On the first day of my summer vacation...

The race this weekend was an absolute blast!!! The director did an amazing job at putting together an entire weekend full of events as well as a top notch race. I stayed in the dorms on the campus of Hobart and William Smith Colleges right in downtown Geneva. The last time I stayed in dorms was in undergrad and I got thrown out my first year...I did a much better job of folllowing rules this time. Here is a brief overview of the race day:
MORNING - Woke up at 4:30 and drank my Tim Horton's coffee...that make some of the best coffee in the world...the Canadians really know their java. I decided to bike the 3 miles to the race venue which served as a nice warm up. I would come to regret this decision after the race.
SWIM - The swim took place in one of the finger lakes...very nice and clear. Unfortunately the water got very rough due to the wind, the boats, and the shallow depth. I got tossed around pretty good on the leg that went parallel to the shore. The exit was brutal becasue you had to walk almost 100 yards through knee high water...too shallow to swim and extremely taxing to run through. The swim took me about 40 minutes.
BIKE - This was my first race on the new bike and it was quite a difference. I was definitely able to climb better and shoot the hills quicker. My legs also felt quite a bit better at the end of the ride than they ever did on my tri bike. The course was ver scenic as it rolled through farms and vinyards. There was very little traffic and the roads were all very smooth and VERY hilly. The bike took me a bit over 3 hours (the results haven't been posted yet). I also may have received a penalty on the bike...the USAT guy was following me and I saw him write something down. I had plenty of room in front of me, but ever since Sarasota I think USAT has it out for me.
RUN - I was surprised how good I felt off the bike. I was able to run all but about 2 of the 13 miles. It was very hot on the run and it HURT. The temp reached about 96 with high humidity on no clouds. The run course was also brutally hilly. There were some serious quarter mile climbs at numerous sections. There were lots of homeowners along the course who had their hoses out and they were spraying down the runners...this was a great help between the aid stations. The run took me about 2.5 hours.
AFTERMATH - I pretty much collapsed in the grass as soon as I was done. The medical tent at the end looked like a scene from MASH. There were bodies EVERYWHERE...they filled up all the cots they had and they were putting people on picnic tables and on te ground. I guess New Englanders can't take the heat ;-) Riding my bike 3 miles uphill back to my dorm room absolutely sucked!!!! I managed to take a shower and couldnt move out of my bed. My electrolytes were seriously depleted and I had no easy way of getting food since my car was parked a half mile away. I finally grabbed some chips and soda from the snack machine. That gave me enough energy to go get dinner which consisted of a stromboli, 1 lb of pineapple and 3 doughnuts.

So now I get one day of rest until I can start getting ready for the Mt Washington summit next weekend.