Just 5 of us here, my friend Dave, wife Marcy, Shannon(young fit high school athlete girl)and Jeff (recently retired fit military guy). I was pretty sure I was gonna be slowest on the run. Dave typically run a minute and half per mile faster and Marcy about 20 seconds per mile.

Dave and Jeff took off fast, I quickly fell to the back about 10 paces behind Marcy. Jeff dropped back and Shannon moved into the # 2 position by the second lap. Dave lapped me and Marcy on mile 7. Jeff slowed and Marcy caught him on lap 10. I caught him on lap 12 but he gunned it in the last quarter to put me last on the run. Dave had 4 minutes on me, which is about where I expected him.

Ankle was good for first 2 miles but hurt on the last mile

Easy fast transition.

Passed Jeff going into transition.

Got on the bike, feeling pretty compfortable that I would finish 2nd. Jeff and Shannon were on Mnt bikes, and Marcy only had 30 seconds on me. I passed Shannon within the first half mile and Marcy by mile 1. From here on I was chasing Dave. Since I ride with the guy at least twice a week I pretty much knew I couldn't make up 4 minutes. I pushed hard and saw Dave coming back at about mile for me, which meant he was still up around a mile on me. I made the turn and saw Marcy about the same place, I passed Dave. From there it was just push. Wind was unfavorable on the way back. I didn't catch Dave, but I cut his lead from 4 minutes to 2 minutes which is good.

Disappointed at the power drop on the way back. Expected to be faster but the course was so rough. I rode with my Hed 3 on the front and my Power Tap Bontager Race Lite on the back. Not sure I should leave my read HED in the back of the truck, but I wanted to see what Power level I raced at.

not much, rode bike around waited for the rest of the crew.


This race is put on by the rec department of the local government. The folks who were there managing the race did a nice job. 1 to 1 racer to worker ratio. What's frustrating and disappointing about the race is that there were only 5 of us there. The reason there were only 5 of us there is that the race was not promoted properly. The only reason we knew about the race is that we swim at the city facility and someone handed us the city's quarterly newsletter which briefly mentioned the event. There were no race flyers at the rec center, no information at any of the local bike shops or running stores, and no internet info on the race. The area supports races, 3 triathlons within 30 miles of here that sell out every year. But people can't show up if they don't know about it. The other issue with the race was poor course selection. Gulf Shores has several locations which have decent roads and bike lanes but the guy running the race has had a hard time getting the police to help so he moved the race to an area with light traffic. Good concept, but the road is bad and the traffic thats on it is heavy equipment (dump trucks).

Okay, stop whining. I got second place overall and was within 2 minutes of Dave (closest ever).