The race took place at the FloraBama--a restaurant/bar located on the Alabama/Florida border along the Gulf of Mexico. I picked up my race packet the night before the race and headed over to Cafe Grazie for a pre-race, carb-loaded dinner. Shrimp fettuccine was the meal of choice coupled with a Stella Artois.
I was extremely anxious at this point, as the weather had been questionable all week. We stayed out in Perdido that night as I tossed and turned through what seemed to be a hurricane taking place outside. It was windy. I wasn't sure what to expect the following morning as this would be my *first* official open-water swim. The indoor pool and the Gulf of Mexico are rather different to say the least. I was up numerous times throughout the night and finally stayed awake around 5am. Took in a light breakfast, packed up the truck and headed out for the starting line. As we pulled up and I unloaded my equipment, I noticed the red flag swaying...not a good sign. The Gulf was "sporty", as my buddy Matt would say. Definitely rough and questionable as to whether or not we would actually swim in it.
After setting up our transition area, we made our way towards the Gulf (primarily to get in the sun, as it was also rather chilly this time of morning). After looking into the water and seeing the two buoys set up, the distance looked a lot longer than I anticipated. It was only a 400 yd swim, but the distance they marked off appeared to be a mile long. I figured I may as well get used to the water, as we did NOT have wetsuits for the race, so we jumped in for a "refreshing" experience. We took our place at the starting line and before I knew it, the horn sounded. I felt like David Hasselhoff as I took off for the water. At this point, I really wished I would have practiced swimming more in the Gulf. I was getting rocked. We swam straight out to the first buoy (into the waves that were definitely "surfable"), turned the corner, swam parallel to the beach, hugged the second buoy and swam straight in towards the shore. The water was chilly and it was hard getting my breathing under control. I felt like I wasn't moving and had to focus on what I practiced in the pool. Although before I knew it, I was already making the turn around the second buoy and heading towards shore. I drank approximately 1/2 gallon of salt water during the 12 minutes I was in the water...
As I came out of the water, I hustled up to T1 while giving Jenn, Leah and Max a quick "thumbs-up" as I attempted to thaw out. I wrapped up the swim in 12:06 and was in T1 for 2:47. I jumped on the bike and took off for the 17 mile bike ride. It was a nice, flat out-and-back course with 1 bridge midway. With the exception of the strong headwind going out, it was a comfortable ride. The ride was rather uneventful and I came in at just under 50 minutes.
I was only in T2 for just a little over a minute before I took off for the 5K run. Legs were feeling like Jello. I was thankful for all of my brick workouts during training so I knew how to tackle the run without burning out too early. With this being my first official triathlon, I really didn't know what to expect. Everyone took on a strong headwind during the first half of the run. As I was moving along the course, I noticed a shadow of a man behind me--staying in stride with me. As we make the turnaround, I look back and noticed that it was a 66 year old man. Wow. That was humbling. Here I am busting my tail and this 66 year old is right on my heels. He smiled and thanked me for "taking on the headwind" as he drafted me for a mile and a half. I laughed and said "no problem". I chatted with him for a minute or two and mentioned that this was my first tri. I later come to find out that this dude competed in Kona the year before...For those who are unaware of what "competed in Kona" means, this is the Ironman World Championship in which you must qualify for. This guy was legit. I congratulated him and said that I was going to pick up the pace as we headed towards the finish line. He said he would try to keep up with me. Needless to say, he stayed on my heels the whole way.
I wrapped up the run in 30 minutes, giving me a total finishing time of 1:35:24. As I crossed the finish line, I look up to see one of my fraternity brothers, NOVA, standing there with an SAE flag--hootin' and hollerin'. Nova, you are the man--thanks for coming out and cheering me on!
Overall, the race went well. It was a great warm-up/practice race for my half-iron distance triathlon in the weeks to come. My main goal in this race was to practice the transitioning from one leg to the other and see what areas I needed to spend more time on. I knew I needed to pick up the tempo in my training--the half-iron distance in Knoxville was going to be more than quadruple the distance in each of the legs.
