John Tanner Results

First race of the season is under the belt and it did not disappoint. There were thrills, chills and some downright ugly weather. Despite the beautiful weather of the week, Mother Nature brought her scorn upon Georgia Friday night and Saturday morning. Many of us questioned still participating in the race.

John Tanner State Park is located an hour west of Atlanta in Carrolton. We departed around 5:30 to make the drive and thankfully we left in time. It poured and poured and poured on the way there. In fact we encountered three different wrecks...two involving flipped cars. I again questioned my sanity for the day.

I arrived in plenty of time and took the opportunity to spend a few extra minutes in the car relaxing. I headed to transition only to find myself one of the first people there. The rain had slowed to an annoying sprinkle, just enough to get the gear wet. I found my way to body marking, the bathroom and back to the car.

I didn't see much use in warming up that morning. It was cold, I was wet and I just hoped for the best. I slipped into my wetsuit and made my way to the water for a brief warmup. The race combined the M30-34 & 35-39 into one wave. I was feeling pretty confident in my swimming so I seeded myself in the second line of people.

Swim (600m):

Hands down this was the most physical swim I ever encountered. The first 200m were a melee of punches, pulls and kicks. I can only recall one other race where I seriously grew concerned about being trampled. I was concerned. The fight was intense as we made our way to the first turn buoy. It finally spread out a bit. I was exhausted. I felt spent after fighting through the mess. I focused in on long smooth strokes and finding feet. Unfortunately, the idiot in front of me couldn't swim a straight line to save his life. I tried to get around him a number of times and if I didn't know any better he was trying to block me at every turn. I finally went over the top of him as I felt it was my only opportunity.

I came out of the water in worse shape than I wanted. My watch read 9:40. I was thrilled with the time and it was a solid minute faster than normal. I did however feel like I drank half the lake. I carefully made my way up the hill toward transition.

Total time: 10:42

T1:

I wasn't feeling so hot making my way to my bike. I took my time getting out of the wetsuit and few extra breaths before grabbing the bike. I wasn't trying to make up any time right here.

Total Time: N/A Est: 1:45

Bike (11.4 miles):

I set out to hammer this course. My plan was to make up all my time in the straights but take every turn extremely slow. The roads were soaked and the rain was still slowly falling. Immediately, I got up to speed but was still feeling the effects of the physical swim. I tried to push but the body was pushing back a bit.

The course was rolling fast with only one sustainable climb and maybe two shorter ones. I knew I was being aggressive in my pace but my watts were much lower than where I anticipated. Plus I got passed by 4 people which I didn't expect.

I took each turn at a snails pace. I didn't see any need to wipe out at the first race of the season. I ended up pulling 3 guys for the final 10 minutes which didn't make me happy at all. I did see a fair amount of drafting in the race.

Overall, it was an ok bike for me. I felt really flat. I took 3 sips of my nutrition and spit it back out. It took a solid 20 minutes for my HR and stomach to stabilize. I knew I had made up some time but it wouldn't be enough.

Total Time: 30:30 ish

T2

Good dismount and it took an extra second to find my bike rack. I hopped in my shoes and came running out in no time.

Total Time: N/A est :45

Run: (3.1 miles)

As usual, I knew I was in trouble here. My run has not been there since ING. In fact, this past week was the first week in a month where I was actually able to hit my running targets for the week. I knew I was in a good position and didn't have the opportunity to slow.

The first mile was a painful 7:06 but I was pleased. The next mile of rollers knocked me back down to 7:30s and I was getting passed left and right. This continues to be a humbling feeling each and every race. I managed to hold on for the last mile at a rate of 7:15. I had the course just short which pleased me.

Total Time: 22:02

Overall Time: 1:05:35

In retrospect, I am pleased with the race. It wasn't good but it was far from bad. I came out of the water slightly ahead of schedule. I wished I had more oomph on the bike. My run, while still dismal, is able a minute faster than last year. So there is a line of good news somewhere in there.

Results:

	Swim	T1/Bike/T2	Run	Finish
Andrew	10:42	0:32:50	22:02	1:05:35
Top 10	9:06	0:31:20	18:48	0:59:15
Fastest	7:46	0:30:28	16:47	0:56:37
AG Rank (40)	11	5	15	6
OA Rank (492)	56	26	116	43