West Point Lake - TriathlonOlympic

Thought I had done a little better than this on the swim, but in thinking back, the time does accurately reflect the effort. I was really trying to take it easy to save myself for later.

Maybe push the pace a little more.

Perfectly acceptable T1 for me.

Another good bike split for me. Felt good throughout. I pushed the pace, but was never out of control. I did lose my rhythm after the bottle handoff, but i settled back in and hammered it home.

Draft more. Just kidding.

Uhhhh, apparently i had a coffee break or something in T2. I really don't remember it taking this long. I did sit down to change my shoes, and I took a second to situate all my bottles i was taking with me on the run. hmmm....

Not take so long?

On one hand, I'm just glad i finished. On the other hand, I hate that T2 and the run ruined what could have been a really good race for me. Shucks!

I guess part of the reason i was so slow in T2 was b/c I decided to take my fuel belt with me, plus another bottle in hand (one of the awesome bottles they gave you in your race pack, and no, they weren't really awesome). I was debating on whether or not this would be overkill, but it turned out that I was glad for every drop. I wouldn't have finished without all those fluids.

But it was certainly a humbling experience. I was glad that I never lost the "will" to race. A little discouraged maybe, but I was always thinking about my time and not giving up. Seeing as I am so bad in the heat, i had to really be careful not to push past a place that I couldn't recover from. So that meant a lot of walk breaks. I resorted to the old standby of "okay, lets make it to that sign then we'll walk...lets make it to that tree...that water station...etc.." whatever I could do to get me back in.

I saw Kraig, Brett, Courtney, and Jaimie coming back in as I was going out, and I would have traded places with any of them in a second. They were almost out of hell, and I was just going in. Long, long day finally came to an end after I willed myself to run the last .5 mile without stopping. Took me a few seconds to collect myself enough to unstrap my chip and throw it in the bucket.

Train more in the heat. Yeah right. Not sign up for notoriously hot races.

Sat on the grass and stared blankly at the lake for a while.


The heat. Or rather, my lack of preparation for competing in the heat. I make no excuses. I don't train a lot in the heat, so I shouldn't expect to perform in the heat. But is it worth it? For me, no. I don't plan on specializing in hot weather races. And if i do happen to train in the heat, it will be very seldom or an accident. So I'll stick to either cooler races, or sprint distances in the summer months.


Another good race put on by GAMS, another year West Point has chewed me up and spit me out. 3rd year in a row doing this race, 3 sub par race performances. Oh well, there's alway next year. or not.

Only negative comments about the race organization, on my way back in on the run, i heard more than a few people mention they ran out of water at the first water station. that is a huge no-no! I heard they did that in Macon too. Inexcusable!! If you are going to put on races in the middle of Georgia in May and June, the least you can do in ensure there is enough water and ice to last the whole event.

Also, another minor complaint...the shirt color! Seriously? a sand colored shirt. like i need more reminders of how hot this race was. stick with blues, greens and whites!