I am going to keep these first two short and sweet. Mostly because I do not remember much and training has kept me so busy I have not had the chance to do a write up! Blalock Olympic I ended up 3rd Overall. I was run down by George Darden(surprise surprise) and another guy. Still my first overall placement in an Olympic. The one thing I remember is feeling off on the bike the entire time out there.
Mistletoe Sprint was a quick course with a trail run. Last year I ended 2nd in my age group here and I was back for revenge! I got out of the water 5th overall and was thinking to myself what the heck is going on. I passed a few guys in transition and had 3 to catch. About a mile in, I was on their tail. I hammered past knowing that I had to put time on the bike. I ended up putting about 3 minutes on the rest of the field thanks to the rollers. I hit the run in first place for the first time ever! I felt fancy with the lead bike rolling in from of me. When I made the turn around and saw the gap I knew I had the race. I pushed on and finished up first overall! My first EVER triathlon overall win! It was a lot to do with the fact that the really fast people were not there because of injury or other plans but I was pumped :). I used that adrenaline to follow my coaches plan of immediately knocking out a 2 hour run. Unfortunately, I missed the award ceremony because I was out running. Very blessed with the win! I love the Tri the Park Series! This was my last of the series as I focus in on Ironman Chattanooga! I managed to get 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, and 1st in my four races in the series. LAKE LOGAN HALF
This was a big race for me. Not because it was a focus this year, but because it was going to be a good test of my nutrition and where I was at in training. Nutrition wise, for the first time, I had a plan. I had cut out fiber for the last 36 hrs and had switched to UCAN, Skratch, and Bonk Breakers for the bike!. On the run, I was now using Huma Gels. YOU CAN GET ALL THESE PRODUCTS AT ALL3SPORTS.COM AND YES THAT WAS ADVERTISING!
I met George Darden and Erin Humsi at 3pm Friday to do a little warm up at the race sit. These two are stinking legends and are headed to Kona for the second time in October. Yeah, they are freaking fast! Enjoyed a nice 45 minute spin and 10 minute run. We finished up and got in line to pick up our packets. All 3 of us ended up switching to the Elite Open field in order to go in the first swim wave. So glad I did this! Saw lots of Dynamo, All3Sports, and ATC members around. Fun group! I then dipped out to Waynesville to get checked in and settled. Joseph McLeod and I were splitting a room and he was checking in right behind me. Met Joseph last weekend when we road 125 miles together. He is a fast son of a gun too! I packed up my gear and settled. We had a nice dinner and were off to bed early. I got up early, 3:30am, and made me a breakfast of 6 eggs and a cup of coffee. Made it to race site at 5am and picked up my timing chip. After setting up transition, Joseph and I went for a nice easy 20 min run to the the legs moving. It was almost go time. Got in the water 5 minutes before the start to get the initial cold shock over with. It was a wetsuit swim and quite chilly! The elite group of males and females was quite small which was nice.
Swim
The swim started out pretty normal for me. I hammered to the lead in the first 50meters and then settled into a nice rhythm with virtually no kick. As I made the first turn, I noticed a couple of swimmers to my right hanging with me. After the second turn, it was a straight shot back in. I pushed a little harder trying to make sure I had a good lead. We were able to drop one of the swimmers by a bit but the other and I were side by side. In the last 50 meters, I pushed to make sure I was first. As we approached the exit, it was a river we entered and the water temp dropped 15 degrees! Brrrr, but it was awesome! I threw myself up on the dock skipping the ladder which saved me a few seconds. Turns out the two just behind me were chicks! Erin Humsi being one of course!!! 23:43 for the swim! The swim had to be a little short because I expected closer to a 25. I was in and out of T1 in 2:28 and onto the bike. Bike
What an amazing course!!! I had the privilege of the lead motorcycle the entire ride....well almost the entire ride...I will get to that! I had hopes of leading into the run! I felt like I was riding a century with nice descends and climbs. It was fun being the lead and I was able to push pretty hard. I need to learn to use more cadence to keep the HR up and not power. I was able to stay somewhat steady though. Most climbs were nice and short. At mile 30, my motorcycle lead pulled beside me and told me he was pulling off and that another motorcycle should pick me up. Well, no other motorcycle did and I had a couple lonely moments when I was wondering if I was on course. Good thing I was! There was one climb around mile 40 that was solid with switchbacks and everything. I felt like I was at home :) Soon after that climb was a descent with lots of gravel but nothing that I couldn't move around. We then met up with those racing the international distance. It was nice to get some leap frogging finally. About .5 from the finish I hear a what's up behind me....dangit George "stinkin" Darden had caught me in the last second! We had a nice laugh about it while we ran our bikes into transition. Bike time 2:18:52. Bike was also short at 52 miles. I was in and out of T2 just ahead of George in a time of 1:17.
Run
That lead did not even last 1 second. Bye bye George! I had a specific plan for the run and I was sticking to it! Steady up the hill, push it back. Hard up the hill second lap and then bring it home. The first out was just as I planned with half a gel at mile 1.5 and the rest of it at mile 3. I was feeling strong and dodging international distance runners. On the way down, I finally had a chance to see "the chase". I had some great runners behind me who were looking strong and I knew I had to execute. The turn around for lap 2 went right by the finish line and around a large field before heading back to the road. The second lap was the key to this race. I had to keep my HR up on the climb! I pushed hard and kept the HR over 160 which was the goal, ignoring pace. My turn over felt great in my new Clifton Hokas! I finished off Gel 2 on the climb up around mile 7/8. Once I made the turn around, I started doing the math on third place. I knew I had to beat him by 12 minutes because I had started in the elite field. Once I saw him through the crowds of runners, I started pushing hard and calculating. I had around 15 minutes but he was running faster than me! From that point on, I was in the zone and was not looking at anything. I took half a gel and just went into go mode. All the great All3Sports, Dynamo, and ATC athletes were very motivating yelling at me. I crossed the line 2nd Overall. Run split was 1:24:20. Again, the run was short by a half mile. The run is what made me the happiest about this race. I was not passed once, which is a first for me. Also, nutrition worked great!Overall time was 4:10:40. I will take it. George and I decided that we would need to add about 16 minutes to our time to ballpark an actual 70.3.
This is an amazing race and it was very well run. Then again, it is Setup Events and they are always amazing! The venue could not be more gorgeous! I hope they make 2 simple changes. 1) To extend the swim, bike, and run to make it at true 70.3! Based on the venue, that should be very simple! 2) Get rid of the Open Category and just do overall. That was confusing and I have not seen it before. I highly recommend this race and hope to be back soon!
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