Everyone lined up, and when it was time we went off one at a time in 3 second intervals. When it was my time, I crossed the mat and kinda flopped in trying not to sink that much. The current was flying, and there was a down tree shortly ahead on the left. Thus, I knew it was a hard swim to the right to miss the tree. Yet another benefit from starting in the back is that I got to see the troubles the other swimmers were having getting enough right to clear the tree. The tree was about 100 yards down stream, so I was on top of it before I knew it. I had managed to get wide enough to miss the tree, but a kayak had moved over to flag the end of the tree. I had not gotten wide enough to clear the kayak. I kept swimming right, but I was not going to clear the kayak. Fastest option was to go under it, so I took one more stroke and ducked under it. I knew the current would push me clear, and the wetsuit would bring me right to the surface. I did not miss a beat, and I was right back to it.

I passed two large clusters of people quickly, and then found myself alone in the river for a while. I wanted to maximize the effects of the current, so I was hammering. I focused on leaning into the stroke, head down, glide, and rotation. I was really swimming smooth. I had just come up to breath, and one more stroke, and again up to spot, turn to breath again, and BAAAAAAAAAAAANG. I completely crushed my face into a log. I am talking I was completely decleatted, and seeing stars. I thought I had just broke the left side of my face. I am not sure what clicked, but I went right back to swimming before I thought twice. As my head slowly cleared, I started to count the teeth on my left side with my tongue. All teeth were there, and none of them were loose. Time to keep pushing.

After the third bridge I got to the far right side of the river, since I knew at the speed of the current I could not miss the dock. I was getting a bit worried because I could not see it, but finally I was on top of it. There were two volunteers on the dock to help yank you out. When I got close I stuck my face in the water, and put both hands in the air. The two volunteers yanked me right up and out of the water. I landed on my feet (a little wobbly), and headed off the dock and up the stairs. The mat was at the top of the stairs.

Look out for logs. Crushing your face into them is not as much fun as it sounds.

After hitting the mat at the top of the stairs, there was a little run up to tranistion. Found my rack, kicked my wetsuit off, Bryan was standing there, and said what's up Coldfire, helmet on, glasses on, and I hit the door. Right as I got to the mount line, I saw Derek starting to roll off. Mounted, and off I went.

I need to figure out how to kick off my wetsuit faster. I am quick, but my legs always seem to get hung up slightly.

I am not going to lie, this course was tougher than I thought it would be. Much more climbing than I was expecting, but still a good course.

First 3-4 miles was a series of false flats. Keep on the pedals, and you can still click off the miles at 25 mph. After the 3-4 miles, the rollers start. I was warned that there was one climb on the course was at mile 10. That was actually correct. The hill slowly climbs to the left, and then gets steeper back to the right. After you top it, it was flat and a right turn, and then zoom down the hills with a few rollers before the turn around. At this point I started to count, and knew I was in the top 5-6 already including the relay teams position wise. However, the glory of starting in the very back is that I knew that I was already in the top 3 based on the start time difference.

Made the turn, and started climbing my way out of that hole. Worked my way back to the top of the climb at mile 10, and then zoomed down it. At the bottom of the hill (basically) is where the return differs from the out. Instead of hanging a right, you keep straight.

The rest of the course was a series of rollers. I had one guy in sight that I was chasing down, and he was moving. It took me several, several miles to get him reeled in. Finally caught him, and as I passed I said "strong bike". I am not even sure if he looked at me, but I know he did not say a word. I am not sure if I need to stop that, because it comes across as being an azzhole (since I am passing)? I was being serious that he was a strong biker, but perhaps my timing is wrong doing so on the course?

Nonetheless, nothing eventful happened after that, but the one thing I wanted to note was the black magic of miles 21-23. I know for a fact that it appeared that I was going down hill, but I was slowing down. I was like WTF is going on here. I was hammering and barely pushing 22 mph, which really struck me as odd since there was also no wind that I could tell. With one mile left you hang a right onto the main street where they had an entire lane coned off which was really cool. Basically flat, with one very small up and over the river before you hung a right into the parking lot to dismount.

Since it took me a few days to finish up this report, it has become clear to me that the reason I was lacking that "additional gear" was that I was one day away from having a complete breakdown and being sick. Wheels fell of the bus on Monday, so I am sure that was the root cause. Nothing you can do about that.

I actually got my feet out too early. I did not realize I had a decent way to go before I needed to dismount. Nonetheless, I rounded the corner into the parking lot, dismounted, and headed to my rack. Well, I miscounted, and went to the wrong rack. Looked down and did not see my blue towel, WTF? Looked up and realized I was on the wrong rack, back-tracked one rack to the correct spot, and quickly transitioned to run. Still, even with the slight mishap, I managed :38 T2, so no worries.

Don't go to the wrong rack.

Exiting transition you go down a sloped bank to a concrete running path. I did my best not to bust my azz on that down hill, and when I reached the path I dropped the hammer. The path was nice and shaded, but is not completely flat like I was told. Nothing bad, but slight rollers and just up and downs as the path winded along the river, and around buildings, etc. The path was not really marked, but the RD said to just stay left. Ok, no biggie but that is a little more difficult (thinking wise) when you are trying to push max speed. Several times I was questioning which way to go, so if you actually knew the course it could have been a little bit faster. At one point I was unsure which way to follow the path, and actually asked some random people if other guys had gone that way. They responded with yes, so I followed suit.

Nonetheless, I hammered the first mile out at a 5:45 pace. Shortly after passing the 1 mile marker I checked a mile marker going the other way and it was the 5 mile marker, and then I could see Mikey up ahead. My new goal in life was to catch him. He is a strong racer and I know he can run, so if I could catch him I would be a good spot for a run at 1st/2nd OA. He was moving, but not at his normal blistering pace. When I finally caught him I yelled "I wanna go fast" (inside joke from the morning goofing off). He turned to me, and said that he had banged his hip into the dock when being pulled from the river and was having issues running. Then it all made sense why he was not moving at his normal pace. I pushed on. The run was uneventful for the next mile, and then the path opened up from being shaded and the sun came out. It was at this point that I started having issues getting a really good breath (on set of infection developing in the lungs I would later figure out on Monday), and I started to whither. Shortly after I saw the first relay guy, which was a 14 year old, hauling azz back the other way. Then the guy that would end up taking first OA. It was another .25 of a mile before I got to the parking lot where you do a lollie-pop around and the half way mark on the course. As I was entering, Brett was on his way out. Ok, quick calculation and I am in third position, but probably 1st OA since I started in the back. I tried to keep the pace steady to try and hold on.

Made the loop, and back out of the parking lot. Surprisingly, I had only put about .10 of a mile on Mikey and he looked to be running strong again (insert oh sh*t, since my legs did not have any pop in them). Back down the path for a bit and saw Bryan who looked to be running steady, and right as I came up on an aid station the volunteers said to hang a left. Ok no worries, up and over a decent hill, and there were two more volunteers standing there and said to turn right along the road. It was at that point that I could see Brett up ahead. He had a good lead, but was slowly coming back to me. Again, I tried to keep it steady but the legs just did not want any part of it. That combined with having issues getting a deep breath, and I could tell my pace had slowed greatly. Well, I kept at it and with Brett just ahead, the road merged back next to the path below. I could see runners going out, so I assumed we were on the right course. There was a guy with an all3sprots tri-top on that I had spoken to in the morning, and I yelled at him "great job all3!". He started smiling at me, but was really smiling a little too much which I thought was odd. Why in the hell is he smiling at me like that? Well, shortly after I could hear footsteps behind me. This SOB was right behind me, and would not pass which felt like forever. I could hear him back there, but I was not going to give him the satisfaction of turning around. Well, finally Mikey pulls up next to me. I asked him where in the hell did he come from? He said that his hip had loosened up, and he could run again. From there he wanted to chat but I could not get a good breath, so we ran side-by-side until right before we were on top of Brett. All-of-a-sudden Brett stops running, WTF?

Apparently, Brett had raced this back in 2010 and that year the course turn back down the parking lot, back to the running path. He started walking down the parking lot, since it was apparent he did not know which way to go. Mikey started to turn down into the parking lot, and all three of us just stopped. We threw up our hands and said "where do we go?" Mikey told Brett to ask the volunteers, since there were two standing at the bottom of the hill, and then a Jeep with a volunteer in it (who must have gotten word some runners were lost, and saw us stop running) turned into the parking lot and yelled to go straight. That was all I needed, so I started running again up the hill to the light. Well, as I got to the light I did not see a policeman holding traffic, and there were a lot of cars there. I had the cross walk, so I started to hammer through the intersection. As I did, I heard Mikey yell to me "WAIT FOR ME", I waived him to come with me, since I thought he was right behind me. As I crossed the intersection the light turned yellow, and then I could see a policeman turning around with his lights on to hold traffic. A volunteer told me to turn right, and the finish was down that way. three or four more blocks and there was the finish line. I hammered it in actually being happy to be finished, since the feeling of being lost sucks.


Don't get lost. I looked at the map the day before, and I saw the 5 mile marker earlier on the course, so I knew better but the volunteers said to hang a left. What are you going to do?

No warm down. I grabbed a bottle water, and hung out until everyone came in. Then we all talked about what had happened.


The unknown limited I had was that I was on the cusps of getting sick. Race was on Saturday, and I came down with it on Monday. Thus, I was probably in the incubation period right before it hit, but was already showing signs of fatigue in the muscles and lungs. Nothing you can do about that, nor could it have been seen coming.



From here it gets a little crazy. I was first back in, and then Mikey & Brett came in the same way. Then, the next guy comes in from over the bridge (which you could tell he was pissed), and then the guy that I saw in first position on the course came from behind the finish line loop around to cross. It was insane, apparently he got completely lost. The top five all got lost, and ran different routes. After the first five came in, apparently they got the course directions fixed and no one else had any issues. The first round of results that were posted showed me in 1st OA, Mikey 2nd OA, another guy in 3rd OA, Brett in 4th OA (1st Masters), and then guy that looped around the finish line in 5th. I hated to win 1st OA like that, but we all got lost and there was no way to tell if I had ran him down. Actual position meant nothing, since I started in the very back, so we could not go by that. The RD ended up talking to him, and put him as 1st OA and everyone else slide back one spot. It sucks, but I was completely ok with that, since the guy that took 1st OA was being cool with it before they moved his finish spot. I think if he was being a jerk about it, I would have thrown a fit, but he did nothing of the sort. After everyone cooled off, everyone was a class act of sportsmanship. The concept of "it happens" was the theme, and let the chips fall where they may. No worries, and I really did not want to take a 1st OA win like that anyway. Congrats to him, no hard feelings what-so-ever.

That being said, the run course could use a few more volunteers and some more markers for direction. With less than 100 racers, this race has so much potential. This truly is the Augusta of Olympic races with that current swim. I think the slowest swim of the day was 19 minutes for 1,770 meters (1.1 miles). The bike course is a challenge, and the run can be fast (if you do not get lost). A great local, small town feel. Plus, it did not hurt to have a bunch of buddies racing. Lots of PR's, and podiums.

I took 2nd OA
Mikey 3rd OA
Brett was 4th OA, 1st Masters
Bryan took 2nd AG
Derek took 2nd Clydes

Good overall day, and all3sports took 2 of the 3 OA podium positions!!

After the race there was a little local park by the finish with a large fountain shooting water up into the air. Just for McQ, I went over there and did my best CANNONBALL through the fountain!