As near as ! Can tell, everyone from RMTC PRed @ Harvest Moon 1/2. It seems the cool weather makes you go faster.

The forecast was 47* @ 6am and getting all the way up to 63* by 2pm with a 30% chance for thunderboomers. With Yon racing instead of announcing there was no reason to expect the race to be called off. It was chilly when ! Got there and still dark. ! Got my chip, got set up and went off to get body marked. Molly was there. Since she kissed Matt for luck, ! Figured having her do the body write on my arms would be lucky. Probably luckier than letting her kiss me. All wrapped up in neoprene, it was time to wander to the beach.

Yon in the water was concerned. He wasn't sure he could even finish. He was not planning to push too hard. ! knew ! Could make up his 5 minute head start on the swim. ! Know ! Swim faster than him. He knows he's slow on the bike and the run. He's the only one who knows that. !'ve seen him running recently and !'ve ridden with him. Yon doesn't kn ow what he's talking about. So, ! Guessed we'd be in T1 together then ! Could make a couple minutes over 56 miles and try to keep him from taking the 5 minutes back on the run. Actually, 1 was hoping to make it through the whole run without falling apart completely. ! Can stay focused for a 5k, but longer than that is really hard for me.

19 minutes after the pro start, wave 5 was off. 1.2 miles around the buoys and back to the beach. WI took me 1:18 so ! Was expecting 40 minutes. Two weeks ago @ Candy's Fit Tire Tri we did a ½ mile swim and ! Extrapolated from that time to an IM time of 62 minutes. That would be really fast and not sustainable over 4.8 times that distance. ! Wanted to start today just as hard then settle in. That's what ! Did. Lots of kicking and whacking until we got spread out some. ! Kept pushing and even though ! Could see as many orange caps ahead of me as ! Had seen at the start ! Felt like ! Was going fast. No need to slow down since my arms would have the rest of the day off once 1 got to the beach. ! Was a little off course. Nearly crossing over into oncoming traffic. Around the buoy and heading back in, ! Could see the exit flags. They were a bit off the track along the buoy line. ! Adjusted and found myself a good distance outside of the rest of the pack. They would have to cut across once they got near shore and go farther than ! On the hypotenuse. !'m half way back now and watching the shore to the West. It was moving by quickly. Surprisingly quickly actually. Could ! Really be on that good of a pace?

Out of the water and up the beach ! Had no idea what my time was. My pace has been the same for years so that would make it about 40 minutes. No reason to question that. There was Yon in T1rolling on arm warmers. ! struggled to free myself from the rubber casing. The clock raced on as ! Sat there. It was still cold and ! Was wet. It must have been 10 minutes preparing to ride. Yon had walked by wishing me luck. Probably he thought ! Would still be sitting there when he finished the bike. At long last ! Was on my feet heading out to the mount line. ! Was still cold and wet. As ! Went up the first rise from the parking lot to the park road ! Saw Yon ahead of me. He got over the top before me and it was all downhill to Quincy from there. ! Wasn't going to get him on this segment. Onto Quincy ! Was closer. Wait. He's got black arm warmers. Yon was putting on RMTC yellow arm warmers. Who was this? ! Pushed and came up to his wheel. Still no joy. ! Pushed some more and had my front wheel abeam his bottom bracket. ! Couldn't see who it was. Quincy turned up and he accelerated. ! Had no answer. He was pulling away on the ups. ! Wasn't gaining much on the downs.

Quincy rises and falls in great chunks. ! Was rolling swiftly. Well over 30 mph down and holding high teens up. ! Was passing a lot of people. Yon was among them. ! Wished him luck and cheered him by reminding him we where already into the final 67 miles of the race. Almost there. A long way out some riders were returning. Th first one was not Matt. Neither was the 2^nd one. A few more who weren't Matt came by. Something must be wrong. Someone called out to me. That may have been him. It didn't seem right that he wasn't up front. Back to cranking. ! Was pushing really hard. Probably a little too hard. The turn-around was still ahead until ! Got there. Then the wind. A head wind to cut the pace down. Not quite half way back to the Res. We hit the turn North. There were two bikes ahead of me and one large truck ahead of them. The volunteers directed the truck inside the cones around the turn. He had to slow down a lot to make the maneuver. We had to slow down a lot to wait for him to get out of the way. The three of us accelerated up the slight hill until the girl dropped off. The guy in the white, long-sleeve Skins was going fast. He would go by and ! Would chase. ! Would go by and he would chase. We went back and forth until we got onto Colfax where Denny was staggering home. ! Dropped him there. We were heading East again with the wind behind me. ! Was in the high 20s sometimes over 30 mph. The early swimmers were falling behind me. On occasion ! Could see the mysterious RMTC kit. That gap wasn't closing.

Two and one half hours requires an average speed of 22.4 mph. ! Was at 26-28 every time ! Looked. ! Began to think ! Could pull of a 2:30 ride. Maybe even better than that. Add my 40 minute swim and 10 minutes in transition for 3:20. ! would have 2:20 for the run to match my PR. !'ve run the distance under 2 hours before. 2:05 just last week. ! Could do the 9 minute miles, but would ! Have that left after a hard ride? Could ! Keep focused and keep moving? That would be a chore. The faster the ride the more buffer ! Would have. We turned South off Colfax toward Kiowa. ! Could feel a little wind. Not bad and my speed was still up. 2:30 was looking realistic. ! Thought back to the head wind on Quincy after turning around. The same way ! Would be going for the last leg back to the Res. That wouldn't help. Southbound was over before sooner than ! Expected. We were onto Quincy. 40 miles down. 16 to go. Mostly into the wind and hills. This would be the hard part. This would kill my time and my legs. This is where ! Had to race smart or, like Matt and pros ! Could race stupid and apologize to my body tomorrow. ! Opted to ask forgiveness instead of permission. Even then my pace plummeted. ! Was climbing @ 8 mph. Still catching people, but 16 miles of that would not fit into my time frame. The descents were faster. ! Didn't really need to be able to focus on what was ahead. The enemies were big enough to pick out as my eyeballs bounced around. ! Had to minimize my losses. Every 15 minutes at 8 mph required 15 minutes at 38 mph to even out. ! Pee'd. Eight miles down Quincy ! Looked at the time. If ! Could average 60mph all the way back in, ! Could salvage 2:30. ! was cutting into my running time. Jodi's green kit goes perfectly with her green Guru. And Megan was coming back to the road after pulling off the course to pee. Finally the park road was there. The mysterious RMTC kit was just ahead of me. ! Had closed most of the gap. It was uphill to T2. ! Passed him by the park gate. It was Jodi's man. He had been hauling ass the whole way and was just now giving in to rational thought. ! Thought ! Should be easing off for the run too, but ! Didn't give in. One more turn. One little climb and it was time get out of my shoes and spin in. My feet had felt cold and wet when ! Started the ride. Now they were neither wet nor felt. A puffy, numb sensation. Just under 2:45 for the bike.

Shoes on. Sunglasses, number belt. ! Really needed to pee again. The out houses were just out of T2. ! Didn't feel like ! Usually feel after a massage and eight hours of sleep. ! Felt like my feet were twice their normal size and feelings of remorse would soon rush into them. ! Was ahead of Megan and Jodi's Matt for now. The last bit of mile one was a short steep hill. It hurt. My shoe didn't feel right so ! Stopped to adjust. Megan and Matt ran by. ! Was under 9 minutes for that mile. Just barely. By my estimate, ! Would have to squeeze 12 more nines out and then sprint hard to the finish line if ! Was to have any chance of matching my PR. ! Kept on. Mile 2 was 9:23. This was not going well when it should have been going the best of the run. Even if ! Didn't PR ! Still had 20 minutes to get under 6 hours which would be an improvement over recent years. A girl on a bike was approaching. She turned onto a different section of the path followed by a really fast guy. He must be the leader. Matt would be right behind him to rip his legs off in the last 2 miles. Some other guy came along. Something was dreadfully wrong here. Half a mile further was Matt. ! Surmised that he had flatted twice. Two guys ahead of him means two mechanicals. Isn't that the natural order of things? He was 8 miles ahead of me. If ! Hustle ! Can catch him :) The next 2 miles were 9 ½ each. PR was close to slipping away. ! Must be under 2 hours on the run to do it. ! Needed to pee. Jodi's Matt got away when ! Stopped. We were doing the same pace. He just wasn't stopping.

There were miles to go. ! Thought back to IM Moo. ! Had run no farther than 8 miles in the final 3 months before the race so ! Decided ! Was to run that far before ! Would even consider walking. Last weekend ! Had run 13.1 so ! Knew ! Could do it if ! Wasn't pre-fatigued. Keep pushing. ! Can do it. There is a wide dirt section along the path on top of the dam. Megan was on her way back. The guy in the white Skins shirt had passed me some time back. He said ! Really “crushed the bike”. The closer ! Got to the turn-around the more crowded it became. ! Grabbed some Gatorade. 20 feet to the cone. ! Told them it was too hard. “!'m going back”. Water and Endurolytes. Nearing the end of the dirt section ! Passed Yon. He was within a mile of me. Either he had held on during the ride or he was killing me on the run. !'ve seen him run. ! Picked up the pace.

Mile 8. 5.1 to go. !'ve just noticed it's all downhill from here. !'m back to 9s. Some better. Still hard. Still not sure if ! Can make the PR or hold Yon off. !'m still going. My will is waning. Must focus. ! Can do this. ! Know ! Can. Mile 10. Just a 5k to go. ! Should be able to knock that out in 23 minutes. Not happening today. There are 2 guys just behind me. They are pacing each other. ! Picked up the pace to keep them back there. They weren't talking. The push was helping. They can't get by. Not for a few k anyway. They put in a little surge and passed me. ! Really need to pee. They were gapping me. ! Can't keep this pace for another mile. ! Stopped to pee. One was from the wave before me. If ! Could touch him he was 5 minutes behind me. 1.5 miles to go. It's really hard now. ! Can make it. Yon and Matt are too far back to see. There's a dirt section that goes down then up then down then up again. Ouch. A guy got past me. ! Asked him what wave he was in. He was 10 minutes behind me. 1 mile to go in 10 minutes to stay under 2 hours. ! Told him ! Was shooting for under 5:40 to PR. That's the time he was going for too. How could that be possible? He was a mile out. 8 or 9 minutes to go and he was at 5:40 already. Maybe ! Was a little ahead of what ! Thought. 1 k to go in 8 minutes. ! Can do this. !'m back on the concrete path. ! Can see the pavilions. ! Can hear the announcer. Orlinda and Henry are at the last turn. 100 yards downhill, A kink around the fence Matt is there cheering. A girl with a camera over her face is next to him. ! Think it was Molly. (it was) Lot's of people past the fence for the last 20 yards. ! Was flat-out now. 10 feet to go. ! Looked at the clock. 5:43???? ! Knew there were 20 minutes (actually 19) on the clock when ! Started swimming. Matty Matt and Dusty were at the end of the chute with another camera.

! need to wade in the cold water to soothe my legs. It was a struggle to get there. How could the clock say 5:43. That would be 5:24 for my race. Surely ! PRed. ! Dragged myself out and up to the results. That 10 minute T1 was under 4 minutes. It sure felt like 10. My 40 minute swim was 31 minutes. 1:59 for the run and 2:45 on the bike. This lends credence to my theory that ! Could do a full IM in 11 hours. We shall see. ! am really sore.

Congratulations to Pikes Peak Tri Club for finishing as 1^st loser in the club competition. A mere 16:34 behind RMTC. They should be very proud of themselves. http://www.withoutlimits.com/