Ok, first of all those that know me, know that I am not that slow of a swimmer. Here is the thing....these are my split times from my watch and that time included NOTHING except time in the water. Yeah...no shit!!! Ouch!

If you read the weather report, you "may" get an idea of how bad it was out there, but let me explain it to you......"HOLY DROWNING POOL, BATMAN!!!" The weather that came through brought some terrible water conditions, but they decided to do the swim anyway. Here is the thing though, they set it up where we had to go against the current. Yeah..WTF??? So off we start...mass start, no age group waves.

Horn sounds...off I go into the water...run about 50 feet, hurdle a wave, then dive under the next, then I get into a great grove, great form for all of 3 f-ing strokes then get slammed by the next wave....this continues for what seems like an hour. Finally when I get past the breakers, I look up to sight the bouy....where the F did it go???? back to stroking away...then again, I get head back up to see where the bouy is...Holy shit...I can see it!!! Not anywhere close to it, but I can see it. You have got to be shitting me.... I am now chasing the bouy....no, I am not kidding, the bouy is moving!!!! WTF???

Back to swimming my ass off again (actually passing people), get to the first bouy, turn right....and swam in place for another 30 minutes...I could feel the current going against me!! This is where I started to cuss all the race directors.....there was no way they should have allowed this swim to ever start....numerous people turned around and dnf'd due to the swim and I honestly kept thinking that I was going to hear about someone drowning...hell, for a while, I thought it could have been me! OK, back to the race...I keep plugging away and finally make it to the second bouy, and think..."Now we get to have some fun and ride the current". That thought was true, but I had to "crab" into the current to try to go in a straight path to the beach...current was at about a 45 degree angle to the shore. That didn't work so well, so I decided the heck with that and just rode the current to the shore....well, in the direction of the shore. Got hammered by numerous waves, one which flipped me and knocked off my goggles. Somehow I was able to grab them and keep going, but now I was swimming blinded in the ocean water. Finally made it to shore....but I am now a 100 yards or so to the right of where I need to be.....but with everyone else. So now I have to run the beach to get back to the transition area.

Stay the F in bed!!!

Transition times sucked because of the 100 yard run through the sand, then we had to run through the bar that was hosting the race, well actually we had to walk since the floor was wet and very slippery. Continued out the front of the bar over to the Parking lot/Transition area and started getting ready for the bike. Actual time in T1 was not too bad, got dressed and was off fairly quickly, well that is once I got to my bike.

Nothing...I don't think I could have improved on my "actual" time in T1 if the conditions were somewhat normal...This race was just set up bad for a quick T1 time.

Now finally on the run...YES!!! The swim is finally over, so let's go!!! Out of T1, on the bike, out of the parking lot and dead into a friggin' headwind for the 1st half of the race. Kept trying to push the effort that my coach wanted (slightly above comfortable). Felt like I did that well. Just was exhausted after the swim and was pissed about the headwind....kept just telling myself how much fun the ride back was going to be. Don't have my splits, but I saw a few 13s, 14s, 16, 17s going out, and maintained 20+ coming home....max of 26.5, but would say the average was approximately 22 mph on the second half.

Push harder.

This split isn't completely correct, but it is what I have, but that is because I forgot to hit my split until after I got the bike racked. Which means a faster bike time (no more than 30 secs) and slower T2 time. Stil fast in T2, racked the bike, dropped the helmet, put on my Tennessee visor changed shoes and was off.

Nothing...think I nailed this one!

Felt like I was going slower than I was, but the times can't lie. Just pushed on and enjoyed the moment. Not great times, but for me, I like seeing the 9 min/miles. I am thrilled about them today.

Grab a gatorade and went to clean up my transition area and put the bike and gear back in the truck and wait for Kristi to finish.


Big Fat belly, slow ass legs.....Sorry, but had to use Madcow's line...I just love it!!! Thanks Tom!


I really enjoyed this small race, but they did a great job with it. Everything except the dangerous swim conditions was dead on!!! Still say that they should have never let us out there in those water conditions.