Miami Man International - TriathlonOlympic

One of my best friends used to be a high school swim coach. A GOOD one and she's offered to coach me on the swim a million times. The only problem is that she doesn't really follow through. I really should find someone to teach me to really swim. Oh yeah, and maybe actually swim too. That would help.

I'm not too upset with my horrible swim though - since the last time I swam was Mad Dog Tri in June! and though I was last out of the water (that always sets up the rest of the race for suckiness), my swim time was ahead of 16 other people and I breast-stroked the ENTIRE swim.

Kind of weird, the water was TOO clear. And there was a mildly strong flow that we swam IN to for the first third. Something about seeing the particles and the bottom made me very, very nauseated each time I tried rolling on a crawl stroke. I guess I do better in dark, murky water where I just have to remind myself not to breathe underwater the whole race.

Like the tool song, learn to swim.

Could I be any slower? Oh yeah, it was nice to have to run with the bike for a mile to the end of transition and the whole way back too. Great.

Lube up my entire calf. They seem to have grown a LOT since St. A and the last time I wore the tri wetsuit. It took a good five min to get it off my calves.

Happy with the bike!! Especially since I've prolly only ridden 35 miles since May. For some reason, the last 2 rides I've been able to stay aero for 95% of the ride. I don't know how that's happened, but I'll take it!

At the U-turn, the HIM folks merged, and I had to keep going past the U-turn until I had free space to turn. I got a nice compliment from the race official for how/when I turned. I guess there were lot of other folks who cut others off and crashed.

The bike course was kind of lame. . . lot of cow pastures and chopped up road. I'm surprised there weren't more folks with flats. Also, kind of windy. One thing that really got me thinking though . . . why is the water in their ditches CLEAR? You shouldn't be able to see down to the bottom of a ditch!

Nothing. I executed the bike to the best of my ability on this day. Totally happy :-)

Another crappy transition.

Slow, slow, slow. The first few miles I was totally distracted by scoping out the bushes. Thankfully, there was a rest room inside the zoo! Whew. I should have been able to run this distance with no problem at all, but I just totally suck in heat. And I have absolute zero ability to push myself.

The nicest part of the run was recognizing Q as he blew by me and chatting it up with one of the blind participants. Bob was totally cool and thought that the run was the hardest part of the tri for him.

Waited around to collect my fifth place in AG mug. Yep, came in 5th out of five. Hoorah for the final race results though, I was NOT DFL. Whoooo hooo to the guy who finished an HOUR behind me!


Aside from St. A's, this was probably the most organized race I've ever been to. The specific directions on which route to take to the race was GENIUS. Folks were divided by waves so that there wouldn't be a back-up on the turnpike if we all went the same way. The post-race events were pretty lame . . . I felt sorry for the folks doing the HIM who were greeted with almost no food except bananas. They had run out of most food at the 4 hour mark. The drive home was totally miserable.