Background:
First tri in Aug, 2007 - 3:02 Olympic
Second tri in Sept - 1:23 Spint
2008:   
First marathon - 3:32  
Olympic dist - 2:42, 2:30, 2:33  
Over the last 6 months, I've averaged 6.4 hours/wk training.  45 miles/wk on the bike, 22 miles/wk running, and 1200 meters/wk swimming.   

Sunday (6 days before race) - Bike had a flat tire, so I changed it before my workout. 29 min to workout on the trainer, another flat.  Either I hit something while on the trainer, or I didn't do a good job of changing the tire.  I changed the tire again and put the bike away (for 4 days).   

Thursday night - started packing around 8:00 since I wanted to be in bed by 9:00 and sleep 8 hours.  Ended up in bed after 10:00 and still not packed.      
Note to self:  Layout everything possible 2 nights before I need to go.  Leaving all the packing for the night before I leave does not allow enough time to handle problems, and still get enough sleep.  

Friday morning - Saw the bike for the first time since Sunday and found the tire was flat. Excellent.  I've changed a flat 3 times in my life, and the last 2 didn't keep air.  Changed the tire again, finished packing and mapping directions to the race.  GPS said we would arrive at 4:30PM.  Bike checkin closed at 9:00pm, so no worries.  After a detour to pickup my Garmin the I forgot at work, stopping for lunch, slowdowns from bad rain, and a traffic jam, we rolled in just before 8:00pm.  Close, but I made it.  Only thing I forgot was my USAT membership card.  Not bad.  

Race morning - Tried to eat a clif bar, but a nervous stomach only let me eat half of it.  Didn't attempt eating my banana or ensure.  
Transition setup - Didn't have electrical tape or duct tape, so I used masking tape to attach 3 tubes and 5 co2 cartridges. I'm fully aware of how badly I've changed tires recently, so I planned on giving myself a lot of room for error.  Luckily, my tires held up for the race, so none of it was needed!  Finished the Clif bar and Ensure while on the beach watching other waves.  

Swim: 41:04 - 15/25 in AG   
My swim workouts stopped when I changed jobs at the beginning of July. There was no time goal, but I told my wife to look for me exiting the water around 40 min after my wave started.  My only fear was the the dry rotted band on my goggles would break, and it didn't.  What I didn't forsee was the glare from the sun when heading to the beach.  For my next race I'll find a pair of goggles that helps with the glare.   
The first part of the swim I was feeling a pain on my right side.  Instead of keeping my strokes contstant, I'd hesitate about half a second with one hand outstretched, and the other hand back by my hips.     I'm not sure if this was the correct thing to do, and how much it slowed me down, but it worked great.   

T1:  6:19 - 24/25   
Of the 25 people in my age group, only one was slower than me in T1, and I have no problems with that.   

Bike:  3:14:46 - 11/25   
My only goal was to make it to T2 ready to run a fast half marathon.  I figured if I kept my HR under control and kept taking calories and water, I'd be fine.  If I had to predict a time, I'd say I could hold 17mph easily.  In an olympic distance tri earlier this year, I was just over 20mph ave, so 17 was more of a guess than a goal.  I feel it was also very conservative.  Around mile 5 I looked at my HR and average MPH, but after that I don't think I did again.  My bike computer doesn't work, and my Garmin was hanging off my aerobars with the face pointed down.  
Turns out I failed miserably at setting myself up for a good run.  I was faster than my guess of 17 mph, but didn't set myself up for the run at all.  I ate a banana when exiting T1, half a Clif bar at mile 20, the other half at mile 40, and a gel around mile 10 and 30.  Also had a bunch of Gatorade that I mixed up at home.  Total calories for the 3 hours and 15 min would be 1200 calories, assuming I drank all my Gatorade, which I didn't.  It's about 350 calories per hour, which sounds close to what I want.  During 3 hour bikes, and 2.5 hour runs, I've been able to eat whatever I want.  Somewhere around 5 hours is when the problems start apparently.  I've never done a long brick with a 2+ hour run following a 3 or 4 hour ride.  I need to do lots of long bricks in the future to test my nutritional plan.  

T2:  4:57 - 17/25  
I racked the bike and changed shoes. Not sure why people include transitions in their race report.  

Run:  2:19:06 - 11/25
I had high hopes for the run.  First mile was 7:10, but I knew it was way too fast.  I thought that 7:30 to 7:40 was achievable, but I would be happy with around 8:00 min/mile.  I slowed down and ran the second mile in 8:10, but my HR wasn't dropping like I thought it would.  Not sure what I was thinking after that, but it all fell apart.  My stomach hurt a lot.  I stopped eating gels and sports drinks completely, and only had a little bit of water at stations.  10 miles of walking, shuffling, and suffering.  A few times it felt like I was going to toss my cookies.  Maybe if I would helped if I did.
Thinking back, maybe I should of tried to eat pretzels or animal crackers.  Something not sweet might of helped.For the first time ever, I didn't want anything to eat after the race.  Maybe I could of ate something, but I wasn't in the mood to gamble.  I'm glad I know what I need to do for my next long race, but I wish I would of found out during training.  Only have myself to blame.  Can't wait for the next HIM to get it right!

Total:  6:26:10 - 12/25 in age group