the promoters of this race have been putting it on for 21 years, so they know how to serve up a well-organised tri with challenging courses (and a point-to-point bike leg that necessitates 2 transition zones!).

though i never woulda thunk it, wilkes-barre and environs are actually really pretty, and the swim venue, harvey lake, was like margaritaville on sat night when we were racking our bikes.  admiring the jet skiiers and the folks sitting on their decks with their cocktails made me realise i really really need a vacation.  a gin & tonic would do nicely too.

i drank a lot of harvey lake the next day, cos that is what i do when i swim, and out of all the bodies of water i've sampled over the past couple months, i award it top prize.  light and fresh, with only a slight hint of murk and weediness in the shallower depths.  my swim doesn't suck as badly as it used to, and i even attempt drafting when some of the swim caps from the wave behind mine glide by.

my first transition is pathetic.  i might as well have sat down and had a leisurely pee like i did at eagleman.  i lose roughly a minute and a half here, struggling with my socks and shoes and things from my transition bag that have gotten stuck in my shoes.  it is not pretty.

i get on the bike, finally, and immediately feel like poo.  poo sometimes wears off, i think zen-like, and elect to ride in my small chain ring for a while.  a chick passes me right away, taking a bite out of zen.  the course, with its rolling terrain and couple of long, gradual climbs continues to chomp my zen, for i'm not feeling any better, except on the descents, where i spin out my 12 and let my zipps do the work.

[it must be noted that at this point i've got "santa claus is coming to town" looping in my head, which is less inspiring than, say, bush's "machinehead" or disturbed's "get psycho," but preferable to "the littlest worm," which once accompanied me for not only the entire mid-atlantic 40K cycling time trial championship, but also the drive home.]

i'm pretty beat when i get off the bike, but i have a great 2nd transition (that's T2 if you're learning the lexicon).  ANOTHER chick passes me at the beginning of the run, and i chase her just enough to prompt her to scamper away from me, and i resign myself to trying to run evenly, or better yet, with negative splits, and maybe i'll catch her by the end, for i know she's in my age group.

[an aside:  you know, i really love running -- it's probably my favorite of the 3 tri sports -- but running after a cycling TT is a totally different animal from running out your front door.  it's more like the second half of a marathon, where your hams and calves are tanked, and you're reduced to plodding flatfooted and completely upright.  or maybe i'm doing something wrong, but if i am i wish someone would tell me how to do it right so that i could stop writing about how much the run leg sucks.]

the run really sucks.  it's more rolling terrain, and in full sun.  there are water stops every mile, though, and i'm passing people, including women from my age group, so even though my brain is crying for me to stop, i keep on keeping on.  in the final 2 miles, the scamper-chick is back in sight, and i creep closer and closer but run out of time; she finishes half a minute ahead of me to take 3rd in our age group (30-34) and i'm left in the dork position.

however, i have finished my first olympic, or international, distance tri and to celebrate i eat 5 popsicles.  i haven't eaten a popsicle since i was in 6th grade, but these hit the spot, and i gobble and slurp them 'til i am all the colors of the rainbow, and very sticky.

jocelyn saunders finished 2nd in her age group (35-39), which is pretty amazing considering her nasty cycling accident last year and back surgery this spring.

i went to wilkes-barre tired, having fallen into the trap of turning my recovery days into tempo ones.  kids don't let this happen to you -- it's easy to do this time of year!  so yesterday i got to know my granny gears  again, and when a gargantuan dude on a mtn bike passed me on broad run road, i let him go. his feet weren't even in the toeclips! -and i let him go. patience and forbearance, grasshopper.