Peachtree International Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

The swim started of good and I passed a few people to start with. I had a goal of about 26-27 minutes. I felt pretty strong through most of the swim but what I didn't like is it was difficult to sight the buoys. They had them spread too far apart, so I couldn't tell how straight I was swimming. People were spread out all over the place. During the last 600 meters, I had no one around me and I kept wondering if I was off course. I thought maybe I was referencing the wrong yellow buoys and swimming near the ones that marked the first 600 meters. I wasn't too impressed with the layout of this swim. But overall I think I had a great swim. I came out of the water and Steve yelled that my time was around 25 minutes. My eyes widened. Considering that I haven't been swimming that much, I was surprised to set another PR. That was my fastest Olympic distance swim. Sweet!

Practice more. Get my butt in the pool at least twice a week.

I felt like I had a slow transition. But I had the 4th fastest T1 time and only by a few seconds. My wetsuit got stuck around my time chip, but I managed to get most of my suit off while I put on my glasses and helmet. After I ran out of T1, I clipped into my pedals quickly and was off.

I had to borrow someone's TriSlide for my wetsuit because I still haven't bought any yet. It did help, so I need to buy some this week.

Overall, I am so pleased with my bike performance. I settled into a good pace early and caught a few women on the first half of the course. There were several hills and it's the same story...I'd pass people on the hills and they'd pass me back on the flats. I rode this course pretty hard and kept looking at my average pace. I wanted to average over 20 mph, so I concentrated on keeping a high cadence and powering up the hills. After about mile 10, Barbara Chandler and I kept passing each other back and forth. I just tried to stay within sight of her because I knew she was a strong biker. I used her to pace me. The bike course was actually fun, there were some fun decents where I got up to 38 mph. That made me think about the Pro's doing the Giro d'italia who got up to 72 mph the other day. Unreal. Anyways, around mile 16, there was a steep decent with a sharp left curve at the bottom. Well, I was flying down it pretty fast when I heard a guy yelling to my right. All of a sudden this guy comes screaming by me on my right telling me to watch out. That scared me to death. As he passes me, I told him to be careful and to pass on the left next time. He almost killed me. I had to swerve to get out of his way. He said I swerved in front of him so he moved to my right. Why would you try to pass someone going 35 mph downhill on a sharp curve? You know that people are going to take that curve on the inside to prevent falling off the right side of the road. Dangerous! Anyways, Barbara was funny because she saw all that happen and road up next to me saying she saw that guy almost kill me. A couple of miles later, I saw her up ahead talking to that guy. Hopefully she was telling to him to be more careful. That scared me to death.
Anyways, Barbara took off and I just couldn't hang with her pace anymore. As I came into transition I looked at my time. It was around 1:10. It turned out to be 21.3 mph average...which is yet another PR! Aw yeah. Today is a good day. :)

I had the 3rd fastest T2, so I've got this down pretty well. I put on my running shoes, grabbed my visor, race belt, and watch...and ran out. Steve was cheering and yelling as I headed on to the run course. He said Jennifer Lesser wasn't too far ahead and she didn't look too strong. He also said that I could probably even catch Chuck. I couldn't believe that, but it motivated me to try. :)

As I headed out on the run, I quickly settled into a good pace. My GPS was showing a 7 min/mile, so that's where I tried to stay. Unfortunately, it lost the signal several times, so I just looked at my time splits at each mile. This run course was fun. It was nice and cool outside and the run was shaded almost the entire way. There were a few tunnels that you ran through and they had volunteers and people cheering at each one. It was nice to have so many people cheering on the course. As I approached mile 2, I thought I saw Chuck about 100 yds ahead. I yelled "is that Chuckles?" and then I saw the guy raise his left hand and flick a bird. Yep...ha ha...that was Chuck. :) I caught up to him shortly after and we exchanged some encouraging words. Then I passed him and pressed on. At the 3 mile mark, I saw Jennifer and looked at my watch. I wanted to gauge how close I was to her. I knew she started about a minute and a half in front of me, so if I could get within a minute of her, I could beat her. Never would have thought that was possible before. Well, when I did the math, we were about 2 minutes apart. So, I was hoping my pace was faster than her's. My split at the halfway point was around 22 minutes, so I wanted to really push the last 3 miles. My ankle was beginning to hurt, but I just tried to ignore it. As I approached mile 5, I ran over a bridge and looked down below. That's when I saw Jennifer running into a tunnel just ahead. Can she really be that close? Is it possible that I could catch her on the run? At that point I knew I had her beat. I really wanted to win my age group and I knew the top overall spots were probably secured by others, so the top age group spot would be between Jennifer and me. I found some new energy and motivation to pass her. I finally did shortly after and knew I had the win. I ran up a hill for the last stretch towards the finish and I saw Steve. When he saw me knowing he hasn't seen Jennifer yet, he went nuts! He had the biggest smile on his face and started jumping up and down. He was more excited than I was. It was so cute. It made me so happy and I just smiled so big as I ran passed him. I knew I made him so proud and it felt great. I sprinted into the finish hearing him still yelling in the distance. Whew, that run hurt...but it was so worth the pain. :) Steve ran to the finish and gave me the biggest hug. I was so excited to have beaten Jennifer for the first time in 5 years. I looked at my watch and saw my time of 42:35. My eyes widened...another PR! That was my fastest run time in an Olympic Tri. That race gave me the confidence I needed for WestPoint next month...which I really want to do well at.

I cheered on Chuck as he finished and talked with several friends afterwards.


This was my first time doing this race and I really enjoyed it. The course was well supported with lots of volunteers on both the bike and run courses. The bike had some good hills but nothing too severe. I loved the run course. A shaded run on the golf cart path around the lake with only a few small hills. I will definitely add this race to my calendar next year.