Pre swam the course the day before which was GOOD thing. Right after the start, a fog bank rolled in which made sight navigation impossible. There were no bouys, which, if it were clear, would have been just fine. The land marks (island and 50-foot concrete bouy) would have been more than sufficient to navigate by. just past the island, about half way out on the course, the fog rolled in and made it impossible to see more than 50 yards ahead. Needless to say, after passing the isnad, you could not see the turn around point at all (it was another 400+ meters away. There were faster swimmers in the race, but because they either hadn't swum the course, or couldn't swim straight, i smoked them. Past the island, I knew where the turn around was, even if I couldn't see it, so I just put my head down and swam, trusting my ability to swim straight. Six minutes later, there I was, right exactly at the turn around. Felipe Bastos, a pro who is a great swimmer (25 minute PR for HIM swim) was next to me at the turn. Made the turn, and again I couldn't see the Island we had to swim past on the way back. Felipe swam next to me for a while (maybe 100 meters) before he started veering left. I swam where I "knew" the island was, and sure enough, a few minutes later I was in perfect position. Past the island, Felipe was there on my shoulder again. Couldn't see the beach, but you could see a bouy that was on about a 20 degree tangent off of the correct line. He swam toward that bouy, I headed for the beach and beat him out of the water by about 15 seconds. I wasn't the fastest swimmer, but I was the straightest. It turns out that I finished second in the swim, beaten by about 10 seconds by a guy who swam in 2 Olympics for Venezuela. I never saw him though...thought I won the swim. Bummer...

Not a damn thing. This was a perfect swim under horrible conditions.

Since this was a relay, I was done! Tagged Tim Fuller, my cyclist and he headed out with about a 30 second lead.

Nothing...I was done.

Tim had an awesome bike. He's a 20 year-old college kid with an impressive race resume. He's won a few smaller races, and has a goal of 4:30 and top three overall at the Great Floridian Half next month. Looking at him, you'd never guess he was the athlete he is. He's probably 20 pounds over weight, and at 6'3" or so, you wouldn't think he's the climbing machine he is. But he dominated the bike. He rolled into T2 with a good 5 minute lead on the second place guy (Mr. Bastos).

Tim tagged Taylor Gonsoulin, our runner.

It was warm now, about 80 degrees when Taylor headed out on the run. Tis was a two lap course, so we got to see him half way. Taylor took it out hard and held about a 10 second lead on Felipe at the half-way pint, but Bastos was too good and put about 3 minutes on him on the second lap. We finished second overall, and smoked the second place relay by over 40 minutes.

The girl's team did great, too. They were second in the women's division, only beaten because the other team featured a 1:38 half marathon split. Natalie, despite not being a swimmer (she's a strong runner nursing an ankle injury, blazed to a PR 37 minute swim. Jocelyn, two weeks post IM Moo, cruised to a 3:09 bike and Cathi, my AR buddy ran a solid 1:57 half marathon despite being sick with a lingering cold. She's quite the hoss chick to suffer through a hilly, hot, aid station lacking 13.1 mile run despite being a sick little puppy. Must be the Amino Vital...

After my swim, I did a 2 hour ride/30 minute run brick. Gotta keep up the workload for Miami in November.


Um...not much sleep the night before?


This was a really cool, little race. Probably the most fun racing experience I've ever had. I was racing for Team Amino Vital, and these guys and girls are some kick ass athletes. I'm not sponsored by them, but was rather a fill in for their swimmer who had a conflict. Thanks to my adventure racing buddy Cathi Cannon for the hook up. The RD had a bunch of cancellations due to the hurricanes, but it was really well done. There was a ton of schwag given away. I won a swim prime (a t-shirt and a polo shirt). And for winning the relay I got a cool HeadSweats visor and a jug of Hammer Gel. The group photo below shows our team. Jocelyn Wong (left) and Natalie Leonard are on the ground stretching (Jocely just two weeks ago was 3rd in 18-24 at IM Wisconsin, and WON the collegiate division). Natalie is an awsome runner, but because of an ankle injury swam on the women's team (with a PR 37 minute swim). Standing are Cathi Cannon (in the green pullover--Cathi's an elite Adventure Racer), me (in the wetsuit) and Tim Fuller (our cyclist). The second picture shows the fog on the lake we had to nav through. ANd the third pic is Jocelyn and Cathi showing their Amino Vital spirit.