Black Diamond Half IM - 1st Overall

Really liked the 9AM start time a whole lot. Other half IM races should be like that, seriously! Theresa, Donovan and I got up just a little earlier than normal, ate some awesome hotcakes, stopped to get coffee, and got there with enough time to park, sign in, set up, etc.

I got my cow bell all ready! Go get 'em, papa...

It was a bit cold in the morning, and I knew it would take me a while to warm up after the swim. I planned ahead, and put arm warmers + full-finger gloves on the bike (just in case...) as well as toe warmers on my shoes, and left my tri top in transition.

The water temp was not too cold. Either that, or I'm getting used to swimming in colder temps. I forget how rough some of these swim starts can be. After getting away from all the flailing arms, I swam my pace and exited 3minutes down. If it hadn't been for the beating in the water, me thinks I would have come out with the lead guys. Another good swim time for me in my (awesome) Helix.

It was a wise decision on my part to play dress up while riding the bike- The dry tri top, arm warmers, gloves kept me at the right temperature. I was feeling good and rode hard, and caught the lead moto at 23-25mi. I put my head down, hydrated/ate, did my best to keep on riding strong, and got to T2 with about a 2min lead. My power and HR numbers say I pretty much even-split the ride, with a time of 1:09 to 1:10.

Lost a gel bottle with coke running out of T2, so I ran on just water and a little bit of EFS liquid shot. I waited & waited for a moto to come up & give me splits, but, well, no moto was gonna come at this event... So I just focused on running hard. At the end of the day, I got a 6min+ lead. Btw-the offroad sections and hills make this run a really tough 13.1mi route. I was pretty happy to see the finish area, and got to run the win in with Donovan.

Race you for it, papa!

Props to my buddies Michael Gordon and Kara Nielsen, who showed up on Sunday to take the Olympic-distance races.

Once again, I want to thank NUUN, Blue Seventy, Oomph!, and SportsQuest Direct for their continued support.

See? This is what the award looks like.... from the side....

Most of all, thanks to my beautiful family, Theresa and Donovan. Donovan endured the day with a cold. As the winner, I got a bouquet of dahlias- Theresa's wedding bouquet, 7 years and 1 week ago, was all dahlias. Go ahead, call me cheesy, but it was great to share that with her.

A win calls for one of these, my favorite beer & my favorite mexican tarro.....