Wow!!! My best swim performance ever!!

I've been fighting nerves prior to the swim, as it's been my weakest and most panic-provoking leg, but this morning they weren't as bad as they had typically been. This was partly due to experience, and partly to the long wait prior to starting. Regardless, I was more comfortable starting out.

To start, they had you jump (not dive, thankfully, because I can't) off the dock. Wow . . . the view underwater surprised the hell out of me. It was a solidy pea-green translucent medium. Kind of spooky. Made me happy I swim with my head out of the water (I know, I know, but I'm not going to focus on my bad form until after this season).

Said "Hi" to the can of soup I passed as it was bobbing along. Well, it was the Cumberland River after all.

What I did right: I had noticed, while waiting in line, that people weren't adjusting for the current. In fact, even just going upstream to the first bouy, it appeared as though the current (or poor sighting en masse) was causing most of the swimmers to veer well inside the tangent line, only have to severly correct to make it to the outside of the bouy. So I aimed well left . . . and that strategy worked.

Then, when crossing the river, I again angled well upstream of the target bouy, and that worked as well, as again there were people making a hard correction at the turn.

Swimming downstream was non-eventful, and I looked behind to realized I had separated quite a bit from the folks that were supposed to be in 3 second intervals behind me. I was starting to realize I was . . . perhaps . . . having a decent swim.

Rounded the final bouy and again angled well-upstream of the ladder. I was all to myself out there, as seemingly everyone else was drifting downstream.

Now, I'm still not a fast swimmer, but my relative placement in both my age group (top 5), and overall (top 35%) was leaps and bounds ahead of any results from prior races.

Swim better and faster, of course.

Time is for both T1 and T2 . . .

There was a LONG run from the river uphill to the transition area (maybe .25 miles) I did run the whole way . . . barefoot. Time is estimated because results had bike and both transitions.

Not chat with two different people in the transition area? What, was I out for a relaxing Sunday ride?

Well, MOP in AG and slightly FOMOP for the race overall. Not too much to talk about here. Biggest excitement was the confusion about who I was passing and who was passing me, as the sprint and olympic races were on the course at the same time.

Took enormous pride :) in passing some gal from the olympic course in the last mile, after leap-frogging with her over the previous 10 miles. That'll show her!!



More volume, stronger legs - not hiking 5 miles on 3 hours sleep the day before, etc.

N/A - combined with T1 above

Ha - following the bike we were greeted with a steep climb up and over the pedestrian bridge across the river, to downtown Nashville, which I now realize rivals Seattle or San Francisco in the average grade of its inner core.

Well, at least it felt that way anyway.

Oh, and the anti-tapering of the previous few days caught up to me here. I made it a mile before I felt my lungs and my legs combining in mutiny against the rest of my body.

I . . . yes it's hard to admit . . . alternated walk/run for the last two-thirds of the run.

Oh well, while the course was masochistic, running in downtown Nashville, avoiding the stares of the drunks and vagrants, had its "cultural" benefits.

I kid - Nashville's a great-looking town for the most part. It was (kinda) cool to run past the Charlie Daniels museum.


Get more sleep and run on legs a bit less sore.

I was wasted at the end - I made an attempt to take advantage of the pulled pork sandwhiches and side items from an obviously local establishment, but I only took one bite and tossed the remainder.

I realized I was starting to get pretty cold, which is strange for me, so I grabbed a Powerade and walked over to the transition and put on a dry shirt from my bag. Felt much better.


Well, probably too much activity and too little sleep in the previous couple of days, but I wouldn't trade the fun we had for a better race by any means.


Well, I've attended two races by Team-Magic, and both started very late, but were otherwise very well organized. The environment for this race was terrific.