided to take down my Mtn Dew because I figured I didn't have anything to lose and I think it might have helped. When I arrived in T2 I was a little out of it and indecisive.

RUN:
At this point in the race I knew I wasn't going to be able to run myself into the top 5 overall because my bike split was slower than I would have liked but my legs actually felt pretty good. I had the Mtn Dew coming up my throat but didn't throw it up at any point. Started off with my heart rate around 155 bpm and the goal was to slowly let it rise to around 170 bpm by the end of the day while maintaining pace. The first couple of miles are mainly downhill so I worked to keep a short stride. I saw my first mile and was happy to see sub 7 mins. Once I was on the out and back I felt really comfortable and smooth and was passing people left and right. At about mile 6 I started to have some severe stomach cramps and had to hold my sides. I actually had to stop during mile 7 because of these cramps. They subsided to the point where I could run comfortably but not as fast and I continued on. During the run I was taking cola at one station and then water + 2 salts at the next for the first miles. I took 8 salts total on the run which isn't enough. I'm not sure what caused the stomach cramps but I thought I was done because they were so sharp and painful. During the out and back I was running on the gravel at the side of the road and noticed that nobody else was doing this. It saves the legs a bit so I was surprised that there weren't others doing the same. Behme came up on me on his bike just before I was headed back up the climbs and I felt pretty good at this point. Took the climbs pretty easy but HR climbed a bit. Saw Jen cheering for me and I felt great. The crowd was amazing and helped at the half way point as I headed back down for the second loop. I continued with coke and water but wasn't taking the sodium any longer for some reason. Legs started to cramp at around 8 miles to go and I knew it was going to get ugly but just didn't know when. My pace was slowing slightly but I was still on pace to put down an okay run split but at about 5-6 miles to go the leg cramps started to get more pronounced and my HR started to drop as the pain got more severe. The last 3 miles were a nightmare and the last 1.5 miles I wasn't sure if I was going to finish. I was completely out of it and was barely putting one leg in front of the other. I stopped to walk multiple times and felt like the last mile was so long. I made it to the oval finish and was just happy to be done. I came across the line and saw Jen but some volunteers got to me first and were asking a bunch of questions. I didn't feel like walking any longer as my legs were throbbing. I just told them I'd like to talk to my wife and they took me over to her but then they told me that I had to go to the medical tent. I was covered with salt and not straight in the head. First trip to the med tent and they weighed me at 8 pounds lighter and had me lay down with my legs up and took some blood. My sodium levels were way too low and I was dehydrated so they gave me an IV and kept asking questions. After a while this made me feel a bit better and I didn't feel like I needed the barf bag any longer. I was in there quite a while and then when I left Jen was there and we hobbled over to get some pizza and Gatorade. Had two slices and two Gatorades while sitting on the side of the hill for the next hour. Watched some friends finish and thought about how stupid I am and how I need to get my nutrition figured out before the Florida IM in November.

SPLITS:
Mile 1: 6:55 (155 max, 144 ave)
Mile 2,3: 12:55 (162, 153) 6:27 ave
Mile 4: 6:41 (162, 159)
Mile 5: 6:24 (161, 158)
Mile 6: 7:08 (159, 155) Stomach cramping
Mile 7: 7:24 (159, 153) Stomach cramping
Mile 8: 7:03 (163, 156)
Mile 9: 7:05 (160, 158)
Mile 10: 7:23 (165, 160) Big hill
Mile 11: 7:14 (168, 162) Big hill
Mile 12: 7:10 (168, 165)
Mile 13,14: 13:20 (167, 160)
Mile 15,16: 14:50 (162, 154)
Mile 17: 7:37 (162, 158) Stomach cramping
Mile 18: 7:37 (158, 154) Stomach cramping
Mile 19: 6:59 (158, 154) Legs cramping
Mile 20: 7:31 (161, 157) Legs cramping
Mile 21: 7:50 (157, 153) Legs cramping worse
Mile 22: 8:25 (154, 152) Legs cramping even worse
Mile 23: 9:27 (156, 146) Legs cramping severely
Mile 24: 9:33 (145, 139) Legs cramping severely
Mile 25: 11:11 (146, 136) World of pain
Mile 26: 14:29 (137, 132) World of pain
Mile 26.2: 2:54 (135, 133) World of pain then med tent 

LESSONS LEARNED:
* Do not over hydrate before a race.
* Salt load the days leading up to the race.
* May have taken in too many liquid calories before the race.
* Need to space out my fuel intake while on the bike. Took in too many calories at once early on the bike and I think this shut down my stomach.
* Need to take in sodium on a regular basis throughout the whole day.
* I'm getting close to having a break through race. Just need to figure out the nutrition plan (when, where, what, why, how.....fluids, calories, sodium)!!