Festival of Flowers Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

This is where my race began and ended. I had a good start and felt comfortable. I was at the bop and was waiting for the females to overtake my slow butt when I hear all this commotion and screaming. I stopped to see what it was and it must have been someone in trouble. Heard later they were pulled out OK. So anyway I resume my swim, only severely off course. I swam darn near to the center of the second leg before I realized that the yellow buoy was a long way off to my RIGHT. I was following some others when I should have been looking into the sun myself. Anyway I swam back to and around the buoy. To their credit all the ladies who had made the same error appeared to swim back but it seemed that quite a few guys kept right on going. Now that would have really helped my swim time but you got to do it right.

Not being able to see into the sun and following others who were equally as lost easily cost me about 15 minutes.

Spent a litlle time here just shaking off the bad juju from the swim. Reminded myself of goals, smiled, and hopped on my bike.

I felt I had a fairly good ride considering the swim effort. It was a little windy but I found the things that hampered my speed were: gear selection going into the hills and the rough road surface. During this ride I decided that I would not camp for the SC HIM. I just felt tired and the thought of a good nights sleep in an air conditioned hotel room in a nice bed really sounded good.
One highpoint of my ride was the water bottle handoff. I took it at about 20 mph. I purposely snatched the bottle from the guys hand pretty hard so as not to loose balance but I did it smoothly. As I grabbed it I thanked him. He rewarded me with a "that was awesome". Now that gave me something to smile about.

Hotel reservations.

No I didn't take a nap. Mindy C was in T-2 when I got there. She was having a tough day also. So we just sort of kicked back, took our time, got ready and jogged out together.

Started the run with MC and we just sort of took it easy. I think both of us were feeling the effects of camping in the heat. I was beginning to wonder if we didn't start this thing dehydrated from sleeping in the heat. Anyway we jogged along, talked, tried to make jokes, just to make the miles pass. FofF had water and Cytomax at every mile. I always drink one and pour one down my back. After about 2 miles MC got to feeling really bad so I eased on alone. I was doing OK but the middle of the course is unshaded and it was getting a little warm. At mile 4 I was joined by KM who is a regular on the SCTS tour and a winner. She ran with me and it really helped those last two hot miles go by easily. WE talked the entire way. I mentioned to her the success of BT's very own barqhead and she had nothing but great things to say about Pam. She might as well since Pam will soon own this series. She ran with to the bottom of the hill at the Drummond center and I struggled up that little jewel to the finish. I immediately hit the cooldown shower, grabbed a cold drink and headed for transition for my stuff.

Hampton Inn

Fatigue. Dehydration.


Thanks for Dan and Mindy for supper Sat night. Dan is the champion chef de la Coleman camp stove. It was so nice to meet SuzanneS and DH and to run with Katie Malone.