Jun7-13 and weekend review

S: 25,900 yds
B: 8h 4min
R: 6h 39min

Total: 21h 32min

Training, especially HIT, occurred quite frequently last week. However, so did work, which left not so much time to sleep. Tuesday night at the CC park was fun but Wednesday (hard bike) and Thursday (hill workout) were particularly brutal.

Although the week was tough, I did have the weekend in Birmingham to look forward to. Saturday was the Buster Britton Memorial Triathlon in Oak Mountain Park just outside of Brimingham, AL so I headed down with my buddy Stephen B on Friday evening.

After a nice nap on the couch, it was race morning and I was up making coffee. Race morning was uneventful until we got to packet pickup and I found out I was #25. I thought this was a bit strange because this race uses a time trial start and therefore in theory the start order should go from slowest to fastest. Regardless of whether they ranked people by projected swim finish time or projected overall finish time (both of which you had to enter) I was fairly convinced I'd be faster than 25th. But hey, you never know. Additionally, triathlon swim legend and Timex teammate Bruce Gennari was only seeded 22nd, so clearly they werent basing these seedings on projected swim finish time.

On to the race... I took off into the water and immediately started passing folks. The 400yd swim in the warm lake came and went and I was off onto the bike.

Being on a mountain, this course was pretty hilly but fun at the same time. I was able to stay in my saddle for most of the ride on the smooth roads through the state park. There were a couple of out and backs and it appeared Bruce and one of the members of the local USAT development team were pulling ahead of me a bit but it was hard to tell since both of them started before me.

Coming off the bike, there were only three people ahead of me and they had all started ahead of me as well. I took off in my racing flats, hoping to chase everyone down. I figured the run would be hilly but I didnt realize the first mile would be almost all uphill. At the turnaround I saw my comp: one kid way out front and then Bruce and another kid not too far up the road. I was able to pass one of the kids and Bruce on the way back to be the second finisher across the line. As it turns out, though, I ended up third as someone else who started further back in the field also had a faster time than me.

I had a ton of fun post race eating Arby's, having a couple of ice cold Cokes, and hanging out with the Huntsville contingent. Awards started promptly at 11:00 and by 11:45 I was on my bicycle headed back to the house where I was staying in Birmingham. The ride home was a bit on the warm side and required an emergency water stop at a well at a church. However, 2h45 later I was back at house where USA-England was on TV and Stephen had an ice cold Flying Dog waiting for me. So other than the fact that I lost to a 17 yr old, it was a pretty fun weekend!