Brian's Race Report from Florida 70.3

Well, this is number 3 of 16……and was what I considered my “A” race of the all of them. Leading up to this one, having done next to nothing since St. Croix, I figured my body had sufficient time to recover……what a silly boy!

Our flight leg this time brought us from O-Town to Washington and on to Orlando. What we didn’t expect, was the 5.5 hour delay in Washington. Once that got sorted out, off to see Mikeysville!

We grabbed our rental car with ALL OUR BAGS in tow (woohoo!) and found that since we were delayed so long, our reservation was done, so we were bumped up to a Chevy Trail Blazer!! The nice thing was….very little pushing and shoving to get the bikes in there!!

Once checked in to our posh digs (I am sure I saw Paris Hilton checking out when we arrived) at the Main Gate EconoLodge, we crashed…..it was yet again, anther 10hr+ day of flying….ugh!
(*Note….usually when we travel, I have a “no shoes” rule that I like to follow….being the germaphobe I am. HERE….it was a keep shoes ON rule in full force!!! I guess that’s what $36 a night gets ya!)

Registration Day:

We awoke to sunny skies and lots of warm winds and headed to transition, driving the familiar route into Disney as we did last year….. what a difference a year makes!

It is a “day before” bike check in, so all was in order, number checked, bikes dropped and off to get some Co2 cartridges for the race at the expo (we can not fly with them, so they need to be purchased at each race!). While in line, I was lucky enough to overhear a convo behind me that included the word “testicles”, so of course my ears perked up.
It was Tom Murphy….a 30ish year old “veteran” of some combat time in Iraq. He found out shortly after coming back from his tour that he had Testicular Cancer, and was now going to be competing in this 70.3 in front of his wife and 4 kids. He too felt lucky, honoured and privileged to be able to do this craziness. I was lucky, honoured and privileged to meet this man and hear his story. We shared a few laughs and heart felt handshakes…..we would see each other again!

We also had a meeting scheduled with one of our sponsors. We found Matt Perkins of Headsweats at his booth and were able to hang out for a bit with him and meet some reps from some other tri companies. Matt was always very quick to tell them how insane we were. Thanks for a great time Matt!

The rest of the day was spent with some awesome friends of ours and their young daughter that we had not yet met. They drove down from Jacksonville and were grateful to see them.

Race Day:
Up and at’em at 4am. Its nice doing the pre-race bike check in as logistically, it’s a WAY better. We arrived at the parking lot, to find a massive line for the busses to take us to transition. Once we boarded, and arrived to the race area, we were greeted with “Guys, you have 4 minutes to get INTO transition before it closes!!!! Holy Carbon! So off we went to our respective bikes….I pumped tires as H readied her nutrition and set up. As we were putting on the final touches….still in the dark….we heard “Ok…everyone OUT of transition…..now!!!” Well, that’s as good as it will get!
H’s swim was off first, so it was my turn to stand on the beach…..surrounded by many, but so alone when another part of you is swimin away.
I really had a feeling as I swam that stuff was coming together….good form, efficient and a TON of drafting (yes…legal on the swim…). All in all….my best performance of the day.
Swim Time: 46:39 (52:20 last year)


The Ride:

Well, here in lies my disappointment of the day. Not because it was not a good ride, but simply because I wanted a better ride than last year (3:04:19) and felt like I had pulled that off. Yes, there were course changes that incorporated more rolling hills, but no really good reason for it. The positive….I spent about 75% of the time in aero position which was good practice for me.
Mikey at Kunstadt Sports did an awesome pre-race check on my Blue…even installed my new Cateye computer. It does no good though when you forget it in your pants pocket in O-Town!!!!
Bike Time: 3:15:57 (3:04:19 last year)

The Run:
Ahhh yes, the run…..the bane of my existence it seems! All in all, when I got off the bike, I felt done. DONE. I (and my coach) can pretty much attribute it to my recovery from St. Croix, or lack there of, but it does still not make me feel any better. Essentially, it was not going to be a record breaking day in this 94 degree heat with 100% humidity, so I would make the best of it….remembering that I will be doing this all over again in 6 days. Heather ran with me for a bit…as we re-hashed the day…its always my fave part….you spend the day wondering how the other is doing….so it nice not to have to wait another few hours to catch up!
Remember Tom Murphy? Well, who did I see on my first of three laps of the run….but good old Tom. I snuck up on him and said nice and loud “look at this kid…makin his way through one mile at a time!!” Tom turned, and gave the old Bman a huge “Hoorah” and one big bear hug! We chatted and Tom told me that his day was done….he was spent….and he wanted to kill whoever told him to do this. I reminded him that it was HE who shelled out his $$ and signed the form. We laughed. As we parted ways, I reminded Tom of our dark days….the days when we were sayin “why me”….the day when we, as survivours said we would make a difference. I am sure I saw the corner of his lip turn upwards.
I saw Tom a few more times…each time uttering the words “the dark days Tom…the dark days”. Yesterday, I looked for Toms results…..Tom did not finish the race. Seeing the moxy in this kid the day before….I am confident I will get an email shortly saying he will be back at it…..
Run Time: 2:56:34 (2:26:48 last year)

The Day: 7:07:09 (6:31:30 last year)

All in all, yes it was a hot, humid day, yes, my goal was not really met (how ever unrealistic it was for me) but it was a great day all around. We have gotten some great hits on TTW from Florida and around the US since we returned.

TTW moves on to Austria this weekend……so best get packin…6 hrs till we board the plane!!!

Thanks all!!!!