Looking pretty confident...or not...for more pictures check out http://picasaweb.google.com/porterbratten/

So! The race was in Galveston, Texas. The swim was in Galveston Bay, 1.2 miles of muddiness. I had decided before the race that I would take it "real easy" so as to not get too tired early on. Well, 3 minutes into it my heart rate was super high (173) so I was trying to make it relax by resorting to back stroke. This didn't work all that great; it wasn't until 18 minutes and 34 seconds into the swim that I was finally able to get my rhythm going and make up some lost time. I finished the swim in 35 minutes, which was exactly what I had predicted, and I was pleasantly surprised by that, given my backstroke and such. It was pretty swell at this race because they have "wetsuit strippers"; you run up to some person, they grab the arms of your wetsuit (which you have already removed from your person, down to the waist) sit on the ground and they whip the whole thing right off you. I picked an attractive young female to strip me.

With that business taken care of, I started the bike. It was an out and back course, to be done twice. The first outbound leg went really well. Galveston is flat as a pancake, so my speed was pretty high, I was passing a fair amount of people, feeling good. I made it to the first turn around, and about 5 minutes later, got a flat tire. Drat! But I said hey what are you going to do. I took the time to wolf down a powerbar, a delightful cinnamon raisin variety, and fixed the flat. I said to myself, ah, well there was the glitch for the day. Let's make up some ground. Then, much to my chagrin, not 3 minutes later, I got...another flat on the other tire. I broke my long standing asylum on cursing, especially in a very loud voice, and then fixed the tire. A bit discouraged, I started out again. I made it back to the transition area to start the second loop, and just as I was making the turnaround, whoopee, another flat. Luckily this time it happened really close to the bike mechanical aid station, so I was quickly fixed up with an entirely new rear wheel. So, I continued and not but 30 seconds had gone by, and ZOUNDS a FOURTH flat tire. I was telling myself as I fixed it again that clearly, in a former life, I had done something heinous..... Anyways, I headed out again.

By this time, I had told myself, the time doesn't matter anymore. You see, I had set a time goal of 5 hours, so that I could qualify for the halfmax national championships, in october in las vegas. By this time I knew that wasn't going to happen. So I made it back out, for the last time, to the turn around point, headed back to the transition area, and not 1 minute had gone by and GADZOOKS the 5th flat. So I gingerly rolled back to the other bike mechanical station and got now a new front wheel. Sweet. Now I was invincible. So I finished the bike, having spent, by my figuring, about 32 minutes stopped or otherwise not going as fast as I would have been. But I had been looking forward to the run.

The run, by comparison, was pretty uneventful. I did go quite fast though...I had a split of 1:34, which included about a minute of walking and a 2 minute potty break (yes, I timed it), which when compared to my stand alone time of 1:30 for a half marathon back in October, wasn't too shabby. No siree. I had a bit of a side ache for a while, and my stomach was putting on its own version of the proletariat revolution and was refusing to operate the necessary machinery, but that kind of passed after a while....They were suppressed. I sprinted the last 3/4 of a mile with a quite attractive 43 year old woman (everybody has their age written on their calf, very helpful). Before she saw my age she asked if I was available...very awkward.

I got a nice free massage afterwards and won a sweet bike computer in the giveaways (Mavic ES), due to having had the most flats. AND, surprise surprise, still qualified for the national championships, in Las Vegas in October, by getting top third in my age group, 10th out of 31. I was 129th overall, out of 600 or so, with a time of 5:19:29, a swim of 35:45, a bike of 3:05:40, and a run of 1:34:36. As near as I can estimate, I spent about 32 minutes stopped, so I **could** have had a time of around 4:47, were it not for those flats...of course, best not to dwell on what might have been. Both my mom and soon to be stepdad came down to watch, it was great to have their support (as well as free hotel room and food). My mom is awesome. Whoo boy! As a last commentary, I could not help but think of good ol' norman stadler's difficulties in 2006. Let us not forget that he just up and quit after 2 flat tires:

Watch it here

All in all I love the half distance! I can't wait to to do another one! It's long enough to really have some strategy, you're not red lining it like in a sprint or olympic. Very fun. Have a good week y'all.