Lake Murry Post Race Report

well, it has been a little while since my last race and post. So here we go.

Jorgia and I drove down to the race site early on Saturday morning. About three miles from the race site mother nature called and the bottom of my stomach fell out. So, I immediately pulled into a Hardees to use the facilities and when I got to the door it was locked. They did not open up until 7:00am and I had ten minutes to wait. So, I looked around and saw a McDonald's across the street. I threw the keys to Jorgia and told her to pick me up. When I got to the McDonald's I found they were closed as well.

At this point I was in pain and the race was in jeopardy because I was on the verge of blowing up my race suit. I jumped in the truck and made it to the nearest gas station. I made it into the restroom just in the nick of time! Disaster avoided!

When we arrived at the race site I went to packet pickup and then set up Transition. Then I headed to the water to check out the swim course. It was a 750 meter swim and I must say I felt nervous about it because of the Langley Pond swim nightmare. But, I put the head phones on and got into the "zone".

Swim: As I have said I was very nervous about the swim. I told myself I had two goals for the day, one, race as hard as I could and two, have fun. once I decided on these two concepts things went well. The swim was the smoothest open water swim I have ever had. I felt good I did not stop at all and my sighting was dead on. The swim was still slow but, I felt great!

T1: The run to transition was short and it allowed me to be quick and make up some time. I did have some trouble with getting the wetsuit off but managed to work through it.

Bike: The bike started off rough. I could not get my heart rate down for the first three miles. Then things seemed to settle down. This was the first race I drafted in. But, I was in a group of about twenty and no one could pull away for any length of time. I passed the same 12 people 12 different times. I did leave two people with Ironman tats behind. I felt pretty good about that.

All of a sudden I get smacked on the arm and some dude says, "you just got passed by a Marine, Airborne." Before I knew what was going on he was 50 feet past me. Well, I now had to pick up the pace. No way I am going to loss to a Marine. So, I dropped the hammer and flew by him and shouted, "you better pick it up Devildog!" Well, I thought I had gotten rid of the Marine but a mile to go he passed me again out know where and shouted, "Move the Marines are coming through." knowing I was out of gas in the legs I let him have the lead and shouted, "You better hope you can run!" I finished the bike and headed into T2.

T2: T2 was fast and smooth for me. In and out very quickly.

Run: I hit the run with motivation to track down Marine guy. I caught him in the first mile. I snuck up like a ninja on his A$% and passed him as told him he just was passed for good by the Airborne! I never seen him again on the course. I had a good run and for the first time had fun!

I finished the race and waited on the Marine. When he made it to the finish we shook hands and chatted awhile. He was a good dude. So, Marine, once again thanks for your service! My goal was to finish between 1:30 and 1:40 and I was 1:38. Overall a great day!