Race Report (pulled from slowtwitch)

I'd like to thank Kiwami and Xterra for supporting me this season. The Konami tri suit is hands down the best suit I've ever had. I raced all my races this year in it, from sprints to 140.6. My Xterra Vortex 3 was the first long sleeve suit I had, and I had 0 jelly fish stings :). Brian from PBN was a huge help dialing in my nutrition, it was a game changer for me. desertdude, rroof, barryp (running plan) and others from the forums answered questions about training/health/etc that kept me going.

Race day - I woke up feeling great. It had poured the day before and overnight, so I was worried about my bike. Got into transition and my powertap was DOA...so much for riding my target watts. Had issues getting my tires pumped, so I knew the bike was gonna be a long day.

Nutrition - Breakfast was a bagel with peanut butter, then a bottle of gatorade/carbo pro sipped before the swim. On the bike, I had EFS gel and EFS/carbo pro in the water bottle. Sipped/drank those every 15 minutes and chased with water. Was peeing clear the whole bike/run. On the run, I did a shot of EFS gel at every turn (4.4+ miles) and then gatorade/water at every aid station - switched to soda at the half way point.

Swim (1:11) - I lined up at the outside buoy and took it easy. I did the ST method for training and slacked off in July/August. Finished and felt pretty good.

T1 - hot sweaty mess in the changing tent. Didn't wait for my own bag, just grabbed it and got changed (slowely). Need to remember to remove the plastic from the gel flasks

Bike (6:20) - I planned on taking it fairly easy (150 watts), but had to go off RPE since my PT was dead. 10 miles in I'm slowing down and hear a "thud thud thud" at my front tire...yep, first flat. Got it changed and kept going. 5 minutes later, what do you know? Another flat...this time the vavle stem failed. Got going again and a minute later I hear the air bursting out of my front tire...got a pebble in it and it was slashed. I was ready to throw my bike and call it a day, but the SAG wagon wasn't too far away. Waited for them and got a new front tire installed. Who knows how long I lost (30+ minutes), but I just wanted to finish the race. Got to mile 56 and a friend of mine had flatted twice and was DNF'ing. Stopped to see if she needed help and then went off. Hit the special needs and my neck was killing me. I had to sit up and just take it easy the rest of the ride. I'd love to go to Elite and get a good fit from DG to work out my neck and hamstring issues, but can't budget it right now.

T2 - In and out. Someone gave me tums and it was a huge help.

Run (3:48) - Since I didn't push the bike hard, my legs felt amazing. It was a three lap course, and I did the first lap around 1:12. Second lap I was running with a guy in my AG and took it a little easier than I wanted to, but was fine with it. Hit the half way point at 1:48 Third lap, I was still feeling good, but decided to run/walk the aid stations. At mile 20, my hamstrings were getting ready to cramp up and I just didn't have the run base I wanted to. Hit the last turn around and ran into the one and only, Wongstar. She was all smiles during the run. Got to run and chat with her for a few miles (22-24) which was a huge help for the mental side.

Finished in 11:29 and was ecstatic. They even gave my son a call out :) at the finish.

Tri Columbia did a great job as always. I think I'll hold off doing another 140.6 until I can ride longer than 4 hours without having issues.