When a double Olympic medalist tells you “the plan” it’s best to pay attention.
“Hey Kev, we’re going to cut right immediately – don’t swim on anyone’s hips, just get on feet. We’re going to string this swim out.” So that’s what we did – we cut right and I found myself on Simon’s feet. Some fast swimmers came from the left, we met at the first buoy, and we were away. I was part of a small group of about ten athletes that came out of the water 90 seconds up on a big group. I was dangling at the back of the swim pack so I scurried into the group on the bike and by the time we got to the top of the “climb” on the first of six laps we were a select group of seven. Awesome, I made the swim breakaway!
Our group worked fairly well together and held a 75 to 80 second lead on the chasers for nearly the entire ride. Simon and Kyle were marking each other and everyone else in the pack seemed content to stay in the group. I considered attacking but decided against it. Bad decision! On the final lap of the bike our group was given a time gap of 80 seconds to the chase pack. I decided to stay in the group and run on fresh legs. We cruised into T2, racked our bikes and put on our running shoes. I was dismayed by what I saw next: the chase pack coming into T2 no more than 15 seconds back! Apparently the combination of an attack out of the chase pack combined with our lazy Sunday stroll in T2 caused the gap to close down rapidly.
“No worries, I can run,” I thought. Not today! I ran with Simon and Kyle Jones for about 2K before starting to suffer from a diaphragm cramp. It got worse and worse and I rocketed back to eighth place – a disappointing result for sure, made worse by the fact that I set myself up so well with a good swim/bike.
Next up: Vegas 70.3!