I Love the Tavern - Triathlon

We had a person in our wave have a seizure right as we were getting in and lining up. It looked like they got her out okay and to the nearest hospital but it took them a while to realize we were serious about needing help right at the start.
I started off fast, too fast. within 300 meters I felt dizzy and struggled to keep going. I did some back stroke and regrouped but kept getting dizzy. Kept feeling like breakfast was too long ago. My sighting sucks. Not much to say about that cause that's the truth.

Eat a bigger breakfast. Swim my pace and push later on in the course instead of with the jackrabbits at the start.

Didn't set the towel out in transition. Didn't dry my feet. Wet feet with attempting socks isn't fun. Grabbed the Optimum bar I left in the run hat and partly opened it so I could finish opening it and eat on the way out.

Dry my feet!

Little hill out from the park, ate my Optimum bar. Felt a lot better. Out on Hugenot Trail, tried to keep my speed up where I could. One minor hill on that road. Played cat and mouse with a couple ladies through the course. Kristen passed me shortly before the turn on Manakin Ferry. I yelled at her but she didn't notice,
This part of the ride sucks. Nothing but rollers until the mother of hills at the turn around. I was trying to muscle up but was too close to the girl in front of me and I didn't think I could take her so I dropped back and it cost me a bit of power on that climb. I had to get off and walk it about 50 -100 yards. Then I got back on and had maybe 4 pedal strokes in when the chain dropped. I had to get off to fix it cause none of the tricks worked. Hit the turn around and got a glimpse of my old swim pal Lesa on her way up. I maintained pretty decent speed going down but somehow Lesa passed me. Caught up with the cat and mouse ladies and passed them for good.

Be more aggressive. More hills, did I say more hills?

Not much to say. Took the bike shoes off and traded out for sneakers.

This course was the craziest run course I have ever seen. It took me several minutes looking at the map to figure it out. The run is 80% wooded in trails. Out along the transition area then onto the path along the river where the swim exit was. From there it got crazy. There were several small foot bridges and some minor hills. Had it not been for the race volunteers I would have gotten all confused. I caught up with Lesa about 1/2-3/4 mile in and passed her. Saw Kristen heading in and cheered her on. Got out of the woods and into a pretty neighborhood. No more shade for a while. I saw Jen just before the turn around, she was headed back in.
I got to the turn and shouted for Heed. There was the cutest little boy passing out the drinks. He was probably 5 at the most. I got to the corner and saw a man pushing 2 kids in a stroller. Told the older one to tell his daddy he wanted to be a triathlete. Got back into the shade and took off. Passed Jen. Kept moving. I felt like I owned the run portion on the back half. Once I saw the bench at the river edge I knew I only had about 200 yards or so to go so I really pushed it. I passed a lady in the finish chute too.

Nothing, this was definitely my best leg!

Walked around, grabbed a bagel. Found another old swim partner who recently had a baby (her husband was racing). Talked with Jen and Kristen, grabbed some barbecue pork and coleslaw (at 10 AM?--yep, and it was good too)


Tanked on the swim, struggled on the hills with the bike. LOVED that run!


This was a good race, the bike is pretty challenging but not impossible.