2012 Results:
Overall: 37 / 82
Gender:
A/G: 4 / 9
Time: 41:25
Format 400m (Swim) / 3 (Run) / 400m (Swim)
This race is always a very fun race. I particularly like their motto of “Old School, all distances are approximate” J This race features a different look at racing in the terms of a lot of fast people coming out and just having fun, very low stress and I have not found there to be many aggressive attitudes. Today’s race is the last one in the 3 set of races and will have 2 different racing disciplines, swimming & Running. This year’s race was unique though because it was on Fourth of July, so instead of being an evening race the RDs decided to make it an AM race and started everything at 8:00am so we could go and enjoy the day, which was very nice for my Son, daughter & wife who agreed to accompany me.

Being a local fun, low-key, race the interestingness started right of the bat. I walked up to the registration table with my pre-registration eMail in hand and the little girl checked me in then wanted to write my number on my arm…I Said, this is different. It was at that point that she informed me that there was not chip timing this year that the vendor fell through…..UGH, I really don’t like non-chipped events any more. But in good spirit, and since I had already drug my family out of bed with me, I let her mark me up and let’s go and have a good time.

The format starts with a 400 meter open water swim in Sharon Harris Lake. The start was pretty uneventful as it was a waist deep start, so we get to miss all the pushing & kicking each other in the face while fighting for position. As quickly as the swim started I patiently waited until most everyone was out before I started the directly moved to the outside to avoid being kicked. This technique allowed me to very quickly settle into my own stroke turnover and swim comfortably, which was a huge difference from last year where I think I about die! LOL
The swim quickly ended and we were on to the next part. THE RUN. Before this race I promised myself that I would take everything very easy and that is what I had planned for the run too. As I came into the transition area my family was there waiting for me and without stopping I made sure that everything was ok with them, put my shoes on grabbed my Garmin on off I went. This year I found it much easier to settle into the run. Not sure if it was because of my increase of fitness or because I did not kill myself on the 1st swim. Who knows but ….. as the run progressed I carried a very comfortable pace of 7:30s but everyone behind me was yelling at this chick saying stuff like come on girl you can do it….Be strong she is only right ahead of you… When I glanced behind me this lady looked as if she was struggling on the run so I gave her some words of encourage men and told her to stay on my heals and we will get her. She agreed and we dropped the pace down to just over

7:00s. Funny thing about this was when we were entering the transition are she looked at me and said “You know I have to pass you now” LOL, I did not crush her bubble, but really lady like I was even trying to out run you.
So I did what any other boy would do, yup let her pass then run right on her heals so she knew she could not drop me…Whatever SMH so off we went to our separate areas.

This 2nd transition was back to the swim for another 400 meter loop. I certainly was not anxious to get back into the water. The little push I did at the end of the run left me a tad out of breath but after checking on the family off I went. The final swim was very non eventful and was not very fast. But I completed it and felt good. Afterwards the family and went home and enjoyed a nice day together.