3am Wakeup and a Serpentine Swim...

Despite having a week of workouts that resembled getting up from the recliner and watching FitTV, I decided to skip over to the Harvest Thunder Triathlon. A serpentine swim and a lunch of river bugs awaited... Traveling over the day of the race was pretty crazy as we had to get up at 3 am. Luckily I was able to hitch a ride with my teammate Evan, which allowed for a little rest in the car. As for the race, the swim portion was much like a duathlon start in which the swimmers started one by one, thirty seconds apart. This serpentine swim was pretty "special" swimmers go down and back in lane one circle swimming. After completing one lap, swimmers duck under the lane line and repeat the protocol in lane 2...at least it was easy to remember what lap I was on.

The team swimmers started first, which presented a slight problem as the fastest individual swimmers wound up swimming through the team heat. I had to swim by a few slower team swimmers but found no difficulty. The bike course was relatively flat except for a significant hill at the turn around. I always like the feeling of being a human missile on the bike, riding low in the aerobars, creeping up all the way to the tip of the saddle, race wheels roaring like helicopter blades, simply on a mission. As this was a staggered start, it was hard to tell what place I was in or who was riding well. The only solution was to hammer and let it sort itself out at the finish. Despite major mouth clogging clouds of bugs, the bike was very enjoyable. My muscles felt thick and strong throughout the 20k course.

I went quickly through transitions to the sounds of the fans and a random "god-speed runner." The fatigue from my last weeks run blowup still lingered and the minutes on the run began to creep. The run twisted by the river and through a local park, upon completing the park lap I saw the sign that said we have to do another lap...sucks. I found myself letting up as I just didn't want to suffer anymore. I completed the last part of the park lap, back down the riverside bike path and back to the pool. I figured I'd try and clear out my legs with a sprint at the end...mmm feels good, and by good I actually mean bad.

At the finish line, I saw how things had sorted out, I ended up 4th, couldn't catch my uber-biker friend Evan, but put over 3 minutes on 5th...I couldn't help thinking that I could have ran 2.5 minutes slower and had alot more fun! I quickly remembered that triathletes, most crazy like myself, don't have fun unless we are suffering. The more pain, the more pleasure...it's messed up sport...and we all love it.
Me and my Teammate Evan at the Awards Ceremony.