Pointless Survey time!

It's that time of year.  Waste 3 minutes of your life by taking the 2013 pointless survey.

Junior Awesome thinks it's a good idea!

FS 50 race report

I received permission from Bri to go down and do the FS 50 triathlon in Washington, NC, known as Little Washington to the locals.  Had never been there before.  It is a coastal town on the mouth of the Tar River, which changes name to the Pamlico River in Washington.

Doug C and I drove down the night before, checked into our hotel and then found our compatriots at Backwater Jacks Tiki Bar.  This is my kind of hang out.  We tipped a couple pints then went to get some sleep.

The race started at 7AM so we were up by 530 and got going.  The race is a 1 mile swim, 44 mile bike, 5 mile run which is a nice mix of distance without being destructive. 

My training has been good but not totally hardcore -I figured this would be a good one to assess real fitness. f I could hold together on the run then my chances of not falling apart at Raleigh 70.3 are good.

The swim had some mild chop and a slight cross current but nothing terrible.  22:30 or so, first out of water.

Onto the bike - flat with a prevailing cross wind for the most part.  I do my best not to live in the past and rode to my current ability, standing up every 15 minutes or so to stretch out a bit.  Nice course, some cool scenery, and low traffic.  Dan M passed me with about 4 miles to go.  Bike time 1:56:38 which is 22.6mph (I did an Iron-distance race at this pace 11 years ago).  I held back slightly as I did not want to have an awful run but couldn't have gone much faster than this all things considered.  So for Raleigh I'll be targeting 21-22mph type pace unless there is some crazy wind etc.

Run - felt all right and had a surprisingly fast first mile split at 6:35.  It started pouring rain which cooled down the temps but kicked up the humidity, which is worse than the heat.  Settled into 700-715 pace and pretty much tried to run relaxed while concentrating on turning the legs over. We ran through downtown Washington, which is on the water and very scenic.  Worth a visit if your into exploring North Carolina.  Held onto 2nd place which is great. Time 35:19

Jogged the course again as continued run/cool down since the 70.3 has 13 miles, not 5 to get through.

A couple pics:

 OSB Social Chair Heather rocking the OSB gear

Almost all the OSB'ers at the race

Next up: Raleigh 70.3.  Holding out hope for cooler temps!

Jordan Lake open water challenge 2013

We co-hosted the 1st swim of the Triangle Open Water Swim Series over the weekend along with FS Series.  It went well - big turnout as the site is the same as 70.3 and it is a nice time of year to swim open water around here.  We usually host the Little Uno and Big Deuce at this location but switched around to complement the half-Ironman coming up shortly. 

Little Uno and Big Deuce will move over to New Hope Overlook for a change of scenery, but remain a July date.

Most people seemed happy with it and from my perspective it went well - we pulled a few people out of the race early with nerves/wetsuit issues but there were no major problems.

It is an exhausting process and the week prior to the race was very busy, trying to keep my day job as well as plan and execute everything around a 300 person event.

This Saturday I am racing in the FS 50 which is a 1 mile swim - 44 mile bike -5 mile run which I think is a great distance. 

Below a few pictures from the swim:

And some post-race shenanigans: