So in this little blurb I will go over the race from a positive point of view and tell you all why getting 4th in this well attended race is still a good thing in the grand scheme of things.

My pre-race goals were to:

• Break away on the swim, as my swim has not been up to par lately. I've been doing some serious efforts in the pool over the past couple weeks to make up for this
• Build the lead on the bike - I know my strengths, and making more time on the bike is the only way for this cat to fly
• Run strong through the finish

So, things went pretty well. I got into the swim and felt very strong, which is a good indicator that my swim training is going as planned. A quick transition saw me out onto the bike, and I put it into a quad-busting, LT threshhold ride, from the get-go. Michael Smedley was with me and passed me at about mile 4. I re-passed him at about mile 8. It's nice to know I can swim and ride with the ITU specialists.

I ran with all my guts from the beginning to the end.

I beat my time on the same course from a few months ago by 1 minute.

I gave it all I had.

John and Bill didn't beat me by 1-2 minutes; they beat me by 10-20 seconds.

So, those are my reasons for thinking I actually had a good race, despite getting beat by the same old people.

Marty Gaal - July 2003

Read the Mr. Hyde version here.