Am I really done? It was a nice feeling, sitting in the shade, quiet, satisfied, I had given it my all and was pleased. But before I got to this point and could sit here and relax I did have to 'do' the darn thing.





Nancy(my road crew) and I arrived at 7:00am to sort out the gear at the various transition spots, fine tune the kayak entry, and go over the 'list' of responsibilities.

Then the gun goes and it's into the water.





As planned, I swam a relaxed pace, having found in training that kicking hard did not produce that much speed and saved my legs. I came out of the water, not breathing hard and had a successful transition.






The hardest part of the transition was trying to find out where my head was so I could put my helmet on.

Thinking the bike ride would be the best discipline probably turned out to be my most dissappointing. My average speed was 25 k/h, not really much faster than training. Maybe I was too laid back and not willing to put out. Fear of the run?



That being said, the ride time was comparable to those around me, and then the kayak discipline was very satisfactory, the transition was both quick and smooth.

I found I was not fading, but keeping a steady pace...which was a bit to my surprise as I thought fatigue would set in.



Well, if I was pleased up until now, I was estatic during the run. My pace was steady and I didn't seem to tire, in fact I felt stronger the last couple kms. Not knowing what to expect, I just assumed I would be wasted and was not.

It was a real 'high'. I had worked hard over the past 3 months and was getting payback.

Would I do it again, probably not. The time required to reach a satisfactory fitness level is not there. This time that was taken away from the family was not fair to them, especially those 5 weeks of doubles and triples where some days I was training over 3 hours.

Will I do something next year? Certainly!

Without any real sense if it is possible, my first thought is to make an effort to train in the water as much as possible and maybe swim from Banook to the Marina. Too far? OK, maybe swim from Fairbanks to the Marina. Too far? Let's wait and see, eh!

For the record:
-750 meter swim-16:41
-20 km bike, including transition-48:27
-4 km kayak, including transition-26:43
-5 km run-34:42

Total time-- 2 hours, 6 minutes, 33 seconds

All the above being said, the past 4 months has been a HOOT!