I didn't have a chance to warm up at all so it took me a few minutes before I could find my rhythm. I didn't even bother looking for the marker buoys and just spotted off of other swimmers instead.

I felt like I doing well and I even passed a few people before the first turn. Then I finally looked to sight and the rest of the pack was WAY ahead of me. Oops. I wasn't doing anywhere near as good as I had thought.

Made the first turn and caught a nice eyefull of sunlight. On top of that I had forgotten to spit in my goggles so they were completely fogged up. The final turn wasn't far off and I could make out the yellow buoy, but after that it was tough to sight well.

Along the way in to the boat ramp I would stop and sight every 45 seconds or so. There weren't any swimmers to my right and the buoys were too far apart to be any use to me. But this was enough to guide me in in a fairly decent time for someone who has on swam once in the last three weeks.

Spit in my goggles. Being able to see would have made me alot more comfortable.

Ran up the ramp and heard someone cheering my name (I assume it was one of the BTers waiting for their wave to start). Had a bit of trouble getting my socks on but I also wasn't in too much of a rush. Other than that it was a clean transition.

Nothing.

Started off taking a nice easy pace. This was the first time I had ever gone straight from swimming to running. Passed a woman as we ran through the parking lot and set my sights on two guys in front of me.

We got on to the sidewalk followed it through the neighborhood. I passed a guy in my age group as they mile one sign came into view. Haley was running towards me on the other side of the path so I was excited to find out if I could catch her before the finish.

As I passed the mile marker at the table I looked down at my watch and saw that I had just done a sub-6:00 mile! Okay, I've never run a sub-6:00 mile and I wasn't even pushing that hard so something had to be wrong. The aid station was only manned by one guy so I had to just grab a cup off the table as I ran by.

Before the turn-around I got passed by a big guy but he wasn't in my AG so I didn't care. Coming back to the aid station (and the mile 1 marker) I looked at my watch and I was at 8:30. The sign was more than likely supposed to be on this side.

About half way through the next mile there was a section of sidewalk that was missing. I had to run in the dirt and felt my right ankle twist for a split second. It wasn't anything bad, I never broke my stride, but it was sore and gave me a good scare. I still had two races left this weekend and I couldn't afford an injury. Not even a minor one.

Further down the road I could look over and see the people ahead of me running through the neighborhood. I had done the Stonebridge Ranch tri here last year and I knew for a fact that this race wasn't supposed to go through that neighborhood. People were following the painted arrows on the ground rather than the signs. Just my chance to pass a bunch of people who didn't bother to know the course or listen to the instructions in the pre-race meeting.

At the street corner the two guys I was using as marks made the turn to the right but the two girls ahead of me turned left. The course was supposed to go right but it was the same distance either way, the girls just had to run an extra small hill.

As we came to the neighborhood we were supposed to run past the girls stopped where the arrows on the ground said to turn. I yelled ahead and told them that they weren't supposed to leave the path and those arrows were from a different race. They had seen people going straight and turning so they were confused. I knew I was on the right path and I just passed two people because they had to stop and think about what was the right way.

Lesson for the day: ALWAYS MAKE SURE YOU KNOW THE COURSE!

Mile 2 marker was another aid station with two guys just standing there talking so I had to slow down and grab a cup off the table. Thanks guys. You were a big help.

Half way through mile 2 I got passed by a woman moving at a good clip. "You took the wrong turn, didn't you!" "Yeah, I ran at least an extra mile!" She was obviously a much better runner than I was so it really drove home the lesson about knowing the course.

Near mile 3 I got passed by a guy in my age group. He was also moving alot faster than me so I asked if he made the wrong turn as well. He said no so apparently he was just a really poor swimmer. He passed me near the same spot where a guy in my AG caught me at Stonebridge Ranch last year.

I thought about doing the same thing I did then and shadow him until I could make a move and pass him at the finish line. But this wasn't my A race this weekend so I held my pace and just kept him in sight. Turns out there wasn't even an offical finish line (no chip timing) and the guy doing the manual timing was just picking an arbitrary spot to call us done.

Overall AVG HR: 144

Nothing. I didn't kill myself trying to win my age group and I still had fun.

Got some AminoVital and an orange while I waited for my number to be called so I could give my name and age. Ah, the joys of manual timing. Haley wasn't there at the finish and I never passed her on the course so I knew she must have taken the wrong turn and that's how I got ahead of her.

I hung out and talked to the kid who beat me until Haley came across the line. She didn't look happy about what had happened. We got some more to drink, threw out stuff in transition, ate some kolaches and waited for the other BTers to come through.

Haley went to go get Shadow out of the Mini and I stayed to see if any of the BTers came through. David was the first one to come by and start his second lap on the run. Followed shortly by Andy.

As I was sitting on the curb, the one guy doing the timing was talking with the RD trying to find a volunteer to help him. The machine had run out of ink and the print out couldn't be read so he needed to write the times down but couldn't hold the machine to read the times at the same time. I had nothing better to do so I became a race volunteer.

So it became my job to call out the time as the racer crossed the 'finish line' and Nathan would write down their time and bib #. But the race director need to know the finisher numbers so she could find out their names and ages to put together the list for the awards. So it became a delicate balance of times, numbers and tearing off the list every time we got a gap so we could find out names and compile the winner lists.

In other words: manual timing sucks!

TJ and Emily were the next to come through and Haley waited with Shadow and cheered on the long course racers. It was about an hour before we got down to the last dozen runners or so and I was relieved of my timing duty with the promise of a free entry next year. Not bad for an hour of volunteering.

Waited around for the awards and then packed up our stuff, took a group photo in the parking lot and then it was time to head off for race #2 for the day!


I had another race that afternoon and a marathon the next day. No sense in blowing up for this race.


Poor race. No chip timing (which the RD promised there would be next year), not enough volunteers and not enough signs on the run course. There were a good number of people who took the wrong turn on the run which was their fault, but they RD should have had a volunteer there or at least a sign to tell people to keep going straight.

If I go back next year it will only be because I don't have to pay.