70.3 Branson

70.3 BRANSON

Hey Ya-all

I’m back racing and its great to be back. After IM CdA I had to have 6 weeks off running due to a foot injury. However with that behind me it was time to blow out some cow-webs at 70.3 Branson.

Kate and I left for Branson on Friday , Our last flight was basically a pro flight from Denver to Branson. Hoffman, Potts, myself , Kate, Caroline and many more.

Kate tried to make me fit my bike case and all our other gear into a convertible. It was ridiculous and didn’t work … what did I say Kate? “ Guy is always right “ …. That has a catchy tune to it…

Onto the Landing party which Mr Tom Ziebart puts on before each race. ( Tom is awesome by the way ) A great race director. ( who puts on a great after party )

Onto race day and usually i get a little tense, but I was quite relaxed for this one. Not quite knowing what the body was going to do.
The swim start was its usual madness and we all watched Potts swim away, then I lead the group to the turn around buoy, I had a few looks over my shoulder and saw there was about 6 guys with me..( not that I could count 6, I just knew there was a lot of slashing going on) I decided to take it easy and on the way back to shore and let some-one set the pace, I got a nice free ride into T1.
Out onto the bike and Potts and Hoffman were off with a group of 4 of us riding together-ish. The guys worked well and we rode a good tempo… Nothing to crazy, in hide sight maybe I should have ridden quicker, but I don’t think it would have made a difference to the end result.

In T2 and our little group made our way out onto the run. 2 guys shot off like bullets and it took me a lot less than one second to decide not to go with them, I ran pretty cruisy for the first 2 K and then settled into my pace. For the first time in as long as I can remember I ran strong through each K and felt pretty good ( when I say pretty good , I was hurting bad , but a maintainable bad ) not a “im about to vomit and pass out on the side of the road”… which is my usual racing technique .

In the end I finished in 6th place and had a pretty good day.
I’m stoked to be getting my fitness back and I’m looking forward to seeing how this planed double goes.
Thanks for all the support and messages team. You’re the best.

From there it was off to Memphis , Knoxville and on to Augusta. But that’s another epically long blog…I’ll be sure to post some photos and race report on 70.3 Augusta in the next few days.

G