Pacific Crest Olympic Triathlon

Drove down to Sunriver Oregon and did the Pacific Crest Olympic Triathlon last weekend. I've done this race four times before and have never done under 3:20, but I haven't done it since training for ironman last year. My goal was to be under 3 hours, but the week before I came down with a cold, so I was just hoping to finish by Sunday. We drove down Friday night and then Saturday did packet pickup and put the bikes at Wickiup Reservoir overnight. Had Italian food at a place called Marcello's, pretty good. Then to get ready for Sunday. Sunday morning we set up the run transition and got on a bus that takes us to the start. It's about a 45 minute bus ride, so lots of time to get nervous. The water is usually really cold for this race, but this year it was 64! Didn't need the wetsuit jacket or polar cap. Got in and got the face and body used to the water and finally it was time to swim (last wave). Started out strong and stayed there- just a really zen swim- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, sight. That was all I thought about basically. People would hit me or be in my way and I just kept going and they had to move. Got out of the water with a 27:51 time. Then a pretty quick 2:48 transition and out on the bike. The bike course is the reason for doing this race. Absolutely beautiful and some hills the first half and then fairly level and downs on the second half. I passed Natalie and she said she had lost her timing chip in the lake, I yelled back as I passed her to tell them her number at the end. Thought about it later, could have given her my watch it has laps. Kevin caught me at mile 12 or so and I stayed within sight of him for a good 10 miles after that. The bike is 28 miles instead of the normal 25, so I came in at 1:26:58 for a 19.3 average. Then while in the run transition, Ken, Sarah's fiance was taking pictures so I stopped to pose and he yelled "get going". So I started up and ran the whole time, but at 4800 feet and 88 or so degrees all I could do was a 10:04 pace for a 1:02:35 run. Total time was 3:03:12 my best Pacific Crest by a good 20 minutes and good for 12th in my age group out of 28 and 109th overall out of 451. Very happy with this race considering the temps and that I had a cold. Natalie came in at 3:18 for her first Olympic distance. We met up with Sarah and Ken that evening and tried to go to the Deshutes Brewer, but it was closed, so we went to Mcmenamins instead. Then the long drive home.