This was a TT start, and we started by two's. I had Derek & Scott start together, so I could hunt them. My goal was to give them enough room to catch them on the bike, and then taught them with quotes from Monty-Python for the rest of the race. My opening taught was going to be (in a Monty-python voice) "bring me a shrubbery", and then go from there. I lined up with my buddy Bryan to start with. We got to the mat, and a five second wait until we were unleashed........GO! I took off running as far as I could which was about knee/thigh deep, and then took a dive. It was still shallow, as my first stroke hit the bottom. The water was completely brown from everyone running in, and stayed that way for 100 meter or so, and then suddenly turned green.

My goal for this race was the following:
- Work on my form/technique
- Relax
- Focus on glide
- Hit my "Zen" swim (Captin knows what I am talking about)

As soon as I hit the water, I hit it hard for about a 100 meters, and then told myself to relax and glide. Shocking enough, I relaxed and found my rhythm fast. I was navigating straight, in rhythm, relaxed, and moving very well. I started passing people by the clip. Closed in on the buoy line, and hit the first yellow buoy. I turned as close as I could as there were several people making the turn at the same time. I hit a few hard strokes to pass the group, which I excelled past with ease, and then back to a relaxed state to find my rhythm again. I was heading right down the buoy line passing people left and right. I kept thinking, man I am having a great swim doing everything as planned. About half way down the backside I realized I had swam up on someone's feet as it was very noticeable I had hit their draft line. One more stroke and I touched their feet, damn gotta pass, took a quick sight and realized this group was five across. The three to the left were all side by side, and the fourth guy in was making a move, then last guy was swimming the same speed as the other three. I decided to follow the guy making a pass. I hit his hole, and then cut to the outside cutting off the other three, and then head down/glide and quickly passed him. WOW, this swim was just coming together for me. I never got the chance to draft as I kept passing people, while keeping it relaxed. Hit the next yellow buoy, and made my 180. I got a chuckle thinking about The Captin and his fancy turn move (FS, Backstroke, FS) wishing I could do the same, but turned well enough. Lucky for us it was overcast so the sun was not in our eyes on the return. I kept following the buoy line as I continued to pass people on the home stretch. As I closed in on the swim exit I really hit my glides making sure to get my HR under control before I exited the water. This year, when I came to that hard tube that circled the swim area, I decided to go under vs over a I did last year. Totally the right decision. One breast-stroke under, and I was clear, and then back to FS to the exit. I was fully expecting to see a 26-27 minute swim time, but to my shock it was 29:XX.

WTF?!?!? The course had to be long by roughly 200 meters, as there was no way that swim was slower than last year's. That could have easily been my best swim ever. Doing the math afterwards, if it was 200 meters long that would have put this swim around the 1:40-1:45/100 meters, and that would have been spot on for how this swim felt. Talked to several people later and they all confirmed they thought it was long as well, including the Captin who was around three minutes off his normal target (which equates to roughly 200 meters).

Nonetheless, I had my panties all in a bunch while running to transition.

Nothing, I had a great swim.

After getting my panties out of a wad about the swim being long, I refocused on transition. Found my rack, dropped goggles/cap, helmet on, glasses on, and hit the door running.

Nothing

Exited transition, and mounted past the mount line. The mount line was a bit further out than it was last year, so I was only able to get one foot in a shoe before needing to climb that first hill. No worries, climbed the hill and then got both feet in shoes, and strapped down. I started working into pace and getting my HR/breathing under control. There are some pretty good rollers (mainly climbing) while exiting the park which is about three miles from transition. I found my rhythm and started mashing the pedals passing people by the masses. Once exiting the park you hand a left which I took pretty aggressively and passed a few people in the process. Once out of the park you hit a nice downhill, which I brought it up to full speed quickly. I got another chuckle from running out of gears quickly, as I am looking to change out my gears to a 53/39 sometime soon, and where Bryan (the guy I started with) asked if I would like borrow a few of his gears before the start. He knows what that means. :)

Anyways, I quickly got up to speed and headed towards the first decent. There was a mini-van driving slow as hell not wanting to pass a slower rider that I rode up on. I gave them :30-1:00 before realizing that they were not going to pass this rider. Sooooo, I sat up on my pursuit bars behind them to let them see me, and then strapped on a pair to make a pass. No cars coming in the other direction, so I dropped the hammer and passed the car on the left at the same time sling-shooting around the other rider. I was hauling azz, and I was not going to let this car slow me up. I was chasing a split goal, and this mini-van was F'ing that goal all up. After my pass, I hammered down the hill and across the bridge dodging an ejected water bottle on the ground, and then started my climb up the only "major" climb on this course. It seems to be a multi-stage climb where you climb up a few different stages to the top. Once over the top you pass where the kite feeds back into the return which I noted was around the 6 mile marker. From there it is rollers around the kite, through a downtown area, and then back up and around to where the course feeds back into the return. It is pretty uneventful full in that section, just packed with rollers. I did note that there was a headwind out on the course, as a few times where I should have been hammering out 26-28 mph, I was only pushing out 23-24 from the wind. Not a ton of wind, but I could tell there was one there.

I played leap frog with a guy on a Trek for the first half of the course, and then he disappeared, and then I started the same with a guy on a road bike for the middle section. He was strong on the flats, but I had him on the climbs and downhills. Still, he held strong for a long while. Near the end, a guy in a multi-colored suite came by (green/yellow) first one all day, damn it, so I kept him within sights for the rest of the bike.

One thing I did notice was that each time the USAT Official came by I had just made a pass or group pass and was in "no man's land" where no one was anywhere in front of me. No penalty for me today! Still, I made a very conscience decision while passing to make sure to push the pedals a bit more during each pass, so I would break their front wheel within the time allotted. The Official came by at least three times while out there, or at least I counted three times.

Made my way to where the course fed back in, and then hammered it on home, down the climb we made coming out, across the bridge, and back up the final climb to the park. As I came upon the park there was a burgundy pickup truck moving in slow motion. I basically had to stop and wait for him as I turned left into the park. As before I was chasing a split goal of 22 mph, and was currently at 21.6-21.7, so I needed a hammer fest to get to 22. He ended up giving me a bit of room, and I passed him on the right (where I should have) and hammered on home. I came in hot to the dismount line with everyone yelling to slow down, but I had a perfect dismount and silence fell over the crowd.

The bike route is 26.4 miles long, not 26 miles, so the official bike split shows 21.4 but my computer had 21.7. I did not hit my split goal, but I will take it.

I need to hammer more, but all-in-all it was a good bike leg.

Not sure what my issue was, but I drifted off during this transition. I even noted that in my head that I was moving slow and to speed it up. I guess I just drifted off for a second.

Hurry up, do not fall asleep.

I came out of T2 strong, and started the climb out of transition, hung a right onto the main drag and headed towards that big out & back. I had a guy run up on me that was a relay so I decided to go with him, I figured he was running a strong pace on strong/fresh legs so what not? We started into the big out & back which is a down hill on the in, and an uphill on the back. We were clicking off people left and right, and right past the one mile marker I saw the Captin climbing back out. He looked strong as he chopped up the hill. I yelled at him great job, and headed towards the turn-around. This turn-around never seems to come, even though I know where it is. Rounded the turn-around, and started back out of that hole. We continued to pass people all the way back up the hill. Right before hitting the top, I saw Eric (skigator93) from BT and he looked strong going the other way. Hit the top, and hung another right, passed the aid station where I really wanted a water but the guy in front of me grabbed the water in lieu of the Gatorade, and the girl did not have time to grab another water. Stupid Georgia fan (he was wearing a GA tri-suit), I should have expected that from you. Now, I will have to pass you based on principle.

Right after the aid station we hung another right into the first loop around camp-sites. This is where we picked up two other guys and continued to push the pace. Down and around, back up and headed towards the one mile loop around the camp grounds on the end of the park. It was pretty funny, as we entered this loop a group of little kids started racing us for 50 feet or so, yelling at us "we are beating you, we are beating you". Unfortunately for them, their lead did not last long as their pace fell off. Anyway, down and around the loop we went. At the bottom where normally someone is cooking breakfast, I yelled "who is cooking bacon, I want some?" as the smell of breakfast loomed in the air. I laughed to myself, but no one else thought it was as funny as I did. Then, the light bulb went off in my head, these guys are maxed out and I am just cruising. Time to get back on the gas. So, as the course climbs back out of the second loop I pushed the pace and pulled away from the group. The guy with the GA tri-suit was in that group, BTW. Hung another right on the main drag and started towards the front of the park. Passed the 4 mile marker, and continued on. I guess around the 4.5 mile marker I lost focus for a bit, until I caught up to the next group of people. We played cat & mouse for a bit until finally, I asked where in the hell was the turn around. A hottie from that group informed me it was just ahead, so I pushed the pace a bit more. About that time I saw the Captin just ahead. Made my way to the turn around, and then started to head home. It wasn't too long until I came up on the Captin, and as I passed I told him to "show this road no mercy, lets go!" I heard him say something like "this is all I got right now", I yelled back "me too", in which he replied "no, you have plenty left in those legs" which he was 100% completely right, so I pushed the pace to the line.

I had plenty left in the legs, so I need to just trust in it, and empty the tank. I was cruising at a 7:05/mile pace on that course, so I should have been pushing the pace closer to 6:30-6:45 which is well within my ability. I need to focus more during the run.

After crossing the line, I walked back up to where the finish chute starts to cheer on the other racers. As I walked back up the hill the Captin crossed the line, and shortly after Bryan (the guy I started with) came down the chute. The Captin came up and we chatted a bit about the swim being long, the course, how the day went etc. Bryan came up and we chatted, etc., and then Scott was on his way in. He had a great day, and looked strong at the finish. It was not long before Derek was came in.

Cheered on a number of other racers before heading over to pack up tranisiton, and then grab a bit to eat. As we were about to sit down I ended up running into Tyler (teckert) from BT. We chatted a bit, and learned he was in prep to hammer Augusta in two weeks. Plus, he is signed up for IMTX next year.

Ran into my new buddy Michal Duchon, and he took 2nd AG podium (30-34)

After we finished eating Derek, Scott, and I went and jumped in the lake to wash off. That is the best thing post-race to refresh you.



I need to trust in my training, and push the entire day harder. I always seem to sand-bag the day in areas that I should push.


Even with a longer swim I was able to PR this course over last year's time.
2:29:18 vs 2:29:55
Bike split was up: Official 21.4 vs 21.2 (my computer showed 21.7)
Run split was down: 7:05 vs 7:17 last year.

Over-all, still a solid race with great competition showing up to Tugaloo. Well orgainzed, and good amount of volunteer support.