My sister Christine coming from Chicago for the race stopped at our house about half way and stayed the night. After some time with the kids and a little lake swim we headed out in the Timex team Ford Flex. The ride was pretty sweet and the best part was I did not have to drive at all. What a great way to get to a race, plus you get the best parking and tons of looks at the race or traveling. We picked up her friend Erin in St. Louis and headed further south to Branson. Once we got there we had to plan the day around checking into the hotel, hitting the expo, and getting things setup in T1 and T2. T1 and T2 at this race were about 10 miles apart so logistically we had to plan everything well and ate dinner in the heart of Branson's shopping center where T2 was located. One thing I was surprised of was all the traffic in Branson it was a major pain, but we soon found our way around most of it.
Race morning we awoke ate and walked the short distance over to T1 as out hotel was overlooking the lake. Table Rock lake is a beautiful lake to host a swim in, clear cool water, wetsuit legal, despite the new 76 degree rule and 90 plus temperatures expected during the race. The pros were in the water first followed by pretty much everyone else 1500 or so, as my wave was 3nd to last to start. I watched Christine start, and started talking to a few other folks before my wave was supposed to start at 7:40. I soon noticed that all the purple caps were lining up outside the swim start, so I raced over had someone zip me up and was off in the water in the next 30 seconds. Apparently I missed the announcement that waves were 3 minutes apart not 5 as announced the day prior. I had to swim through groups of people the entire time, but only got kicked in the face once pretty hard. I took the swim a little easy as I was keeping this race fun and really trying not to push too hard until the run.
Exiting the swim on to the bike I had to keep in mind a rule either at this race or upcoming for next season of not clipping in your shoes onto the bike. So running through T1 with my bike shoes on I felt like I was going to fall trying to do that rather than the usual. Anyway off on the bike the hills began....the course was a two loop bike on a four lane major highway completely closed down. After climbing the few initial hills away from the lake, I was a little out of breath, but they kept coming. Not the little short steep hills but long highway hills with long sweeping downhills before. It was fun to hit 48 mph going down and then back to 12 going up. The first amateur racer happened to be my sister, I passed her at mile 17 or so, I think she was surprised to see me so soon, but the short wave start was the reason, she was holding her own in front of all of the men. I tried to keep my climbing rhythm up hill and eat/drink going down. I ate my peanut butter sandwich and Erin Baker breakfast cookie going 41mph, sweet! I can't really say enough about the bike course, it was challenging, kept people from drafting, wide open, and it was going to make the run hurt. Great course I loved every minute of it. The last section 6 miles or so was mostly downhill into town and T2, very fast.
Heading into T2 I about fell trying to leave my bike shoes on my feet and side saddle the bike, but made it through and headed off on the run. My bike was the lone bike in transition, except the pro rack. The heat and humidity was really starting now more then normal for September I think. After the first mile of so I fell in to pace with Nina Craft a female pro who won Kona in the past. She was holding a good pace and I wanted to do the first lap of the three lap run a little easy. She was in the hunt for 3rd place to catch Pip Taylor, so I ran with her and chatted a little about catching Pip. The end of the first lap I saw Christine running, this was supposed to be a swim/bike prep race for her Kona debut in a few weeks as she has been plagued with a groin injury. I tried to tell her to stop running and slow down, which thankfully she did and stopped after the first lap. My plan was to hit the 2nd and 3rd lap harder, but as the 2nd lap approached I was drained from the bike and the heat. So I kept up with Nina but that was it, the third lap I ran in front of her a ways and she came back up the last few miles. We put on a little push the last few miles, I was hurting and I could tell many others in the field were as well, I think it had a lot to do with the tough bike. We crossed the line at the same time, and Christine was there to greet me. The finish was right at Branson's fountains in the heart of Branson's shopping center, which we later found out contained nice and cool water from a spring fed river to soak our tired legs in. Christine was disappointed she had to drop out of the run being so far ahead but she did the right thing and will be thankful in a few weeks for Kona. I ended up 6th overall including the pros, not a bad day for not taking it too hard and making it a fun race. Erin came in soon after and had a great race herself, everyone was raving about the tough bike course after the race. The volunteers at the race just went over and above bringing us drinks/food after the race, helping on course, the expo, and just in general seemed to be so thankful to host a race and have everyone come to see their town.
I was happy with my race I had the fastest swim of the day, bike was on top, and my run was off by 5 - 7 minutes but that was to be expected as the shin splits still plague me, I think they need a off season rest.
And the award was a belt buckle of course!
Swim - 23:41 1:14
T1 - 2:02
Bike - 2:26:17 22.1
T2 - 0:47
Run - 1:28:53 6:48
Total - 4:21:40
