buster britton sprint tri

the buster britton tri, mid june, was my first tri in 2yrs and i was a bit nervous. the day began with what was such a beginner mistake! i picked up my packet and my timing chip and promptly lost it! i guess i dropped it, but luckily it was found and returned to me. that used up a bit of my adrenaline for the day.

i set up transition, planning for rain and met my coach, eric doehrman with ironguides.net. he was so sweet and drove from huntsville to support me in this race. we reviewed the strategy for the day and he helped keep kay and i calm while we waited to start.

the swim turned into a really short one as one of the buoys took off down the lake in the storm that began just before the start! so it turned into about a 300yd swim which i did in 5:43. with such a short swim, i felt really good coming out of the water but it was quite a long run to transition and it had started raining.

i was ok with a wet bike course since it was a road i ride regularly. i could have practically rode it with my eyes closed. a great advantage knowing exactly what was coming and where to push it. i did have the problem of dropping my chain coming up the hill from the dam and had to get off and put it back on. that's where i lost my friend todd h. who i'd been neck in neck with. i finished the 12/13mile bike in 40:37.

the run started with the usual dead legs but went fairly well thanks to my new friend gary who ironically is also a friend of my coach!! we spoke on the run and he paced me nicely. i finished the 3 mile run in 25:53 which is fast for me and my knee problems.

when we went to check race times after, i was upset to not see mine in my age group. i was worried that it meant they might have not activated my chip after i lost it. thanks, though, to my friend todd g. who was workin the race i found them. he called me over and pointed to them and i was so shocked to find that they were in the section of those that had placed!! i had placed third in the beginner group with a total time of 1:16:08 / 31st out of 140. i could not have been more happy or more shocked. what a cool way to start back into racing and it's thanks mostly to my awesome coach who has made me faster already!! i finished the day with the cool experience of standing on the podium for the first time ever!