Bob, our swimmer, did an excellent job. He was in wave #3. I was able to see him take off at the start and just turn into a jetski! He seperated himself from the field immediately. Unfortunately I had to get to transition because I knew it would take litle time for him to finish.


He said afterwards that he blasted through to the first bouy, caught the 2nd wave, got all jumbled up in that wave, finally caught some clear water between wave #2 and wave #1, then finished in the middle of wave #1. Wow was he fast!

Poor Bob, he was so wiped from the swim, his motor skills just weren't functioning properly to get the timing chip's strap off of his ankle. Once he got it off I think we was happy that I got ahold of it!

This was my leg of the race. I was coming off of my first Olympic distance with only about 6 days of rest so I was not @ 100% yet. I tried my best and went as fast as I possibly could for 15 miles. Fortunately the rain held off, but the roads still had some slick parts to it.

From the beginning, coming out of transition I took off like a bullet and got into my rhythm. Unfortunately, my legs started screaming at me (due to lack of a full recovery), but I rode through it. The course was basically a 7.5 mile gradual up, then a 7.5 mile gradual down, so I knew if I toughed it out for the first 7.5 miles, my legs would be loose enough to party it back down to the finish. My strategy worked!

The last mile or 2 I just gunned it, standing up and sprinting as hard as I could. It felt so good to be able to finally go that fast without having to worry about preserving leg strength for a run.

I ended up with the 31st fastest time of the day with an average of slightly over 20 mph. There was no way I could have put in that kind of showing had I needed to run 5 miles following this bike. What a fun bike! I am looking forward to doing more bike relays.

Coming in I didn't realize my runner was RIGHT there at the start of transition. I had to stop running immediately and slid on the heels of my cycling shoes! I almost slipped and ate it. Fortunately I didn't. After exchanging ankle straps, he flew out and we never saw him again until the finish.

So its pretty awesome to have a pure runner do the running leg for you. Our runner, Belden, took off and held his pace until the finish. Unfortunately I was only able to see him fly out of transition and never saw him again until the finish. He finished really strong. We had cowbells to cheer him on!

Relay races are a lot of fun and definately this race was just icing on the cake for a first season of triathlon. My strength is cycling, and I am happy that I was finally able to put 100% into my strength. My teammates are awesome athletes and we work well together and will hopefully be doing more relay races in the future.