I got to my transition bag and had to sit down on the grass because I felt like I was going to pass out. It was ugly. After about 30 seconds a lady came up and asked me if I wanted to go to the medical tent (did I really look that bad?). Yes, I did. I waived her off and then another lady said, very nicely, you can't wait in the racks. I figured that I might as well be recovering on my bike than on my ass. I wandered over to the grass, dumped my bag out and started getting myself together. Fortunately, I had placed a bottle of water in my bag and I was able to pound down three-quarters of a liter and that made me feel a little better. After another minute on my butt, I got up and headed over to the bike racks. Grabbed a few more glasses of water and a PowerBar and headed out on the course.

Swim 01:12:20 - 194 out of 309 in my Age Group (AG) and 866 out of 1770 overall

Transition One (T1) 00:04:10 - on my bike at 01:16:30

The overall time does not tell the whole story of the swim. The time is actually OK with me. However, I had gone deeply anaerobic and this "shut my stomach down" for a while. It would take a long time to fire myself back up again. Gordo Tip: On your first IM swim, go out easy. The taper will leave you feeling like Superman and it is really easy to over do it. There is a large penalty for going anaerobic.

Goals For IMC2000 (Yes, I am laying them out right here, right now)

Swim 01:03:00 or 1:38 per 100m - T1 00:02:00 - on my bike at 01:05:00.

Looks like I will be spending my winter swimming in the fast lane and working hard.

So I was heading up Main Street, feeling more than a little bit dazed but happy to have the swim behind me. I was not all that happy to have my quads and hamstrings sending me twinge messages. I figured that it was due to dehydration and proceeded to get to work on the fluids that I had on my bike. One problem was that I had mixed my sports drink too strong and was dumping concentrated drink into my stomach. I compounded that problem by eating the PowerBar. Gordo Tip: Be sure to have at least one large bottle of water on the bike at the start and mix your sports drinks right.

The air was cool and after about one mile I got down on my bars and started rolling along. I was passing a few people and being passed a fair amount as well. My modified strategy was to be conservative until I started to feel better. I arrive at the turn at McClean Creek Road grabbed a bottle of Gatorade (note, not water) and headed up the climb. I let everybody pass me on the climb. No point in being a hero this early in the day. There was lots of traffic and people passing and being passed. On the flats I had to yell a few times for people to get out of my way, sorry folks but I wanted to make sure that you heard me. On the descents, I really had to scream to be heard above the wind. I thought that people were being quite considerate and had no real complaints on blocking.

I was cruising along McClean Creek Road minding my own business when all of a sudden right behind me I heard screams and the sounds of grinding metal. Not wanting to have a mental image of death and dismemberment in my head for the next 150km and seeing that there was a Bike Barn car up ahead, I didn't look and told the Bike Barn guys that someone had just gone down behind me. They said that they saw the whole thing and would be on it.

I found out on Monday what had happened. A guy had tried to pass someone on the inside, the person being passed, heard the bike coming up and moved to the right in order to let the person pass. In moving right, the left pedal of the person passing on the inside went into the front wheel of the person being passed. The wheel was a Spinergy and the sound that I heard was the Spinergy exploding and both people going down. The guys at the Bike Barn told me that the only thing left from the Spinergy was the hub. A total write off. They gave the rider a new front wheel and both people headed off back in the race. They were really lucky. The guy passing on the inside should have been shot. Later, I saw another guy who was passing on the inside and yelled at him. He continued to pass on the inside and just ignored me. Oh well.

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