P3 2007, 7th

It's finally over, all the training, stress and planning for PPP07 is done, and the race went off superbly. I ended up finishing 7th place in the mens elite division. Everything went pretty much as good as I could have hoped for. I took one warm up alpine run and thought, well, this is going to be nuts. I have to say though, when the gun went off, I had my best alpine leg in my 3 year PPP history. I could actually see the leaders when we started the nordic leg (but that didn't last long). The conditions for the nordic leg were unbelievably good. It was firm and fast. The bike was good, I actually passed people unlike last year when I didn't see anyone until the run. After the first mile of the run, I got into a rhythm and was able to go pretty good. I didn't tip over in the kayak, but I also didn't enjoy any minute of that leg. I think I paddled OK, but I don't paddle often, and think a bit more practice would have come in handy. I would have been able to concentrate on going forward, rather than staying straight and upright. OK, so I know this is the most boring race report ever, and I don't have any really good stories, except that I didn't have any common PPP problems, and went as fast as I could. There were good stories though. I heard of one guy who lost his ski in the alpine leg, and had to climb back up to get it, and then when he finally got done with the bike leg, he had to run the 5 mile run in socks, because his support crew wasn't there with his running shoes. My neighbor who borrowed one of our kayaks tipped over twice. XCO all star Brayton (5th overall) was in 3rd, when he tipped over on the river, losing minutes and missing the podium, in his first ppp. The US Ski team had a couple of teams entered, and they went fast, with the mens team posting the 3rd fastest time of the day. I guess the moral of the story is, the PPP was a major success for me considering from last June 2006, until February 2007, I gave a pint of blood every week to get rid of extra iron, which took a tool on my training and fitness. My goal was to get back to where I was last spring at this time, and I think I did it, and then some. 2+ minutes faster. So that's good news.

Ski ya later!