Beach 2 Battleship

Thanks for the compliments it means a ton! I really had no clue that I would finish as strong as I did considering the week I had leading up to the race. I left for Phoenix on Tuesday morning and flew back into charleston at 8 am on Friday. I didn't really get any sleep on the plane ride back over and I lost three hours in different time zones. I quickly packed my car and hit the road toward willmington.

Race check in was uneventful outside of the temperature. I had left lovely 93 and sunny to mid 50 the thought now of taking a 2.4 mile swim was seeming like a very stupid idea! I made the best I could of Friday night trying to get some rest waiting for my 4:30 wake up call.

Swim start: The air temp. was in the 40s water temp in the 60s and a very peaceful morning. It was looking like ideal conditions once the sun came up to have a great race. Leading up to the race there was a huge debate on how much the incoming tide would help the swim. I really had no clue I was thinking a 5 min help at max. So I took off all the warm clothes and put on my wetsuit and went to jump in the water for a quick warm up 5 minutes before the start. I rinsed my goggles and was talking to a guy beside me when I looked down, keep in mind it is still dark, and I saw a ring that looked like a smaller jellyfish right at my foot. I moved back and went about 5 feet away and was going to try and swim a few strokes. I put my goggles on my face and realized I was missing the rubber ring around one of the eyes! The jellyfish was in fact a piece of my goggle! I searched for the ring but no luck. I made a quick dash to the start line and asked the officials if they happened to have another pair. They made a quick announcement on the PA and in like 10 seconds I had about 7 people handing me goggles! I was floored! I knew all along that most endurance athletes are a special group of people but this really was special to me. I will make it a point now whenever I do a race to carry extra goggles to return the favor for someone some day. So now it was time to go swim. I jumped in and head for a marina that was a long long way away!

I got to the landing at a hair under 1 hour and a 300 yard run to tranisition. This was 20 minutes faster than last years swim. I believe I trained better but the current did have a lot to do with my result. Just an interesting fact the person who was 1st out of the water if you convert his pace per 100m and change it to 1500m he would have taken gold at the olympics!

Bike: The start was a little cool but warmed up rather nicely. The bike was uneventful and mostly flat except for a small roll and 3 bridges. I caught Stephen that used to work at Tri sports in mt. p around mile 40 and he said he was having some stomach problems. I didn't see him again until running in for my last two miles he was heading back out for his second loop.
Bike Ride was slightly less than 6 hours about 1:30 faster than last year! So far so good.

Run: Awesome Awesome course! I really believe if they made this a marathon only they would have a huge turnout. It was a double loop 13.1 course that went from the battleship down to the convention center and then around greenfield lake. I had gotten a garmin for an early christmas present so I was really able to pace myself very easily. I believe this helped so much because by this point you can get mentally exhausted. I started out wantin g to have a 9 min/ mile pace. I was clicking 7:30 fairly easy and bumping it back some on the bridges. I was waiting for the blow out but it really never came. I ran into John Glover from the Charleston Bike Shop at around mile 7. He was saying he was suffering and I looked at the results and it says he DNF. I hope all is well with him. I carried on and had a suprisingly easy run with some walking through and aid station here or there. On the way in on my final lap I also saw Jana Glover heading out for her second loop and she did finish the race.

Final time on the marathon was awesome. I had only managed a 4:30 last year so a big improvement for me in all areas! I was only 9 minutes slower on this marathon than my myrtle beach marathon in 2006!

All in all a great day. I think that willmington has a lot to offer for endurance sports and great views. I hope to get to race there again some time in the future. See you guys soon.