Uncharted Territory

This weekend is the Waseka 1/3rd Ironman. When I first saw this event I thought it would be a great opportunity to get my first win. It plays to my strengths of cycling and running and is longer than an Olympic but shorter than a Half. Unfortunately when the participants list came out Dan Cohen's name was the only other Elite on the list. Now Bret Lovaas has also entered along with a couple of other names I am not as familiar with. Bret is no joke but is more of a swim/cyclist specialist but can still put together a pretty good run. He is a serious threat but if I put together a good race I should be able to out split him on the bike and run. Dan on the hand by the numbers should be an even tougher challenge. He actually has faster bike and swim split and our run splits are very comparable. My swim however, has improved even more since Lifetime. I had a terrible swim there but had been putting together some very good splits in the pool. I have since changed my training again and have gotten even faster. I am hoping to come out of the water close to Dan and hoping he hits the bike too hard so I can catch him on the run. Bret will no doubt come out of the water first but I can hopefully catch him on the bike. He beat me at Minnetonka earlier this year on a short course but I was not far behind him and closed the distance on the run. I believe Bret and I will be very close to each other but I think I am going to have to hope for Dan to have a bad day for me to be able to catch him.
Then there is the doubt in the back of my mind from Lifetime. Am I burned out already? Did I push to hard to fast or not hard enough on the swim? What went wrong in the week leading up to the race? Not to mention the fact that I have never completed a race longer than an Olympic before. I was in the lead at the Square Lake Half last year only to be involved in a bike accident an was unable to finish. There is the potential that I could have another bad day and get smoked like I did Lifetime. The good news is I don't think this will happen. I have done a much better job of preparation for this race and feel like I won't burn out like I did a few weeks ago. Now all I can do is toe the line and wait for the horn to find out.