At the start I was excited but relaxed, with hardly any annoying nervous energy. I think as I do more of these, there is less fearful anticipation. I'm now free to just do what I do, nice and relaxed. The horn blared and everyone rushed the water. Certainly a violent beginning. I was pinched off entering the water and had my nose elbowed by Jeff Paul who was entering with some dolphin dives. He was the guy who won Challenge AC... beat me on the run. I told him in friendly competition before the race that he was my nemesis... perhaps he didn't realize the friendly part and that's why I got elbowed? Ha, no, I'm sure it was coincidental. I swam out hard and did my best to stay with good feet. Recognizing Chris Sweet by his green compression sleeves hanging slightly out from his wetsuit, and occasionally seeing others' faces, I knew I was with good company. The mini packs drifted apart and back together here and there, but I rarely had to swim on my own. As we all converged to the swim finish, I could tell I was in the mix. Jeff Paul, Chris Sweet and I were literally each on a ladder climbing out onto the dock at the exact same time. JP ran way faster up to transition, and Sweet slightly faster than I did. I usually take my time running because I'm always out of breath going from water to land. I suspected I could regain that time with minimal stopped time in T1. Yup, while I ran the slowest, I was out of T1 first of that pack.

Nick Glavac and Jack Braconnier were also right in the mix within minute of us. I had met Nick at Savageman last month, and was sharing a hotel with him for this trip. He's a friendly fun guy who makes my haphazard late planning feel like the norm. I messaged him Monday night looking for someone to split a hotel with, and he said he hadn't looked into lodging yet. I think you may be hard pressed to find two other triathletes that don't have lodging planned 3 days out from traveling to their A race! In my mind that just shows our laid back character, or perhaps just how busy lives can be outside of triathlon. Jack has been at 4 of my last 5 fulls, either racing or coaching/spectating. In Atlantic City this year he was coaching/spectating and ran with me a little bit giving me some motivation when I really wasn't into the whole running thing. The AC course was lonely, so I appreciated the brief company. Back to the morning of B2B, right when they were calling last bus to take us to the swim start, Jack was messing with his wheel... a tubular that had gone flat! Sealant works as a cross your fingers solution in race, but I wouldn't want to start a full with that holding my day together. I offered my training wheel that I had in my car and he took me up on that. Not as fast as a healthy Zipp, but faster than a flat tubular for sure. I got a few words for missing the last bus after they had made many warning announcements, but helping someone else out is an excuse that’s hard to refute. And of course there were enough other late people for them to have one more bus for us.

Onto the bike I started out, with the masses following extremely close behind. JP caught me after a few miles, then Chris Sweet latched on, then we caught Tom Wood, then Nick came on the back. Tom raced here last year and Triple-T earlier this year. He consistently beats me by a small but significant amount, so I was excited to be with him and the rest of the group. Almost everyone I thought to be in contention was right there together. I've been told plenty of times that pro racing is ‘just different’ than AG racing. You have to make the swim pack to make the bike pack to be able to run into a good place. Well I always get dropped in the swim, and bike by myself, and run by myself. So yes, it is different than AG racing for me, but not in the way that's typically understood. Well this race put a whole bunch of us second tier pros together, so we could race against each other like the fast pros race against the fast pros. It was great. It forced me to race differently. I knew I could contend with these guys so I HAD to keep up. We kept the distance between us legal, so it wasn't a matter of sucking a free ride, it was just to stay in ‘the race’ that I wanted to be a part of. While there isn't a ton of benefit when we were mostly following ~5 bike lengths back, I'm sure there was some, and I did not want the group to speed up so I stayed number 3-4 back for the first 40 miles or so. Most guys start out hard and then fade, and I prefer not to fade. On the second half I would start picking up the pace of the pack and put the hurt on anyone who pushed a little beyond themselves, so I thought perhaps possible. But, the group was just going wicked fast early on. JP and Wood did a lot of the work at first. Then Nick went in the mix. Then Nick's pulls started to get harder and harder and it was a mad slinky of surges as Nick led then alternated with JP who would ease up the pace. I think I can speak for Chris and Wood as well as myself, and possibly also JP, that we were getting super frustrated with Nick for surging. I thought maybe he just thought that was a reasonable pace for us to go, or I didn't really know why he was doing that, but I wasn't happy with the surges. Wood, Sweet and I just clung on (often times at gaps like ~8 bikes lengths during the hard pulls, so really not drafting) and many times I looked down to see power way higher than I can hold for even sprint tris! It was just absurd that we were surging that hard in a full iron tri.

Nick comes from a miler's background. 4:09. My fastest mile was early this spring where I went just slightly under 5. That’s a HUGE difference. He's good at the shorter tris but had never done a full. Having roomed with him, I told him before the race that from knowing his background, and knowing stats of similar people, there was a high risk of going too hard and breaking down at some point. I suggested that he stick with me through the swim, the bike, and the first 8-13 miles of the run, then go ahead and run ahead of me. I could tell he didn't think I was as fast as him, which is very true for distances shorter than this. I told him to not worry about Drobeck, and when Drobeck catches us on the ride, he's best off not trying to keep up. Nick wanted to keep up though. He wanted to race for the win, not the lower steps of the podium that I was shooting for.

Back to the ride... I had had enough of Nick's surges. When JP was on front with a reasonable effort pull, I made my way up. Complained to Wood as I went by him. Then went by Nick and in passing told him he needed to cut the surges. I’m not sure what attitude was portrayed in my words but he replied sounding decently agitated "Pull!" I guessed he was annoyed that no one else besides JP was taking pulls. I didn't want the group going that fast though! I appreciated JP's even, conservative pacing. So with an irritated Nick, and the rest of us knowing we were frying our legs with the surges, I thought of another solution. Go to the front and pull at my speed. So that's what happened over the next long while. JP and I alternated leads with more conservative pacing (JP's pulls admittedly longer than mine.) In passing one of the times I suggested to JP to let Nick go if he surged any more. JP did only partial research on the competition and thought Nick was Drobeck.... nope. Drobeck is experienced and I doubt he would have surged. He probably would have enjoyed the company even if he did 80% of the leading, since he can easily out run us all. Anyway, Nick stayed in the back from then on. He told me after that yes he was frustrated that myself, Sweet, and Wood weren't leading at all so he was trying to break us... reasonable. I don't mind pulling, and I don't think the other two would have minded either, but the pace was already aggressive for me, and IMs are long days. I told him he could have just eased up and ate a gel and we would have moved to the front, but we weren't going to surge just to make our way to the front. Oh well. Confusion at the time but at least open discussion afterwards.

Mile 70 or so came, and while we had been holding steady reasonable efforts the last hour or so, the winds were tough and the surges and high overall effort had given my legs that feeling that I knew if I stopped and went to bed then, my legs would have the well used, fatigued, and slightly sore feeling they get after the hardest of my long training days.... and I still had a lot of race left to go! I wanted to stay in the race more than anything, but I also had to play it smart to do well in the end. Another guy had come up from behind, Dan Harris. He's a friend of my friends Nate and Leslie Miller, and Leslie told me beforehand that she thinks he's about my ability. I was surprised how strong his riding was though, and I was not eager for his addition to the pace making. My legs were totally fried, and I really had to pee. Partially used the needing to pee as an excuse to get dropped. I did my forever long coasting needed for me to be able to let loose, and on flat grounds the coasting dropped me way off the back. "Well, at least I can go my own effort now," I thought to myself. Oh, and Drobeck passed me while I was emptying tank. For the next 10 miles or so I could see the pack way up ahead, and Drobeck hawking them close behind but not sealing the deal. Riding solo my power had dropped from 5-10% over goal, to 10% under goal. I never pace that variably! Oh well. I needed that easier time I think. With my toasted legs I felt as if even with the easier paced finish to the ride, I'd still only be capable of a marathon 10 min slower than my hopes for the day. Wood had gotten dropped from the pack at the special needs chaos (where I actually made a little solo break for 10 min or so!) I saw him again with 5-10 miles to go, as he passed me while I made a final bladder release before the run. I really need to learn how to do that while still pedaling...