I was pretty excited about the swim bc I felt like I could go all out for once and not worry about drowning. Now I am no swimmer, but I have worked really hard since I struggled through my first 25 yards at the beginning of this year.

Since this is a really popular beginners race I decided that I might line up to the front for once instead of to the back. Looking at all the mens waves in front of us there was a large contigent of males of all ages doing the dog paddle to get through the swim. This made me think there might be a good number of swimmers in my wave (20-30) who were Less experienced than me.

When the gun sounded I swam out hard. I was immediately surprised by two things. One, I was out in Front! Two, I didn't feel like I was in danger of dying or drowning. There was only one other chick in front of me and.... holy crap I was successfully drafting off her and following her feet! Suddenly I felt like I had a taste of what it was like to be a "real" swimmer. Ie.... avoid blows to the head and body in the beginning, swim out hard to get to the front, and continue to avoid obstacles a la stationary men in the water. Yeah I had a taste and I wanted more!

So I kept swimming hard and following the other girl to the first buoy when... she cut the buoy! I definitely didn't want to do that so I kept doing my own thing and a few minutes later I was running up the steep hill and everyone was yelling "second woman out of the water!" I have to admit that I was savoring this because it is quite possibly the one time I will ever hear it! (We were the first wave to go, thus appearing to be "leading")

Nothing except maybe try to stay behind my "draft" longer.

Not good. I was too distracted by the swim. Then I was slow with my wetsuit and even started to put the helmet on backwards for the THIRD TIME IN A ROW!!!

This was a good bike for me but it started off bad. Somehow my chain managed to come off my bike on the way to the mount line and the volunteer had to hold it while I fixed it. All in all, it probably cost me 20-30 seconds, although it seemed like an eternity at the time.

This course was awesome! I didn't even look at my speed but my mindset was to red line the entire thing and not give a thought to the run afterwards. Actually, I was not sure whether I had passed the chick from the swim in transition, so I was on one hand trying to catch up to her. On the other hand, I was concerned that a couple of ultra fast women (that I knew were racing ) were in waves behind me. The waves were four minutes apart and while I didn't think they could make up that difference in a sprint, I knew it would suck if they did! Okay, also I liked the feeling of "leading" the race!

The bike went pretty well except I had the annoying experience of being stuck behind a car with several other racers. This meant slowing on the dhs and losing momentum for the subsequent uphills. I did pass one girl on the bike but I was pretty sure she was relay

Coming back into transition Todd yelled to me that I was still out in front.

Not lose me chain....

I need to start leaving my shoes on my bike... I am noticing that some of my transitions are losing me some time to the faster girls

Holy crap my feet were completely numb coming off the bike. I just took off as quick as I could and my legs, from the ankles up felt great. I couldn't believe it since I only ran once but maybe they were finally rested. There were some hills but overall it was a great course to net a fast time.

I saw several ATCers on the run and everyone looked great. I passed Jim and he said encouraging words... I wanted to say something to him but I was Completley maxed out. Then I saw John coming back the other way a good ways ahead and he looked good, I was happy he was having a good race after his mechanical trouble at Augusta. Todd was a great cheerleader and he was keeping tabs on where the other ladies were the whole time!

At the turnaround I saw Elaine and another girl who looked like they were definitely closer than 8 minutes and I hammered it home bc I couldnt let myself be caught in the last mile!


Nothing. This was a great run for me and I was able to snag the fastest run time, albeit by a few secs. Also an "official" 5k PR. I don't think I can count Macon bc they lost my splits. Record or it didn't happen!

Got a few minutes of ART on my calf from the 1st Choice Doc. Man they are awesome! Watched the other club members finish and they turned in some impressive performances!! John had a lightning fast swim and a 5k PR, Giorgia got 2nd, Martine 3rd, and Randy 3rd in age group! I also got first in my Age group and ended up missing 3rd OA by 6 seconds! I was really happy to break into the top 5, though. My best prior finishes have been 6th.




I was very happy with how I performed given where I am at. Per the usual, my bike is the area that could benefit the most from little more attention.