South Carolina Half - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Chris did the swim. As I looked at the course, knowing I'm going to do that swim next yet, it looked very long. I hope I forget about it soon because I don't want that imagine in my mind.

As I waited for Chris, the first relay team swimmer came in for Team Rabobank. She was fast. I later learned she was an Champion simmer back in the 80s. Cheaters.

I also saw the leaders. Badass.

Then I saw Brett, Brian M., Steven, Kraig, Brian R all come through transition. (Ok, goal set: catch Brett).

Chris came in, I grabbed the chip off his ankle and off I went.

Here is my ride from motion based: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/4086972

The fun started as I ran out of transition. My new Garmin 305 popped off my bike. I grabbed it. Then my flying mount wasn't so much flying and it wasn't so much mount. I had to stop, get settled for a second and actually get on my bike like a normal person.

I saw plenty of peeps almost bust it running in bike shoes coming out of transition so I left my shoes on my bike. I'm still glad I did that.

Miles 1-10 I had a hard time getting my HR to settle down. Nerves. I found Rockstar Brian pretty quick and chatted with him for a second. He asked me to make sure his beer was cold when I got done. Nice - I love those priorities.

Next up, I think, was steventrihard. Then I reeled in Kraig. All during miles 20-40 I think. This part was just cranking out the miles, passing more people than passed me.

At mile 40 the run really started. I really noticed the wind here. Riding a disk, I felt like I was being pushed around. Wouldn't change my race setup at all though. As if the roads could get worse, they did. Right at 40-45 we took a road that was glorified crushed gravel. Assholes.

My plan all along was to try to ride as steady as possible, maybe 10 beats below LT, until the last 20 miles than make a big push at the end. I didn't quite have enough gas in the tank to start the big push that early. But with about 10 miles left, I tried to kick it up a notch. With 6 miles left, I told myself "listen, you piece of crap. You are tired - so what. You have less than 20 minutes on this bike. Leave nothing here." Hammer, hammer, hammer, hammer.

I entered the park in full steam. I caught and passed Brian M at that point. I saw Brett running out of the park (damnit - I was supposed to catch him on the bike). Almost wrecked at the turn in front of the home crowd. Heard Thing 1 call "Daddy" - made me smile on the inside. The Ninja later said I came by so fast she almost didn't see me.

I pushed right up to the dismount like, flying dismount, and started running. Garmin fell off again (maybe this whole bike mount thing will have to be rethought). Picked it up, started running again. Kirk took the chip off and he was gone.

Took me about 5 minutes to breath like a normal person. Changed clothes, talked with Leslie and Jamie. Saw all the NAMCers come in and leave for the run. Grabbed Brian's beer so it could be iced down.

Meet up with everyone at the tent and spent the rest of the day cheering people on.

This was by far the most fun I've had at a race this year (maybe tied with PTC). I was a blast to just hammer the bike. Then I got to cheer on everyone while they suffered and I drank beer. I think I will plan next year at least one race where I do a relay team.


Roads sucked. But everything else was great. I will do this race next year.