7:15, set off along the river front to the start, I sped ahead to go and line up at the porta-john's, enough said.
7:25, hurriedly getting the wetsuit back on, I was in the first AG wave at 7:30 so cutting it a little fine, I saw Jane and the kids in the huge crowd which was quite surprising, so a great boost to get smiles and 'go daddy' from the kids.
7:30 were off, set off the watch. The Tennessee river starts to churn with the largest wave start of the day, mid pack start and passed/got passed by a few, overall seemed to only loose a few places by the turn around, which I swam right into! This was clearly the signal to tread water for a second or two and de-fog the swim mask (read spit in it) and swim down river. Fortunately the current wasn't too strong so the swim wasn't so bad, but unfortunately the same thing applies to the return, no significant current that I could tell so the post turn round section, which was longer, there was no free ride. Feeling very tired in the arms, but quite rested in the legs I drag my self out onto the floating platform and start to jog while peeling off the swim gear. Hit the entrance to T1 and hit the watch button.
Swim 42:47


Damn mask leaked from the turnround on and I had to empty it 3 times, I was also not enjoying the full wetsuit restriction on my shoulders and it seemed to be tiring me more than it was helping, should have worn the sleeveless.

Another freakin flat int T1!
this time the front... Never using valve extenders again.

Bike was going to be cool (temperature) so I went out quite hard for 10 mins or so to warm back up after the T1 fiasco. I went with my shoes on pedals for the first time and I like how quick and easy that is... there's a reason the pro's do it! I settled into my HR zone that suits 56mile riding and straight away hit a hill which brought it way back up. I now thought I'd look at my time so far and I realised that only when I entered T1 did the timer start... I have since reviewed the well thought out function on the TGT that when you try to use the multisport mode and hit start, if there is no good GPS signal, like say when you are floating in a river waiting to start a race, then rather than starting like you asked it to, it asks you a question... 'No GPS fix do you want to start?' of course I effing do!... but the timer does not start until you hit the button again, which was at 42:47 when I entered T1.
Back to the race and I realise this and I'm pretey much giving up on the techno junk and checking my hear rate every so often and have only the mile markers on the bike course to go by (no separate bike computer, my TGT was my only bike distance check method), it was working out fine and the cool temps and hills were really suiting me and I was passing quite a lot of riders. Back into Knoxville for a final short kind of loop around the city on the highway. Got to give it to the volunteers and the cops, best controlled bike course I've ever ridden.
Only issue was running out of my own liquid fuel, is I had to resort to a bottle of gatorade from an aid station. If you read about my experience with Gatorade in Costa Rica, you'll know how my body tolerates, but psychologically now I detest the stuff and coming off the bike my stomach was complaining.

There's not a lot to go wrong in T2, I usually eat something solid while I'm shoeing up, but not today, it wasn't going to work, so belt on, hat on and time for the run.

Run. I went easy for the first 3 or 4 miles hoping that my stomach would settle, it did a bit, and water at aid stations was now ok. Mile 6 or so I managed a gel, but it gurgled in there and slowed me down a little so at the turn around I grabbed a pretzel stick and a cup of flat coke from the station and that helped. I glanced at my watch a few times to see what kind of pace I was making, I figured that I could up the pace a little and run under 8min miles, it was 12:15pm... if I ran the last 6 in 45mins or so I'd be done at 1pm... 1pm from 7am start was 6 hours... If you have bothered to do the math, it works out roughly correct, other than I did not start at 7am, that's when the pro race started, I set off at 7:30am, but I'd totally forgotten.
The next mile or so turned out to be all the hills that we all enjoyed so much on the run out, that slowed me down to over a 9min/mile pace so the last 4.5 miles would have to be closer to 7min/miles than 8min/miles and it was going to hurt... It did, a lot.
I definitely surprised myself with the level of suffering I was prepared to take with a goal (albeit miscalculated) in mind.
I enjoyed the last mile somewhat as more and more people were on the streets and cheering. Then I could see the big blow up finish chute and I caught a glimpse of the clock, it was reading 5:56:xx and I was a couple of mins out, I was going to barely make it!
I had arranged with Jane that If I was coming up the finish with 5+ mins to spare for the 6 Hr goal that I would pick up the kids at the start of the fencing of the chute and run over the line with them. Fantastic thing athlete tracking during a race, really helps your support to be part of your race and ready to cheer for you!
I saw them and glanced at the clock 5:58:25, I just kept running and out shot the kids... What! I thought I'm maybe 30 seconds or so from the line running but would I make it at Charlie & Hannah speed? Once I grabbed their hands I didn't care and I was all smiles that they got to do the finish with me, Charlie even sprinted in front and took me on the line!
Finis time 5:59:22... on the clock that is.

Yes the clock was reading from the start of the Pro race... so I dumped my self down on the floor absolutely spent and happy that I had made it under 6 hrs.
Jane then came over with Isobelle in the stroller and while we were hugging she said 'do you realise how fast you have gone today?' 'yep, just under 6 hrs' I said looking back at the finish line clock.
It was then that my useless mental math became apparent and I'd actually added 30 mins to my time.
Absolutely spent, faster 13.1 than any stand alone time, PR for 70.3 by over 40mins, I was very emotional and very happy.