Race 7 - in the books, Statesville Sprint Tri May 16, 2009

Great day and a good race. Setup Events and TrySports always do such a good job.

Early morning wake up - 5:45 - for a little breakfast, coffee, water - walk the dog - re-check the bag (did I mention I check that thing a million times?) and off we go.

Get to the venue, set up the bike and running gear in transition - the area you go from swim, to bike, then bike to run. Wayne's already there - so we start chatting a bit, more folks show up - they put us in the WAAAAY back of transition, but it's closer to the run start so that's good.

Have about an hour to kill before the my swim starts - so off to get body marked - where they write your number on both arms, both thighs right above the knee and your age on the back of your leg....in indelible marker. So in case your arms get separated from your legs, they can put you back together. :-)

Get in the pool area - they're lining folks up - we have about 35 minutes before we start swimming. Just like last year, there are some folks who over estimated their swimming capabilities and are walking in the shallow end, or doing the backstroke after two laps - so we have to pass them as we go if possible.

Good swim about 7 minutes (hard to read the clock with goggles on) - out to transition - put on the bike gear, sunglasses, helmet, watch/gps, gloves, socks and shoes. Jog to the bike start - which in cycling shoes on pavement can always be tricky. Hop on and off we go - route was as I remembered, couple of really good hills, lots of little ring cycling. Passed my fair share of folks - and only got passed once - had a good ride - just under 39 minutes.

Great transition - see transition - the time you go from one sport to the next can always be tricky. For example - my first tri - I had a 6+ minute transition (swim to bike) because my shoes were messed up, and a 2+ minute bike to run - because I was messed up. But today - I set up my gear properly for me, and had good transitions, both under 2 minutes each time. Defintely room for improvement...it's like I'm fixing my hair or something out there...wait

Off to the run - which after biking is always entertaining. Your legs because you just got off the bike feel like they have bricks in them, because of the blood in the larger muscles of the legs and they're fully engorged...so you have to kind of work on that during training...teach your legs "OK, your off the bike, get ready to run"

Got going on the run and started out at a good pace, and picked it up as I went along. Two loops through residential 'hoods and a finish downhill (YEAH!) into a park. The run was a bit slower than I wanted, 23:30, but still - by 9:35 this morning I had swam 300M, biked 12 miles and run 3.1 miles...in an hour and 12 minutes. - please note I checked actual results and it was 1 hour and 12 minutes...my original post said an hour and 2 minutes....

Wayne had a great first tri and had fun doing it. Ran into some guys I met last year at the same Race, Shawn Powell and his friends Rod and Darren. They've gotten the tri bug too and have done a bunch.

Good day, good race - now 60 miles tomorrow on the bike - just pray for good weather.