IMOO - A Year Early: All Good Things

All Good Things . . . come to an end. So ends my reign as holder of the Turtle Trophy. Circumstances and a fierce competitor conspired to my end.

Threatening weather changed the already shortened 1/2 mile swim (from 1 mile) to a "kiddie swim" - that's right everyone marched over the timing mat, dashed out to shin deep water, turned right to the swim exit (hoping not to fall in a hole or slip in the muck) and over the exit mat. After beating Stomper by 3 minutes in a long 1/4 mile swim I had figured to gain at least 4 minutes in a 1/2 mile swim.

Still gave it the college try. Stomper started roughly 3 minutes in front of me, with Jim starting about 1 minute before me. I hit the bike hard. As we started out the rain started falling - hard. Rather than trying to look at my computer I just went on feel. Passed Jim around mile 7 and Rob around mile 10. Realized I was going a little too hard and backed off a bit on the second half. Ended up averaging 22.4 mph in wet conditions. I've never ridden that hard before. It was tough to choke down 2 cliff blocks - I'd planned on 6.

Now for the run. Screwed up my watch - AGAIN. Didn't reset my last training run. Have no idea how the 1st mile went. I was riding the edge with my legs just keeping moving. Rob passed me before mile 2. Knowing he was going to put at least 1:30/mi into me I knew that the battle for the Turtle was over. Still focused on my other goals for the race - biking hard and hanging on for the run. I was hoping to hit sub 9:00min/mi.

Right after Rob passed me the sky got really scary. Looked like a huge wall cloud (at least to me). The wind kicked up and blew my visor right off my head. Then the rain started again.

Huge torrents of rain. Someone said we were getting 2 inches an hour. I just kept moving as best I could. Mile 4 is mostly uphill. My quads were killing. I kept thinking I'd see Jim anytime now.

I hit Mile 5. Only a little further to go. Inside the chute I felt this rush of air as Jim sprinted past me. Nicely Done! I hope they got a picture at the line, but it was raining so hard I'm not sure that they were still taking pictures. He still finished 3rd and got the new "Take me to Funkytown" dancing/singing plush turtle but it was something.

In the end, Rob ended up beating me by just under 4 minutes. Hmm, where have I heard that number before. We race the course we're provided in the conditions of the day though and today he won the Turtle - no asterisk. I ended up with a 9:23 min/mi average on the run.

In other news, the Doc hit 19 mph for her average in the bike leg of her relay. She cut 12 minutes off her time when we road the course in training. Great Job!