Took it easy at the start, gun went off and I was about 3 deep (about 80 in the wave with about 10 across) so just walked into the water waiting for the guys in front of me to dive in and start swimming. So instead of diving on top of them, just walked until I got to about the shoulders, there was spacing by then, dove in and latched onto the feet of one of the guys in front.
Not a horrible start, no washing machine, I positioned on the left outside cause I knew the right hand turns may bunch, I'd rather have open water and swim a little farther.
The guy I was drafting pulled me to the first bouy then went really wide, so I went inside of him to cut the corner to the second. Decent pace, didn't push it in a sprint. The HIM training taught me it's no use to sprint for the extra 20 seconds on the swim and get my HR jacked, more on that later.

Not much.

Swim exit, you run through the sand to the sidewalk, which had a playpool to jump in and splash your feet. So didn't take any time, basically just ran right through it. This is my first season trying the shoes clipped in, instead of socks, then shoes for the bike. Pretty smooth and efficient. Although you weren't supposed to "pass" anyone in the first 200 yards through the parking lot after the mount line, the previous wave had some guys really struggling to mount, get up to speed so I just flew by with my feet on top, waiting until the exit road a half mile later to slip the feet in.

So got out of the swim and the HR was in awesome shape, I didn't push the swim really hard, which is unusual and normally takes me about 2 miles to get under control. So from the mount line, it was hammertime. Rabbits to chase with the first wave so methodically picked them off one by one and was cranking between 25-27, what a feeling!
Then around mile 8, last of the passing for me until one of the shallow hills, a guy with a 58 on the calf passes me on the downhill, huh? So he catches a group of about 4 on the next relative climb and settles in with them. No way, so I proceed to pass all 5 on the hill by hammering up it and dropped them. At this point it's around mile 12 and my stomach is hurting plus feeling like I'm gonna hurl. HR is not too bad but breathing hard and legs definately working. I hit the turnoff from the 41 to Old Main and my avg is 23.5mph so no wonder my stomach hurts. Hold it together....there is still the climb.
As I'm cruising down, there's one spot where you have about 10 seconds to see the 41, thecaptin is cruising up it, so I yell out, go cap!!!! I'd only got about 2 minutes on him at this point, he was moving fast too, just wait til he busts out the Tri-bike instead of the roadie,we're in trouble.
Get to around mile 17.5 and start to back off to get the legs into running shape, spinning with a moderate effort back into T-2 with the HR back in control.
First 23+ ride ever, wow. The course was really fast and not too hilly, it was long for a sprint at 19 miles but only one real hill, unusual for this part of georgia.

So Mr. future olympian Matt (14 yr old) is at the dismount line volunteering and cheering. I come flying in people yelling to slow down, swing the leg over after already pulling my feet out of the shoes, slow down and hop off within 5 feet of the line in a flat sprint and I hear Matt say - nice one Darrel.
Then the circus begins, my pre-race marker was a trash can, so I go running through, where is the can??? it's gone. So I am literally standing there in the middle of T-2 wondering where my stuff is. With basically no bikes there, all I see is stuff, where's my towel? Where's my rack. Takes me about 7 seconds to get my bearings, dumba$$, there are #'s on the racks, so I look at my bike to remember my #, duh!
Find my spot (how lame is that, the transition area is tiny...), roll the socks on, shoes on (thanks yankz), helmet off, blast.
Still fast T-2 but should have been better.

Pick out 2 markers, not just one.

First sub20 5k ever - woot! Coming out of T-2, theres a guy in my AG that I'm trailing by about 7 seconds, just stick with him, keep his pace and don't let him drop you too bad. The run is usually where i lose spots. So stuck there for the first mile then he slowly pulled away. Around 1.5 we get to the culdesac part, the only part that is an out and back so here I start to count the guys coming out, holy moly there aren't too many in front of me... and when I hit the turnaround, I'm about 1:30 ahead of the next guy, awesome. Shortly thereafter, I catch a guy that is struggling on the only hill. Feels nice to actually pass someone and that gave me wind in my sails through the 2nd mile mark. 1 mile to go, hang on....
Hit the park, up the hill and look back, no-one in sight, awesome and now I know there is < 1/2 mile and it's all downhill so I open it up to finish fast. Hit the line and about 25 seconds behind the guy that I trailed out of T-2, they announce me as the first Acworth local to cross the line! How awesome is that.
Didn't check my run pace or splits til I crossed the line, all I knew was that I was pushing it. Turns out I finally ran a sub 20. Course was my cup of tea, not too hilly but challenging enough to have to push.

Grabbed a bottle of water, congratulated the guys that were ahead of me then went back up the road to cheer thecapn in. He flat out smoked this race too, what a day! Hang around for a while, grab some food, watch more finishers, cheer them on.
Then we head over to the results, holy moly, 1st in the AG? No freakin way. Turns out, Masters division, 3 guys bumped out of my AG to Masters Top-3 OA and 1 guy was 2nd OA. So although I was 5th in my AG, I got 1st technically. Still stoked about the overall pacing. Bike felt awesome and I pushed it really hard which didn't kill the run.

After the HIM a couple of weeks ago and having to be patient, not push too hard for fear of paying for it later, I was so jazzed to be racing a sprint and let it all hang out.


First year race at location but you'd never know it. PT Solutions had tons of volunteers and the post race food was so ridiculous, tons of it, pasta from Henry's, fruit, pastries, cookies, etc. Enough to feed 2x the people there. On time, friendly volunteers, well policed/safe course, etc. What more could you ask for?