good day at Musselman

I took it easy last week leading into Musselman. Here are the highlights from the race...
- 19th place overall (512 racers), 3 place age group (52 racers)
- solid bike and run; trouble on the swim (goggle problems again!)
- good course overall; the mile 7 hill on the run is a bit ridiculous, but I did an easy jog to the top
- so overall pretty solid performance and happy with the result - not stellar, but the best I could have done on the day

http://www.musselmantri.com/pdf/2007/musselman_results_2007.pdf

here is the bike course map from my Garmin

Here is the elevation and pace chart from my Garmin...

Other stuff
- Sena and the girls came to cheer me on - which makes a race so much more enjoyable - way to be there ladies!!
- My sister Kerin and family came to see the race - it was really good to see them there
- ITU Olympic qualifying race was the day before our race - some big names and very cool to watch (Sarah Groff won the womens course)
- Geneva is just ok - the lake is beautiful, but there isn't much to do in the town - wouldn't mind checking out the south part of the lake, where they apparently have some beautiful parks and waterfalls
- The Mussels in the lake are zebra mussels, that keep the water super clean, but are hard to control and aren't edible; they also can cut your feet so no running in shallow waters of the swim leg!
- Yeah the goggle thing again! New goggles, I can't explain what happened, but after about 600 meters, I lost the suction on the goggles and couldn't get it fixed for the rest of the swim - cost me some time - lost the goggles dolfin diving on my way into shore (sandy area cleared of mussels)
- I swam the morning after the race with a second pair of goggles that I brought - I loved swimming in the lake during this training swim - beautiful
- The bike was very cool - the last 5 miles were rough though - into the wind and hilly
- I liked the run course - side stitch at mile 8 and some trouble breathing - didn't push as hard as I was hoping to, but kept moving
- After the race, when I went to take my bike out of transition, my rear wheel was flat - strange, but so happy it didn't blow on the course! - also noticed that I need new race tires
- Tried a few different things on the bike this time that didn't pay off - (ex. tried to squeeze all my tubes, CO2 and nutrition into my bento box - not such a good idea)
- Met a guy - Bob Hoyt - 2 time Kona finisher - 2 time Lake Placid finisher - got to talking about a bunch of stuff - he does pretty well in the swim and gave me some pointers - also told me his best Kona time was the first time, when his goal was to finish, and how he passed training partners in the run who went out too hard - good advise

So I learned a few things for my next race; need to figure out my breathing and side stitch issues on the run; work out the goggle thing; XLab gizmo on the back for tubes and CO2; consider using my aero bar drink holder for IM distance - pretty short list really - no complaints.