Equipment: Kiwami torpedo suit, Garmin 310xt, Sable Water Optics Blue Metallic Tint goggles, Red Stupid IM Cap (too small), No bathing suit
My plan was to swim easy to get things going. I sometimes have problems with my heart racing away when I start swimming which can lead to bad things – something I absolutely wanted to avoid. But the start of these events are kind of wild – even when done as a time trial. John and I swam together to very near the bank of Towhead Island. John is much better swimmer than me, but I thought that I would try to stay with him for as long as I could. This was only possible because for the first time in my triathlon career I could see what was going on – Jordan had gotten me to switch to Sable Water Opiks goggles. Once you get the retarded nose piece stretched out enough to fit these goggles are totally awesome. The do not appear to ever get the least bit foggy and the lens is shaped to correct for the strange points of view in the water. I could see everything and this was a tremendous help.
I stayed behind or to the right of JT all the way to the turn around at the end of the island. After that we were separated and I swam the rest on my own. About half way back I stopped to try to pee – but for some reason that was just not in the cards – so I kept swimming.
I could see the island perfectly on my left so there wasn't really any reason that I could think of to sight forward. I just kept a normal left sided rhythm. As I got near the 2nd street bridge I saw the concrete pier that held up the bridge. I thought “wow don't run into the one in the middle” so I took a breath on the right side. I could see the other pier and I thought “perfect I am splitting the middle”. As soon as that thought cross my mind WHAM! I ran right into the the middle pier. Fortunately I hit it with my outstretched hand and not my head. After getting it together I saw one of the volunteers in a kayak and he asked “are you alright?”. I said “yes” - but had the rather uncharitable thought “no thanks to you” Not that it was his fault. (suggestion 1 for the race organization – put a bouy infront of the bridge pier)
After a few hundred more yards I made it to the finish of the swim. Total time 1:18:04. I looked at my watch and was very happy. My left shoulder has been totally hosed for the last 4 weeks and I not been able to swim any where near enough time. My original plan had been to hit 1:10 – but after the previous weeks of shoulder issues I really didn't know where I would end up. Clearly Mike Sullivan's ART work did the trick.
Even missing my goal of 1:10 - all of those laps this winter had paid off.
I am normally dizzy when I first get out of the water but for some reason I felt great. Since I am notoriously bad at transitions and Jill was yelling at me (and if Jordan had been there he would have been yelling at me) I ran. I was expecting the bag pile to be a major pain in the neck but I quickly found my bad and went into the tent. I opened up the ziplock bag with my clothes (Desoto tri short, Desoto tri top – number pined on) and put them on. Got my sunglasses out of the case, then slimed on a big handful of chamois butter (there are things going on in Ironman changing tents that no straight man should ever have to see). I briefly thought about drinking my bottle of efs/cliff/salt but didn't really feel like it so I didnt. I ran out of the tent and decided to take a quick pit stop (where things moved again – perhaps the Ohio river in action). After I came out of the portapotty I remembered that I left the two flasks of efs gel in my transition bag, thought briefly about going back for them, but didn't then I ran to the bike. Pulled the left shoe off the pedal then put it on. Then remembered to turn on the Garmin 705, then struggled to pull of the right shoe, then put it on. I had already decided not to try to the suicide pedal with the shoes off thing. Then put on my helmet and ran out of transition.
I got out to the start of the bike and managed to avoid the 3 people who were trying to jump onto the bike with the shoes mounted (one of whom wrecked)... and then got rolling.
T1 Time: 5:45
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