I felt fairly calm before the swim. I was wearing my new De Soto Speedvest for the 1st time, and it felt great during my warm up. As the horn went off I dove for clear water on the outside edge of the main pack of swimmers. Accept for a few swimmers here and there, for the first 200-300 meters I swam alone in nice,calm water.

It seemed like an eternity until I arrived at the 1st buoy. Although I don't wear a watch in the water and have no sense of speed in a wetsuit, I kept thinking, "if the 1st buoy is only 1/3 of the swim, I'm gonna be here for a while!" After finally reaching the turn, I decided to try my hand at drafting. I always read race reports on here about people finding a nice set of legs to draft off of, and then coveting them for the remainder of the race...sounds glorious! Unfortunately for me, I could never match up my speed w/ a good draftee (a lyrical conundrum indeed!). I kept picking someone who was either too fast and gone in 10 seconds, or so slow I got kicked in the head. Bottom line, I'll have to practice this before trying it in a race again.

I kept plodding along, the whole time thinking I must be going really slow bc it was seeming to take way longer than I expected. I finally made it to shore after zig-zagging my way around the course. It felt good to be on dry land again! I then began the jog up the steep hill to the transition area.

I need to practice OWS more to try and learn how to swim good tangents in a straight line toward buoys better. My sighting also needs work. Overall, felt pretty good and didn't max my heart rate like my 1st race.

Horrible transition! Wetsuit vest top came right off as I ran to T1, but the legs both got caught around my ankles. It took me probably 20 seconds just to get my right leg off. After that debacle, the rest of T1 went pretty smoothly. My only other issue is how difficult it is the get my bike shoes on and at the correct level of tension. I usually don't get it right before getting on the bike so I have to ride slowly and coast until I can reach down and ratchet them tighter and fix the velcro straps.

I need to practice taking the wetsuit off. Also, if I hadn't just bought my cycling shoes 3 months ago I'd go out and buy tri-specific shoes. I can't wait till these things wear out!

Ah the bike leg...time to show where John's been slacking! You tell me, what's wrong w/ assuming you'll ride well on a hilly course when your bike training has consisted of A) Silver Comet Trail rides B) trainer rides and C) one long ride on a hilly course...last weekend? I don't get it! I guess I just assumed I could "gut it out" or HTFU or whatever. WRONG!

I don't want to get too into this leg of the race, as I've tried to block it out. I got passed by a ton of people. It was pretty discouraging, but I just couldn't muster up enough power to get over the hills at any pace. It was fun flying on the downhills though. The net of the net is it was a somewhat hilly course and I have been neglecting my bike training. I did although feel good about my gearing. I can and will be a better biker soon.

TRAIN! I gotta get in the saddle. I pushed as hard as I thought I could w/out trashing my legs, but I just need to get stronger.

This was a good transition. I haven't mastered (or tried for that matter!) the flying mount/dismount w/ the shoes still clipped in...I'll save that for next year. Did everything like I wanted to. Ended up ranking 18/183 males and 2/29 for age group.

Nothing

My legs felt pretty tired from the bike and so I had no delusions of grandeur, setting a PR for the run. I've been trying to get below 21 minutes in a 5k, open or in a tri, but have been unsuccessful so far. The run out to the turnaround was slow and hurt worse than the first half of a 5k usually does. I expect to feel the pain the last mile or so, but this hurt a little early. My saving grace was seeing a water stop w/ a bunch of people from the Atlanta Triathlon Club cheering me on. I don't know how many were there, maybe 6 or 7, but it felt like running out to the court before a basketball game in high school! They formed a tunnel handing out water on either side...I half expected to tear through a paper banner on the other end!

Anyway, the rest of the uphill sucked, but getting to the turnaround was a relief. Running downhill the last 1 1/2 miles was great...definitely helped the negative split. I just tried to run as fast as I could to make up for the 1st half. It hurt, but I kept repeating, "Lord, give me strength!" My prayers were answered and I was able to keep a good pace through the finish. It was great to hear Rivi from my club say "you gotta slow down so I can take a picture!"

I need to do more and longer brick runs, and start running more hills in training.

I was beat at the finish line so I just drank water and watched other people finishing. Was glad I could advise the announcer to call out my wife's name as she crossed the finish line...winning her age group BTW, and beating her husband!


I've definitely got the tri bug now. I need to get serious about planning my workouts and improving my diet if I want to get to where I think I can be.


This was a very well-run race. From the volunteers, of which about 25 were from the Atl. Tri Club, to the post-race food and awards (nice trophy my wife got), everything seemed to go very smoothly. Gotta commend Set Up Events for running a good event. I'll definitely come back to race it again and hopefully be better prepared for the hills next time.