Rock&RollMan Southeast Long Course Championship

Exactly six days after winning the TriAmerica New Orleans event, I found myself lining aup against the Deep South's very best at today's Rock&RollMan.

This is my 4th time at the event, and I really wanted to finish better than 3rd, which is what I have gotten in year's past. I was feeling "on" this morning, and after leading the swim, I started the bike strong to hold off Dan Moss, a friend and fellow pro who has won this race the past 3 years, all of them with a killer bike ride. I led the race to mile 11, when he passed me. I followed him for a couple of minutes and decided to repass him. He is clearly a stronger cyclist than I am, and my only goal in doing this was to break his spirit. He followed me for about a minute and then really passed me. Within 3 miles, he was 45 seconds up the road.

I ended the hilly and windy bike ride in 4th place, 2:35 down from 2nd and 3rd. I started the run on a mission and found myself in 3rd place by mile 5. Before mile 8, I was in 2nd.

From then onward, my main focus became to maintain my gap and to survive the remainder of the blazin' hot run, the remainder of the scalding hot 13.1 mile run. Right before the line I reached for my brazilian flag, but had too little energy to wave it, and only carried it over the line. I was in a deep hole. 2 IV's layter and I was functional again.

I ended up 4:50 down from first which is the closest I have ever been to the winner. I was only 54 seconds ahead of Chris Olson's 3rd place finish, a tight finsih. He had a terrific race this year and really made me fight hard for 2nd. I am looking forward t a little break this coming week, as my body is pretty nuked from the past week's efforts.

RESULTS:http://www.setupevents.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=event_results&id=938

Win in New Orleans!

I am just back from New Orleans and am ecstatic I was able to hve such a great day. I exited the water with a sizeable lead and pushed the pace to entend my lead to nearly 28 min at the end of the day. The 2k/60k/15k distance really suits me, but the heat at the end took its tool on all the athletes I think.

I finished in 3:00:42, and while I tried to break 3 hours, at the end I was just glad to be done and cross the line in one piece.

Results can be found here: http://www.championchiptiming.com/images/files/static/238Male.htm

I will post the press release soon. Pretty tired right now. i just realized the hole I dug during the race was my own grave. I am nuked!

FB

Snakes and open water swimming

As part of preparing for the Tri-America New Orleans ( as well as Kansas Ironman 70.3), I swim in open water. I like being prepared, so ever since I started swimming at the Oak Mountain Double Oak Lake I have researched what animals may live there. After living in Florida for 7+ years - where any large bodies of wate rmay have alligators or sharks - it's a nice change to be in water where I may be the largest animal.

Well, so I thought. I found out a while back that water moccassin snakes ( also known as cottonmouths) live in the area. There is only one venomous water snake in North America, and the aforementioned snake is it. Unfortunately, it is also one of the very few aggressive reptiles that will stand its ground or even approach an intruder! Their bite is highly hemotoxic.

Today, right before getting in the water, I saw one. It was my first sighting of a snake in the water ( I have seen countless while trail running, including coral snakes and timber rattlesnakes, also highly poisonous.) This particular snake was about 3 ft. long, and it was right there in the usual spot I use to enter the lake. It was clear that we both knew of each other's presence, as she was staring right at me, and would move anytime I moved closer. Now I know that is not a very large snake, but I am sure it is large enough to do some damage, especially if I am to get bitten in the middle of the lake.

As I walked closer and closer ( fascinated and scared!) she decided she had had enough and left, hiding in the rock wall. I decided to make a lot of noise while entering the water ( using an alternate location) to warn other animals around of my presence and my size. I also made sure I stayed in the middle of the lake, where, contrary to my instincts, that's where I am least likely to encounter another one.

Even though I was wearing my Blue Seventy Helix wetsuit, making me feel a bit more protected against other snakes, it was still an adrenaline-packed 70+ minutes. Sometimes swimming can be scarier than riding on SUV infested roads!

Alabama State Championships

I just got back from the Alabama Coastal "Triathlon", which served at the State Championships for the State of Alabama. After chasing the title of Alabama State Champion last year and losing it in the run, I decided I would go back this year for a shot at it.

Race morning came, and my alarm did not go off. I woke up 30 minutes late and got to the race site with only 30 minutes to get my gear ready and warm up. While getting set up, I heard the Race Director state the swim would be cancelled due to rough ocean waves and currents. personally, I believe that it being a State Championship, the race management should have let those in contention for the prize purse or state championship do the 1,000 yd. ocean swim. Instead, we were instructed to ready for a 1 mile run instead, thus effectively turning the race into a Duathlon ( 1 mile run/ 19.5 mile bike /4.5 miles run).

The swim is where I can separate myself from the majority of my competition, so I was upset, but only for a second. I knew there was nothing I could do but to begin preparing to the race start.

The first run started slow for me ( I am not a great runner unless I am running off the bike), so I was in 5th place. I had a very speedy T1 and got onto the bike in 2nd place, only seconds away from first. I had a worse than normal bike ride and lost a few too many positions, but got stronger near the end and picked off some of those who had passed me early on. With a 4.5 mile run to go, I was in 2nd for the State Champs. I was running sub 6min/miles early on, but decided to turn on the afterburners at miles 2 and 3 in order to take 4th overall, but first in the State Champ title by 20 seconds.

After the race I went out for a 2 mile jog and to cheer on those who were still tackling the course. I a now back home and will enjoy an easy evening before I begin preparing for the Tri-America New Orleans race. I really want to do well there, so I will be putting the hammer down starting tomorrow.