Turtle Crawl Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

The swim start was a time trial, but not like Tugaloo's TT start. This was more like a free-for-all-self-seeding-run-across-the-mat start. Of course, when you hit the mat your time started. This did make the congestion more spread out than a wave start, but definitely not the two-by-two start similar to other TT starts. I let Derek get started, and I gave him about a minute before hitting the mat. BEEP, it was go time.

I did a good job of running into the surf about waist deep before I dove in. Topped over a few waves, and headed towards that first yellow buoy. For once, I was swimming in a straight line, and was dead on the buoy. I knew it would be a rough first 100 meters to that buoy, but then expected to hit that current and blast to the end. WRONG. I made my turn and started fighting my way down the buoy line. I thought about Nealphilps' RR from two years ago, and about all his sharks (fish) and jellyfish and thought, how in the hell did he see/feel them? I was looking into a brown murk, and could not even see my hand in front of my face. Nonetheless, I pressed on. I was swimming hard, and focusing on pointing my toes, and kicking. In my mind, I was having a decent swim thus far.

Well, after making my turn and a bit of full contact swimming, taking an elbow to the jaw, etc. it was on to fight the chop. WOW, was it choppy. Since it was a shore line swim the waves were coming from right to left, not so much head on. I would go to breath and almost come away with a mouthful of seawater. I actually did a great job not drinking half the ocean during the swim, but it definitely threw off my breathing. The crazy part of this swim was that a wave would come, and then I would fall off the back side. Literally, like falling off a Clift. Or, the wave would position so that I felt like I was being sucked backwards. Yes, forward crawl and swimming backwards. Rock on!

A few mind numbs....
I was stung in the hand by my guess a small jellyfish. At that point, I was glad to be in a full wetsuit thinking how many other stings was I avoiding wearing it.
I am guessing a fish, but something bit me in the left hand. It bit hard enough to break the skin (I noticed later).

Anyways, about the time I was thinking I should be coming to the final yellow buoy, you know since we were suppose to be swimming with a super fast current, I saw the green buoy. WTF, I am only half way done? Are you kidding me? Nothing I could do about it, so I pushed on.

For the rest of the swim I had to stop several times, since the swells were big enough that I could not see a buoy, any other swimmers, etc. I would move to BS just long enough to spot something, anything, and head towards that. The crazy part was that I was actually swimming straight down the buoy line. That was a nice change, but it still did not change the fast that I was getting my azz kicked by the chop.

I finally came to the yellow turn buoy, and headed to shore. I swam until my hand hit the sand and popped up. I was about knee deep, and started to run out of the ocean from hell. Peeled off the top of my wetsuit, and took a time check. Well, I saw 38:XX and I was cooked. I did my best in that swim, and that was all I had. Ocean 1, Me 0.

Not much. If I was a strong swimmer I could have done a better job, but I am not that guy, so I gave it all I had.

Came out of the water, up the beach, around the deck to transition. I quickly kicked off my wetsuit and since I was next to the transition fence, I threw it over that. Dropped cap/goggles and helmet on, glasses on and grabbed my bike. I was out.



T1 took a bit longer than normal, as I had to finish peeling off the wetsuit. Doing so added perhaps 30 seconds.

Even after a horrible swim, I was glad to see all the racks "looked" full. I came to the mount line, noting that one guy was mounting before the line, also noting the official standing there taking notes. ;)

Anyway, quickly mounted and started my assault. I was up to speed quickly with some light spinning to let the blood settle to my legs. About a mile in I was ready to go, so I started working my pace. I did note that I was fighting a headwind, but the trees around had cut it down a bit. At two miles in we rounded the bottom of the island, and started bombing down the back side. No tailwind, but no headwind either, so I was flying reeling in people by the group. Finally, it was a group of about seven of us bombing around the island passing people as we went. We were doing our best not to draft, but everyone was moving about the same speed. So there was plenty of leap frog going on, and we kept the distance right at three bike lengths and off center from the person in front of you. Once that person started to dwindle, they would be passed, etc.

About halfway down the back side everyone in our group was hanging a right. There were two people flagging directions, so I figured that was correct since everyone was turning. Well, after I hung the right I thought I did not remember seeing this on the map. Well, we went down about .75 of a mile, and hung a 180 degree turn. I definitely did not remember that on the map. As we came back to the flaggers I saw the people we just passed going straight through the intersection. Damn, we had taken a wrong turn. I was going to bike 29.5 vs. the course 28 mile. So, we picked up right where we left off, and started repassing everyone again.

This was a fast group, and we all were flying until we came to transition. Ok, only 14 more miles, but all of a sudden I found myself alone with one other guy. I realized that everyone else from this group was in the sprint, as they peeled off to the dismount line. Long story short this guy and I leaped frog back and forth the bottom side, and down the back side. At one point we were side by side talking, and he asked me how I ran off the bike. I told him I could hold my own on the run, and he looked at me as "we shall see". Ok, we shall see who runs well off the bike. The bad news for me was that he was 55 years old, and freaking smoking the bike.

After we topped the island and hit the headwind again, I looked over at those little flags they stick in the ground to mark utility lines, these were solid white and on the right. I thought about Doug (browndog) and his air-speed, velocity, flag/wind-test. I noted they were standing straight out and just flapping in the wind. I could not remember what in the hell that meant, but it did make me laugh.

The rest of the bike was pretty uneventful, until around three miles left. I looked up and saw I had caught Scott on his first lap. I had no idea when he started, as he seeded himself pretty far in the back of the swim start. However, he got bottled up behind two people riding side by side, and I took the outside route to make my pass. I would have said what up as I passed, but I have to move into the oncoming traffic lane to make my pass, so I decided to pay attention to what I was doing in lieu of saying hello. Figured it was better to race smart, than to be a smart azz and get hit by a car.

Other than that, I wheeled in to the dismount line and off I went to T2.

Push harder, there is plenty of gas left.

I had the perfect flying dismount at the line, and headed to my rack. I counted and headed in. When I got to my spot I was baffled that my stuff was not there. WTF? Then I realized I was on the wrong row. I was one row off. DOH. I quickly thought about squeezing under the rack, since they were all still empty, but then though twice about it, and took my bike around the racks to my spot.

Racked bike, glasses off, helmet off, glasses back on, sock/shoe, sock/shoe, grabbed race belt and headed for the door.

Don't miss count the racks.

Coming out of T2 I was already cooked, and I knew it. I decided to go to plan B, and set it in cruise control. The good news for me is that cruise control is still a solid pace off the bike. Not podium winning, but solid. Anyway, about 100 yards out of T2 I caught/passed that 55 year-old. We both cheered each other on as I passed.

From there it was just a flat run, and pretty uneventful for a while. I was passing people, but I kept it at a comfortable pace. At one point you came up and around a house/restaurant/building. I was not paying attention, just dodging the oncoming sprint runners and all of a sudden there was Calvin (triton63) coming in on the sprint. He came around the corner and yelled "coldfire" and I did my best to cheer him on, but my mouth was not working and only "hey Calvin, gooo, greee, great job" finally came out on my third try. After that I just went back to cruise control, and I tuned out for a bit watching the ocean/waves crash on the shore, etc.

I could tell it was getting warm so I would grab a water at the aid stations, and hit a quick drink and then dump the rest on my head. Man, did that cold water feel good. Around the 2 mile marker I saw the leaders coming back the other way. A couple of those guys looked strong, and were moving strong. Mile marker 3 came and went, and I make my turn. From there I could see the lead I had built over everyone behind me and it was a comfortable lead which sucked, since that would not push me. Again, caught in "no-man's-land".

Once you made the turn, you hit a slight head wind for the first mile. From there you turned on a side street to go back to the cart path by the ocean. On the cart path the headwind really picked up. Just shy of getting to the 1.5 turn around for the sprint I saw Derek going out. He was trying to tell me my position, 23rd at that point, and I just waved him off with a "it doesn't matter, I am cooked". As we passed I gave him a high-five, and little cheer.

After that I still kept it in cruise control until about .2/.3 of a mile out from the line. From there to the finish was the only time I actually picked it up, and hammered on to the line.

Some days you are the windshield, and some days you are the bug. On this day, I was the bug.

Just need to push harder, but after that swim and bike, I was done.

After I finished I grabbed a water and a Gatorade and headed for the showers. The three showers right there at the exit of T2, and the turn to the finish were a little slice of heaven. I just turned it on, and stood there shoes and all. WOW, did that feel great! After the shower and polishing off the fluids, I felt totally refreshed. Then, on to my favorite part of race day, cheering on the other people still racing.

Scott get the best line of the day award. I was standing there cheering people on when he came out of T2 and started his run. He looked at me and said "I HATE YOU", and kept on running. The people standing around looked at me with blank stairs, until I let them know he was my buddy. Then, we all laughed but it was touch and go for a second.

I grabbed another water/Gatorade before I saw Derek coming in. I am not sure if someone was crossing the path behind him or what, but it appeared to me that he had a guy on his six. I yelled at him to not let him pass, and he dropped the hammer to the finish. As soon as he passed I realized there was no-one behind him. Oops......he did not find that as amusing as I did. I showed him the little slice of heaven (e.g. the showers) and we waited on Scott.

Blah, blah, blah, a buddy of Derek's took 1st Clyde's in the sprint, so we hung around to watch that. Afterwards we packed up and headed out. We hit up a Waffle House for a HUGE lunch. I bought everyone's lunch so I could have the back seat, and nap time. Woo-Hoo, that is how I roll!


That swim just beat the hell out of me, and I am going to chalk it up to that.


I can see how this is a very fast course under the right conditions. If you have a low chop surf, and the current on the swim it would be blistering fast. If they reverse the bike to counter-clockwise around the island, that will make the bike blistering fast as well (no headwind on the back, and a tailwind on the front). The run is already fast, if you are not bombed out when you get there.

This is a good race, and nice spot to race at. As Doug would say it is better to race at the beach, than to race anywhere else.