Music City Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Went off in wave 5. It was very choppy and they had warned inexperienced swimmers that they should opt for the biathlon option. It was choppy but I was progressing fine. As I passed the first double buoy's I breast strokes and there were some ladies from the previous wave asking if there was another buoy. I said there should be one more and started swimming again. About that time a jet ski came up and told us the swim was cancelled. I turned around and headed into shore. I tried to swim straight back to the shore but it was difficult to make progress back toward the beach. Got back to shore and waited for Marcy. She was almost done when they cancelled it.

Nothing I could have done. They cancelled the swim because the EMS said they had to. I was swimming fine but it would have been a slow swim.

Revised Race was to start at the swim exit, run to our bikes and take off on the bike course. Uphill run on mixed surfaces, I didn't push it. I put ankle brace on right foot and wore socks.

Wow, worst day ever on the bike. Exit transition is up a pretty steep hill. I was literally standing and not moving but made it to the top. I looked down and my gearing was in the middle of the back ring but it wouldn't shift down any easier. That was a bad omen. After getting on the main road, the strength of the wind became apparent Big ole me was getting pushed by the wind. I made the mental call that it was gonna be a tough day. Every time I went in the aero bars the bike got pushed around by the wind and when I went to climb I realized that I really didn't have my 5 easiest gears. I had a couple close calls with other bikers almost getting knocked into me and I got more conservative. There were a ton of beginners in the race and people were all over the road. At about mile 15 I lost the rest of my gears. I was down to 2 gears, big big and little big. That made it worse and I really wanted to quit. I told myself, you drove 7 hours you can't quit. I had to dismount on a climb around mile 16 I think. Talk about a shot at my ego. I was praying for a flat. Didn't happen. Several spots on the course were very thick with car traffic and passed a couple cars on the right.

Not lose gears?

Wanted to stop so bad.

I knew it had some off road but it was alot more than I expected. I don't know if it was the gears on the bike or the 9 mile run on Friday but I was sluggish the whole run. I ran everything but the rocks and one uphill but my mind was not in the game.

Sprinted in when I saw Marcy! Got dechipped, grabbed water bottle and walked to transition. We had a tight check out and had to leave as soon as I finished.


Bike gearing and hills. Oh Nasty weather.


Packet pick up was easy and the venue looked great. The weather gods dealt a real bad hand and that combined with my mechanical issues and mental problems made for a bad race for me. My opinion of the bike course was that it was to technical to race. It seemed anytime you got any speed, you had a turn and the traffic on the road was heavy in alot of places so fast turns were dangerous. The run course was strange with multiple loops within the loops and constantly changing surfaces. I guess I hated the course. That said, my wife did the same course and absolutely loved it. I commend Team Magic for making the race happen under extreme conditions and dealing with hurdle after hurdle. I would probably do the race again just to prove I could do a better job than what I did.

This is my second horrible race of the year and I am a bit discouraged. After the race I contemplated retiring but by today I am over that. Brett Farve and I have that in common.

My bike has had alot of gearing problems which my bike shop can't seem to get fixed. I am not a mechanical person but I gotta learn to work on this myself. Maybe I should just get a new bike!