This was my first triathlon, and it was an olympic distance! I did it with my brother-in-law, John, and my friend, Cheryl, who also trained with me in Matt's Monday night triathlon group. We stayed at Lake Geneva the night before the race. With my nervousness about the swim, I wasn't able to fall asleep until about 11pm and woke up at 2:30am. So, the night before , I only got about 3.5 hours of sleep!

We were over at the start by 5:50am and were setup by 6:30am. We realized we wouldn't get time to warm-up, so we got into our wave group. At one point while we were standing around waiting, I was so nervous about the swim that I started gagging and grasping at the throat of my wetsuit as I started to feel claustrophobic. But, after a few good gags, I got over it and felt better. Then before I knew it, we were in the water with our wave (Wave 6 - Olympic: Men 40-44) and took off.

They said the water temp was around 73 degrees, but I felt cold. It was probably due to my continuing nervousness and lack of sleep the night before. Although I was moving pretty comfortably, my arms felt cold and a little heavy. But once I got most of the way to the turnaround, I was confident I'd finish the swim and make it out of the water. My friend, Mark, said I "looked like death" when I got out of the swim. I was feeling pretty wiped-out, but kept moving as fast as I could muster the energy without stumbling.

I got through T1 onto the bike without too much of a problem. About 2 miles into the bike, someone crashed in front of me while I was in the aero bars. After calling out, "Are you OK?!" I dodged around the wreck and the rolling water bottle and kept going. At one of the hills, I shifted from my big chain-ring to the small one, and my chain came off as I was climbing! When this happened, I looked down and my mind started running through my options, and (I am not kidding) I clearly heard Coach Matt's voice telling me to shift up. It was just as he had said in one of his Monday night training sessions. I shifted, the chain popped back on, and I was able to continue climbing while just barely slowing down. I was alternating between feeling really good and feeling sluggish on the bike despite keeping what I thought was properly fueled. I think the swim took a lot out of me.

I transitioned from the run to the bike and got into the run. I felt sluggish through the first lap (5K). But then, as I started the second lap, I heard my friend Mark call out "C'mon Vel! Dig deep!!!" and it set something off in me and gave me energy to give it all and pick up the pace considerably. There was someone who I was pacing during the run and we were taking turns passing each other throughout the second lap. When we neared the end, the both of us started sprinting. He just barely edged me out a few yards from the finish.

My total time was 3:06:35, which I am happy with (I was shooting for 3 hours). My biggest obstacle (in my mind) was the swim. Getting through that was the biggest goal for this race and I accomplished what I set out to do.

Matt's coaching and expertise, along with the support of my great Monday night tri group, made it possible for me to complete my first triathlon of olympic proportions!!

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