Tri the Parks - Indian Springs State Park - TriathlonSprint

My first race, I swam in the last wave with the other Novices (aka, "the kindler, gentler, more clueless people"); this time, I was with the 40-49 AG - approximately 90 people strong. These guys take no prisoners. From the start, I got hit from all sides except my head. Prior to the start I was doubting my swim, and the continued jostling contributed to me never establishing any rhythm to speak of. This said, midway through the swim, I did find my sense of humor still intact, as I noted the "preppy" look in the lake brought about by the lime green caps of the remnants from my wave mixing with the hard-charging hot pink caps of the gals from the wave behind. Lilly Pulitzer would've been very impressed and pleased.

Not be such a head case.

Reeling from the carnage that was my swim, I was in a bit of a daze here and didn't move very quickly
Overall 276/484

Not be in such a daze.

After a bit of trouble getting my left foot clipped in, I was able to get up to speed and start reeling in some folks. This felt good and if I'd not been so discouraged with my swim, I might've been able to go a bit faster. My goal was to finish @ 20+ mph, so I accomplished this one.

Not much here - just stay focused and take each segment of a tri as a standalone race.

My rack was closer to the "Run Exit," so I had a bit of a traverse once at the dismount line. Prior to dismounting, I managed to get out of my bike shoes and finish the ride with feet on top of shoes. I'm sure spectators we're thinking "Why's that pro so far behind everybody?" It felt good to hit T2 so "ready." Unfortunately, after jogging up the parking lot hill in my barefeet and getting to my rack space, my mind just went blank. I took off helmet fine, but then I hesitated getting right into running shoes, grabbing visor, run belt, and getting out of there. Old age I guess. ;) Easily lost 15-30 seconds while wading through the mist in my mind.
Overall 313/484

Not be in a fog!

Came off the bike feeling a bit more upbeat. As soon as I left T2, though, my left hamstring sent me a "package;" rather than "refuse delivery" (and likely due to my already less than stellar mental state about swim), I slowed down my pace and just jogged. While doing so, fairly early in the run, I came across a young guy (Jackson McLendon) who's older brother (Rob) smoked the course in a nice 1:04 and change; Jackson was walking and his body language said "completely discouraged." I thought to myself, "I know the feeling, dude, but you're half my age and I'm not letting you walk." So, I tapped him on the shoulder and said "Come on...let's finish this thing." It wasn't fast, we took a couple of walk breaks at the water stations and coming out of the "lollipops," and I came to learn that this was his first. Way to go, Jackson. As we neared the turn from the road to the finish, his brother was waiting for him. I nudged him and told him to go finish with his brother; meanwhile, I picked up the pace and held off at least one AG'er who tried to snake past me prior to the "chute."

Despite feeling like doing so, not "mail in" the run portion.

Walked around, started connecting with the NAMC/BT crew, drank some water, ate some orange slices


Me. As noted earlier in this manifesto, I need to take each segment of a race as its own race. If one segment goes poorly, I simply need to say "Screw it!" and get on with the next one as if I'm leading the damn race!


Blue Sky Sports is awesome. They do a great job putting on races and trying to connect with the local community. Would highly recommend their races to anybody/everybody!!