Where's the #$&?%!! Buoy?

Just as the first swim wave was about to go off, one of the four orange buoys marking the swim course got loose and floated away. They delayed the start a few minutes to get it back out there but what they should have done is put more out there to begin with, a lot more. Because in rough water conditions, 4 buoys are simply not enough. Not when the furthest one out is nearly 1/2 a mile away from the last one. Not when they're lying on their side only a couple feet high, easily obscured in HEAVY chop and waves.

Which is why I totally missed my swim goal ...

.

	2007	2006
0.9 mi Swim (AG rank)	54:01 (10/11)	47:16 (12/12)
T1	3:33	5:07
27.2 mi Bike (AG rank)	1:23:35 (2/11)	1:35:55 (10/12)
T2	1:24	2:14
6.2 mi Run (AG rank)	52:52 (3/11)	1:00:29 (5/12)
Total Race Time (AG rank)	3:15:23 (6/11)	3:30:59 (9/12)

But so did many others. In fact, I actually did much better on the swim this time relative to the field. More details to follow.