So let me start off by saying that the race was indeed a great success, just in case I failed to bring that point across. The Location of the race, in Moses Lake, Washington and the weather which had been quite warm had finally cooled off to a pleasant 80 degrees. The lake was warm at 75 degrees and I was worried about it becoming a non-wet-suit legal race. As a adult onset swimmer, the idea of a non wet-suit race makes me shutter as it adds about 15% of a time penalty because of the decreased buoyancy provided by the wet-suit. My childhood friend Dan made the trip with me and we found a great place to camp out and did a quick run through of the course to familiarize ourselves. I was nervous that my legs had not recovered from my Mt. Baker climb the weekend before but in the run through they felt great so it was time to put them up and grabbed some dinner. I have had great luck with sushi as a pre-race meal as it has a good balance of rice carbs, which my body loves, fats and proteins. With sushi ate and the last gear check finished we closed up the tent and got some sleep. The morning greeted us with clear sky’s and comfortable temperatures, as we made our way to the course. Set up was a breeze and I got in the water for some warm-up strokes. Recently my coach, Daryl Smith, had tweaked my stroke length and I had seen significant improvements in the pool but as this was the first race of the season I had yet to see if it translated in the open water. We all lined up in the water and the gun went off at 8:00 am. With heart pounding in my chest I battled for the first buoy. I found several people to draft off of during the race and I felt as if several times that led me a little off course so as I came out of the water I was expecting a time of 28 minutes or so for covering the 1 mile distance. I was blown away, 24:30! (Swim Stats) I went to work on the bike picking off people as I went and approaching the turnaround on the out and back course. I saw one rider on a beautiful Cervelo P5 (a 10,000$ bike) coming fast back. My heart sank a little as I saw his ITU jersey with his name on the back, signifying that he had been to the world champs at some point in his career. Still, on I fought, pushing that much harder. (Bike Stats) I flew into transition and found my legs quickly off the bike. The goal was to keep comfortably fast off the bike, with a good rhythm until the turn around on the 10 KM course. I saw the leader again when he hit the turn around and it looked like I was slightly gaining on him. I put the hammer down but my form fell to shit and as a result so did my split on mile 4. I regained composure on mile 5 and waited till mile 6 to hit it again. (Run Stats) My legs responded better and I finished the race with a time of 2:01:53, 2nd place overall, and with PR’s in all three categories! I conversed at length with the race winner Mike Vrbanac, a racing legend, who had just moved back from North Cal and learned a great deal about racing in general. It is amazing to talk to someone with over 30 years of racing under their belts and still going strong at 57 years old! Inspirational for sure. Overall i could not be happier with the outcome and I feel very good about the upcoming races for the rest of the summer. Also this is my new pump song. Racer X out.