Jumped in and quickly got in a groove. I love TT starts as it stretches out quickly, no washing machine. About 200 yards in, some guy hits my feet then immediately on top of my thighs so I just keep kicking, holy moly dude, the lakes big, this is a TT start, plenty of space, no need to swim over me. In a mass start, I would have let my legs sink and not worry about it. I mean it's not like there were 7 people wide and he had to claw through, I was by myself. Then he passes on my left and bam - gone, I couldn't even catch his feet to draft, he was motoring, just watch where you are going, no need for that. Round the first 90 degree bouy about 250 yards or so, no bunching at all, I continue to follow the white caps in front of me for my sighting. No real opportunity to catch feet and draft, it was just spread out and the faster swimmers were seeded up front so gone.... Round the final buoy and head for the boat ramp, whew, HR not too jacked but definately burning in the arms, will this setup a bad day going out too hard? Hit the boat ramp and an arm reaches down and grabs me cause it was covered in moss/algae and slippery, he pulls me onto the carpet, now that was a relief. Swim over. So running up the ramp to T-1 and I can't get the zipper down, damn that Coldfire joking about getting it stuck when he helped me zip it up. So there I am running up, takes about 4 tries before it releases and unzips on its own.

Did not have official splits but calc'd based on garmin + posted results. So I have suit at my knees by the time I get to the bike, step out (2 seconds), garmin, glasses, helmet gone, well not really, my right shoe and pedal snag the rack cross bar. Dammit! Move the bike a hair and now I'm rolling. So get to the mount line, thanks to Coldfire for the pre-race ? about mount lines, so in chalk, they drew them, awesome. Well right out of T-1, like 20 yards, there is a steep incline, no chance to get your feet in the shoes but how are you going to pull up on the pedals??? I fumble for a bit with the left shoe before the hill to have at least 1 foot and then finally screw it, wait til the top

Keep bike a little farther away from the cross bar.

Came out of T-1 and have about 1/2 mile to the main road to get the shoes in. I was following 2 guys out and the circus begins. I finally get my feet/shoes straight and start to pass the second guy as we are approaching the turn, I say, you're clear figuring we were turning right and he will want to swing out. So as I prepare to turn right, he turns left in front of me, whew too close, that would have been bad if I wrecked him. It was a left turn, not right, my fault. After the turn, I leap frog with him and the other guy for about 1 mile getting the HR back to normal, finally it's later dudes on an uphill where I drop them and don't look back. Coming out of T-1, I saw Coldfires bike so at least I know he didn't get me on the swim but is looming/lurking. Hit the turnaround and I look at the odometer. Then .4 miles later, he comes screaming by so I yell out. Uh oh, I've only got about 2 minutes from the swim, I need more than that, so the math guy takes over and calculates around mile 21 I will be caught. As I was counting from the out and back, I've got 14 in front of me. I catch 1 or 2 here and there then from around 8-14, nothing, no one to be seen, dang. THen it appeared to be a steady stream where I seemed to catch a guy about every 1.5 miles, picking em off one by one. Around mile 21, I look back, theres a guy in a white helmet - dang it's Coldfire coming to get me, he's in my mind.... At this point, there's a headwind and I've got 4 miles to go, legs are tired and burning, stomach hurts. Take the 2nd GU and look back, where'd he go??? That wasn't Coldfire, that was the guy I passed 3 minutes earlier that I was pulling away from. Dang demons in my head. So I push on, wishing the headwind would just go away, 17mph was not my cup of tea this late in the ride.

So now circus #2 about to ensure, the ride into the park has about 1/2 mile before transition, plenty of time to prep the feet before the sharp right hander steep descent into Transition. Get the feet out but I can't get my left foot on top of my shoe, going too fast and approaching the turn, I finally give up and shoe is underneath my pedal. I turn the corner, bammmmmmmm, left shoe pops off the pedal, wtf? No gear abandonment on course but I push on to Transition knowing I will be running by in 2 minutes to pick it up. Get to Transition at the dismount line and feel like a complete jackwagon.

Bike split felt laborious compared to the sprint a couple weeks ago, think the longer swim made a difference.

Quick rack, socks on, rolled on easily, shoes on, helmet off, grabbed hat that had race #, gu and bandana inside it and off to the races. Fairly efficient.
Transition assigned racks by AG but not #, lucky that mine was on the end near the swim entrance and bike exit, outside, easy to spot, easy in/out. Benefits of getting there early

Keep all shoes on the bike.....

So come out of Transition efficiently and climb the short 100 yard hill to exit, there's a volunteer holding my bike shoe and says, hey #49, I'll put it at your bike. Awesome. At this point, I counted about 7 in front of me. I get my groove going and legs are feeling surprisingly good after that laborious ride. Now where is the lurker? about 1/2 mile he comes screaming by on the bike towards transition so I yell come on Coldfire, ok, I have about 5 minutes, that's easily within his hunting range. So I push on actually checking my watch, which is unusual for me. Most races have been by RPE, for some reason I wanted feedback. Mile 1 at 6:45, feeling good but uh oh, I know its slightly downhill and I have a bad habit of imploding at mile 4/5. Oddly enough, I start to catch a guy, that gives me wind in my sails. Hit the water station at 1.5 miles, grab a cup of water, go to take a sip and all air, water everywhere. Oh well. Get to the boat ramp turnoff just following the arrows (good course directions, well marked) except for 1 spot, there is a fork in the road and the arrow shows straight. HMMMM, so I take the left thinking that would be the way to the boat ramp, I get another 100 yards and figured that I clearly should have stayed right. The roads parallel and are a loop for one-way traffic, so I skip through the 20 yards of woods to the other side. Wow, at least Coldfire said he did the same thing. Hit the turnaround station at mile 3 at the boat ramp. By this time, The leader has already passed and I count that I am # 5 at this point. OUt and back so now you see everyone else behind you on the return leg. I am leaving the boat ramp back to the main road and there is Coldfire, arrrggghhhh, he's gonna get me but is just toying with me. Miles 2&3 were at 6:50 and I know that it is gonna be more uphill on the return. I catch #4 shortly than # 3 as he stops to walk (I feel your pain) so as I pass I try to encourage him - stay strong dude, lets get the leader together, he grunted so I just kept diggin. Then about mile 4.5, I see the female leader up ahead so now it's psuedo chase mode, which was nice because without her, I probably would have backed off quite a bit without a Rabbit to chase. I narrowed the 1/4 mile gap to about 15 seconds over the final 10 minutes, I just didn't have enough to reach her.

So coming into the finish final turn, there's the volunteer still with my bike shoe so as I'm coming up I joke with him that I should drop my right running shoe off on the corner. He laughs but tosses me the shoe and I proceed to carry it to the finish for the last 200 yards down the hill. I hope that picture comes out with me carrying it, it will be a great addition to my other one carrying my crank arm one-pedalling the bike last year....
So cross the line and congratulate the overall female, apparantly her boyfriend was the first place guy, they were both FAST!!!!
I set a PR split for this 6 miler, sub 7 pace (barely) and felt awesome with the run.

Grabbed a bottle of water, went back up and thanked the volunteer for my shoe incident then cheered Coldfire on at the finish. His face was priceless chasing the guy in front of him, arms in the air like a demon that was about to attack, that was some funny stuff.

Hung around, ate some bananas. Then Coldfire and BrianB had the great idea to go cannonball off the dock into the lake for a cooloff refresher. I haven't cannoballed in a long time, that was fun.


This is a smaller race where a majority of the proceeds go to a great charity and everyone having a great time in casual setting. This was a first year race in a new venue and you really couldn't tell because there was sufficient race course support (water stations every 1.5 miles on the run course), friendly volunteers and a well marked course. Close to home is a huge plus too, About 1 hour drive from the Kennesaw/Acworth Northwest atlanta burbs.