Richard B Russell Olympic Triathlon- August 10th, 2013

With two weeks until IM Louisville, this race was a good chance to put a last good effort in.  I was excited that my friend Jesse Turk was making his debut back into triathlons after a 4 year hiatus.  We left Friday late and went to Athens to make the morning drive a little shorter!  I had never done this course before and had heard great things!

Race morning came early and we headed out.  It was great seeing familiar faces in transition setting up. I knew the competition for this race would be tough and with my focus on the Ironman, I was interested to see what happened!  I jumped on my bike to make sure I was in the right gear for transition and I am glad I did; my chain dropped.  I fixed it up and headed to the lake.

The swim felt off...I knew it would considering that I have not been in the pool at all!  The water felt like a sauna and I was not in a good rhythm.  The swim was two laps and I felt a lot better on lap two.  I pushed on and came out in 25 minutes and 7th overall.

I hit T1 and was in and out pretty quick.  I kicked my bottle off the bike as I jumped on and had to grab it real quick.  The bike felt pretty good!  I borrowed a friends ZIPP 1080 rear and 404 front and they felt great!  The course was gorgeous with pretty consistent rolling hills.  I always have a hard time warming up in these shorter distances but I felt pretty good by mile 10 and was able to get a decent cadence going.  I ended up averaging 22.3 mph on the bike.  I passed a lot of the Duathletes out there and held onto my 7th place spot.  T2 started rough with me running in the wrong direction into T2.  The great volunteers steered me in the right direction and then it all went smooth!  On came the HOKAS and it was off to the 10K.  Speed has been my focus since the Double Iron and Ultras of the last year.  This was the first run it all clicked!  I felt great and even passed someone!!!(I DO NOT PASS PEOPLE IN THE RUN)  I ran into 6th overall and 1st age group.  I held 6:48s and did the 10K in right at 42 minutes.  It was nice to feel good on a run!  LET US HOPE THIS CARRIES ONTO LOUISVILLE!!!  My total time was 2:10!

Again, another amazing race put on by Tri the Parks!  Such a well organized race with the best volunteers!  Now, IM Louisville awaits!