Tri the Parks - Richard B. Russell State Park - TriathlonOlympic

I started myself in the front because my strategy was to take off in the first 150 yards and get away from the pack (all the women started together). After I got to the first turn buoy, I got into a groove. From there it was a staright shot for about 500 yards, so sighting was pretty easy. By the time I got to the second turn, I was passing a ton of men in the wave ahead of me. After that second turn, it was in to the beach. We got out of the water, and ran along the beach (maybe 100 yards) back to where we started. This was more than a little frustrating. It definitely interupted the flow of the swim. When we re-entered the water, there was a very narrow entry spot, and then we had to wade back out to where it was deep enough to swim. Again, frustrating. The second lap went pretty quick it felt. I caught up to some of the first wave which is always encouraging. At the swim exit, it seems there's always a big hill. This time was no exception. Worse though, was the run across the parking lot barefoot. Ouch.

Not much. I planned on going at about 80% on the swim, and I feel like I did. I had some trouble finding feet to draft off, but I think that happens sometimes. There was a lot of women swimming to the outside, and I was staying close to the buoys. For once, there was less traffic there. I could get a little fast for sure, but I always say, this isn't where you win the race.

49 seconds! 6/76 overall, 1st in AG. I'm good with this.

psshh...nothing

I got clipped and headed out without any flaws. Within the first couple miles, I saw a guy with a flat. Then a couple miles after that, I saw a woman drop her chain. I thought, "please don't let anything happen to me!". All I wanted was a good solid bike for once. The first half of this course was super fast. Then I started thinking, uh oh, that means I'm going to have to go back up at some point. I continued on pretty quickly, keeping my pace, heart rate, and cadence up. Really good solid effort throughout. Had a gel about mile 20 to prepare for the run. Went through a large bottle of gatorade and a water.

Keep working on my biking, but this is a great improvement for me. And new fastest ride ever! I think this is the first race where I feel like I didn't hold back on the bike.

This would have been about 10 seconds faster if I didn't have to mess around with socks. I'm just not confident enough that I can run 6 miles without socks without any problems. I need a few more times to practice before I take that risk in an Oly. But I'm ok with the choice. I think 10 seconds was worth the peace of mind.

I started out surprised by some trail running. Maybe I didn't read the course description, but that did not make me happy to find myself running through the woods for the first half mile. We finally came out onto the road and I made my way at pretty good pace. I tried to keep it just under 9 min/mile as much as I could without hyperventilating in hopes of picking it up the second lap. As I started through the woods for the second time, I saw my time slowing. Not only was it a trail, but it was uphill as well. When I got to the road, the sun came out, and it was hot and humid. Since I now knew the slight inclines/declines I tired to use them to my advantage and really push when I could and stay strong on the ups. Once I got to the turnaround, I knew I was behind my goal time a little, but I thought I could still average 9 min/miles. I tried so hard to make my legs turn over, and they just didn't want to anymore. The last mile I just wanted to cry. Not because I wasn't going to make my goal, just because I was putting in that much effort. It's very frustrating when you're telling your body to do something, and it just can't. The last mile I just wanted to seriously pick it up, but that wasn't really an option at that point. I was out of energy.

More fluids maybe. They only had Heed on the run course, and I hate heed. So I grabbed water at almost all of the stops. But I think for that long of a run, I should have had something else. I'm not sure how much of a differece it would have made, but it couldn't have hurt.

Grabbed some water, and food almost right away, as I was starving the whole run. I took a glance at the results and I saw that 3 people had already finished in front of me. I was really hoping for some hardware, but as everyone says, you can't control who shows up at the race. They were all just faster. 3rd place was almost 10 minutes faster, so it's not like I could have done anything about it. It was just not my turn...yet. I packed up my stuff in a tif and headed to my car. To aggravate me even more, as I was putting my bike in the car, I stepped on a giant ant mound. It took a few seconds and when I finally looked down, I saw my foot covered in ants. There must have been 100 of them. I've never flet the wrath of these southern ants before (which a friend tells me were not fire ants or I would have been screaming and crying). But it did hurt like hell. Great way to end my trip to Elberton, GA.


I really appreciate all the volunteers. I would have liked to see a few more people around, especially in the morning, directing people. parking was bad, but whats new. Transition was a little awkward since it was a parking lot, there was a big grass area separating the two areas and everyone had to go all the way around it each time. I would really like to see something other than Heed on the course and at the finish. Eww. I think the swim course could have been planned out a little better, as well as the run course. There was no need to have a trail run with all those roads around the park. And two loops? But, for a smaller race in the middle of no where, it could have been much worse. I probably won't do it again, but that's mostly because of the drive. Good series though, glad I got to do two of them this year.

So I thought a lot about this race and had very conflicting thoughts for a while. I was letting my AG place take presedence over my performance. It really doesn't matter whether I came in 3rd or 4th. I'm not sure I would have wanted it by default anyway. (Oh, I didn't mention, the girl in 5th I saw walking on the run, as if she were walking around the mall, with headphones on. I'm surprised she wasn't DQ'd for that). I personally had a very good race for me. The swim time was longer for everyone than I expected and I still stacked up pretty well for my very little swim time. I had an awesome bike for a change. And my run was decent until I ran out of fuel. It was 2 minutes faster than Chattanooga and on a hillier course. Overall, I really gave it everything I had, and this is a huge accomplishment for me. And when I looked at my overall standing and saw 23/76, I felt much better. Top 1/3 is ok with me at this point. Hopefully I can get another tri in before the season is over, but if not, I'd be pleased to end my season with this.