Aluminum Man Triathlon

Saturday I did the Aluminum Man Triathlon in The Dalles Oregon sprint distance. Drove over Friday and had dinner at the Road Stop restaurant where they have HUGE portions. I got a side baked potato and cottage cheese because I'd heard it was a great pre-workout combo. When the potato came it was entire plate with many potatoes smothered in cheese and onions. I added the cottage cheese and ate a little. That was supposed to be an appetizer, so of course the entree was gigantic.
The next day setup transition and it was very windy. My friend Kevin has a half-iron in a couple weeks and didn't have anything scheduled this weekend, so he came along to take pictures. The swim started with a run out into the water until it became deep enough to swim which was quite a ways out.
The swim was only 650 yards, but the waves in the Columbia river that day were whitecaps. They didn't look that big from shore, but when swimming they lifted me up and then I would slam down into the trough. It took awhile to work out that rhythm. At first the waves would slosh over me while trying to breath. After a mouthful of water, I tried to find the wave's timing. Three times the waves crested over my head and covered me- that had never happened to me on a swim before! I got out of the water in a time of 17:29, which is the worst per 100 yard pace ever (3.14), but I was happy with it considering the conditions.
The bike was very pretty as it wound up through the brown hills behind The Dalles. It climbed a hill about 400 feet up and then a slow climb some more to the turnaround. I had been zooming along, so I thought it was a slow downhill. After the turnaround the wind slammed my upright almost. Luckily it was mostly downhill to the end. You know it's windy when you lose speed going downhill! My speedometer said 13.3 miles with an average of 18. The results show an average of 19.9 for 15 miles.

The run was along the riverfront path they have in The Dalles and the wind pushed me around even on the run. Got to the turnaround and it was with the wind, but I was pretty much done for by then. I either ate too much the night before or not enough in the morning, or not hydrated enough. It was my ninth tri of the year and probably the last for this year, so I wanted to run well, but came in at 28:10 for a 9:04 pace. I was proud of my bike time considering the wind and I was 39th in the bike, but 6 of 8 in my age group on the bike. Overall I was 63rd out of 115 and 7th of 8 in my age group with a 1:36:49 time.
Drove the bike course afterwards and took the picture of Mt Hood from one of the turns on the course.