This was my first open water swim during a race without a wetsuit. Of course, I was a little nervous once I reached the fence line and saw what I was getting myself into. You walk down a flight of stairs to a floating dock, then you get in the water and hang on as you hand walk along the dock to the end. Then once it's you turn to go, your off into the river.

The first bouy came up pretty quick but the problem was I didn't know how many bouys to expect. I knew I had to turn left at the only green bouy on the course. But here's the bad part, most of the swim caps were green.

I knew I wasn't swimming in the middle of the river because the bouy's weren't very close to me and on my left was a wall no shore. My reference points were the three bridges Anica told me I would swim underneath. I thought once I get to the third bridge I should be at the steps. I was wrong, this was followed by another floating pier and then a couple of docked boats and then the steps.

I made it to the steps with ease and then out of the water.

I'm a swimmer now, this was a huge break through for me!!!

This was my best swim to date. The only thing I would change is I would've used my speed suit.

The run up the steps probably added to my time. My heart rate was pretty calm up to this time so I took an easy jog to the bike. Overall everything went well in T1.

I need to pratice this event more often to get faster.

I started out feeling okay during the first mile then came a monster hill that sucked the life out of my legs for a bit. The weather was pretty good it was raining lightly at times.

Once I reached the half way point, I was ready to hammer the return and turn on the heat. This plan was changed by mother nature, she decided to open the flood gates and it down poured. At one point, I was riding and the rani drops were stinging me. I also reached my highest speed of 41 mph on a down hill and was scared I would hydroplane.

So needless to say the ride back was a little slower due to the weather conditions.

I tryed the feet out of the shoes prior to reaching the dismount line and it went smooth.

I think I made the right decision to watch my speed since this was just a training race. I surely didn't want to wipe out at even 20 mph and ruin my chances at making it to IMKY.

Another smooth T2, I'm still looking for that sub 1 minute but that will only come with time and a good bike rack position.

The racking of the bike didn't go very smooth and gettting the Garmin off the bike wasn't smooth either since I dropped it while running with the bike.

Well, I felt pretty good during this run. I managed to keep a steady pace through out the entire run. My slowest mile was 9:08, so overall I'm pretty happy with this 5K. Now, if the weather was hotter the time would've been much different.

I'm still looking for the sub 50 run off the bike.

I guess run faster!!!

I crossed the finish line and was happy to break the 3 hour mark. I walked over to meet some friends and cheer others on to the finish.

I then walked down and had a couple of slices of pizza and a cold Powerade.

We later drove back to Atlanta but first stopped at Captain D's for a Deluke Fish Sandwich - YUMMIE!!!!! I also had a cold Corona Lite at Ron's house to celebrate my PR.


The rain slowed me down on the bike but overall this was a good race for me.


This was a good race. It was well organized and the post-race activities were cool. I'll probably repeat this one next year since it's close.