Festival of Flowers Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

This was a rough swim. Going out to the first turn buoy it was really choppy and it was straight in to the sun. The turn buoy was yellow and next to impossible to see until I was closer. There was only one orange course buoy out to the first turn and I got off course. I had started near the back of the pack and at the start was swimming over people so I took a break and let them go ahead, I never caught back up.

As I was swimming to the first buoy I heard a bunch of yelling and commotion as women were yelling for assistance because apparently a man was hanging on to the buoy and needed help. I started breststroking to get my bearings and the kid in the canoe to my right was freaking out because he couldn't get across to my left to help the guy. I stopped and yelled at him to go across if he's going to help someone because there was enough distance between me and the pack. After making it to the turn buoy the swim across I decided not to aim for the orange buoys and concentrate on the yellow turn buoy. I was feeling pretty strong and my sighting was much better than it's been in the past.

Besides swimming faster I don't know. I'm not sure why this was so slow, the chop going out definitely made things difficult. I got behind and never caught back up. Getting off course probably meant I swam at least an extra 100 yards.

I walked to my bike, after such a long swim I didn't want to run.

Not sit down to put my bike shoes on.

This course is full of rough roads. All I could think about while riding was someone's (Leslie?) description of the roads from the SC half about how it seemed they threw out some rocks and then paved over them. That's pretty much how it was except they were pebbles, bigger rocks probably would have made it smoother. I guess we're spoiled by the good condition of most roads in Georgia. The course is rolling hills with 4 decent climbs.

About a 1/3 of the way through I was trying to figure out how I could safely get back to the park without having to ride the whole course. I had mentally checked-out and I was ready to be done. I can't pinpoint the exact reason but it was rough. I contemplated just riding a slow pace but I decided the quicker I got to the park the quicker I'd be done.

Fight off the mental demons and focus on the race.

My actual transition was faster but as I was getting ready to leave Russell (De Cracker) came in off the bike and asked me to wait on him. I wasn't in a big hurry anyway. I joked to him that with me waiting my T2 time was going to look like I'd stopped to have a sandwich.

My transition went okay and was average for me.

This was the end for me. I knew I wasn't in to this anymore as I came in from the bike and if I had seen Dan and not been stopped by Russell I think I would have stopped sooner.

Russell and I ran out of the park and started on the road. It was hot. I ran with Russell for a bit and told him I had to walk because I knew I was done. I just didn't want to go any further. He went on and I turned around after about 1.5 miles. As I was walking back the USAT official went by me on her bike and I yelled and asked her who I needed to turn my chip in to. She said she could take it or I could turn it in at the finish line. I told her if I gave it to her I didn't have to go to the finish line. As soon as I gave it to her I broke down and started crying as I was walking. I had several people run by me and tell me good job and to keep my head up; little did they know I had quit. I was mad, disappointed, frustrated and done.

Not quit.

I still had to go over by the finish area to find Dan and Jocelyn and walked over there, found them and broke down again. All I wanted to do at that moment was go home.


The race was well organized, plenty of volunteers, lots of water tables on the run and good post-race food. The condition of the roads is beyond their control but something to take in to account for anyone who might be thinking about this race or the SC HIM.