Rattlesnake Crazy Back-to-Back photo comparison

Olympic Race Report
Sprint Race Report

One of the fun features about doing a back-to-back race series is comparing photos from each race.

Honestly, the main difference is that I wore different kits each day and I pushed harder on day #2.  My club kit is just way more comfortable for longer distances, so I wore it for the Oly.  That, and Rattlesnake is a major club sponsor so I wanted to show some club and sponsor love.

I could have you play a game to let me know in comments what the main difference is in the photos.  Hmmm, can you see the ONE thing that's different in the above photo?  And no, its not the giant "Proof" watermark.

Again, pretty similar.  Nice drape of the wetsuit over the arm and I don't look like a swamp monster.

Taken from the same hill in both races.  Full disclosure: I popped down into aero when I saw the photographer.  Could they have any worse exposure levels for the Sprint race?  It makes it seem like I was racing on the surface of the sun....  I think I was working harder for the Sprint and really didn't care about getting a good race pic.

[there is no nice pretty run photo.  I swear I saw the race photog for the Oly but there is no run photo posted.  Boo]

I put my hands up in the Oly out of obligation.  I was all by myself and going through the chute solo is a bit weird.  And I was happy to be done but not very happy with my run performance.  So this is a bit of an ironic victory arm raise.  Moreso because that's what people expect.  The sprint was me just not really caring because I was running close to an 8:00 pace by that point and I was hurting.

And in a not-really-but-sorta related note: I was off on the "cheater" guy's number by one digit and the guy was considered an "official" finisher in both races.  I did some internet stalking (Athlinks!) and I just don't know.  The guy's swim time, in relation to time of day and my race position, just doesn't quite add up.  And what are the odds of a 55 year old dude posting the 5th fastest swim time for the day?  Weird, right?  And then his bike and swim times were slower than mine - definitely not representative of an ace athlete, which is what you'd expect of someone with a top 5 swim time.  But with my internet stalking, I saw that he was posting top 15 overall swim times in most races (and not very good bike and swim times) so maybe the swim is legit.  Or maybe he cheats at every swim.  If he honestly does swim that fast, I kinda want to contact him and tell him to spend less time swimming and more time biking and running.  Posting a 5:53, 500 m swim is cool but not when you're running a 40 minute 5k in the same race.