Finally got to meet some fellow ST’ers this weekend. Had dinner at Fazoli’s in Macon with Occy, River Wolf, and Spot. Ran into TriFan also that night.
Was hotel neighbors with Felipe and didn’t even realize it until I saw him run across the finish. The FL plates and sponsor stickers should have given it away! Cute dog by the way…lol.
Hope to meet up with more of you later.
Michael
I DID IT!@!$!$
6:52 for the time. I think I went WAAAY too fast on the bike. did 25min on the swim, and I think 3:15 on the bike. It got hot, and I got burnt. But… I finished!
My goal was NOT to be last. 
I did that and I went under 7 hrs. so it was a good day.
Up next, Ironman Florida!
Mike, It was good meeting both you and George. I wish I had more time to hang out and chat. Sorry I didn’t talk more today, I was just worried about finishing.
Gonna post those pictures!!!
Trae
Good Job Trae! It is a good learning experience. We all go too hard on the bike at some point or another. Use it as a learning experience. Good luck with your training for IMF see you in PCB.
Good job, Trae. I was thinking about you, and all the others, today. Did it rain on y’all today? I’m about two hours south of the race, and we had some sporadic showers off and on this afternoon.
RP
Here we are…not the greatest but they are pictures at least…hopefully I sized them down enough and did this right. They aren’t quite the quality of Tom D’s but they will have to do!
Michael
This is prior to the start…when they were trying to play the National Anthem instead of “Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies” followed by the “Star Wars” theme…too funny. I think you can see River Wolf in there.
This is the start of one of the waves…
This shot is kinda cool…you can see the outline of the whole swim course (I was getting tired by this point with all the walking around…its a joke…geeez.)
Here is Occy heading out of T1…don’t try to hide.
In T2…but not much for conversation.
Felipe crossing the finish line…
Michael
Oh…by the way…Spot, if you read this…you mentioned something about a Duathlon here in Dothan that was this weekend (think that was you)…well, you were right…maybe I feel like a moron now…oh well, Macon was a fun change.
Occy–
Great job dude…tried to find you after you finished, but couldn’t, and I had to get going for the long drive back to Panama City…5 1/2 hours in the car after finishing a 1/2 IM…that pretty much blew. Great meeting you guys…there’s an Olympic Distance in La Grange in July sometime…I think I may go.
Spot
Dude,
thanks for the pic, that’s awesome!
Sorry I couldn’t make it to the dinner, I really wanted to meet up with you guys but other things got in the way!
Congrats to all the finishers, tough day!
Ciao,
Thanks Robert!
Grrrr, I wish it would have! It was HOT!
Thanks for thinking of me, it was truly a lot of fun.
Trae
Right on! We’ll have to do another Slowtwitch dinner for sure. The guys I met here in Macon were super awesome.
Trae
Mike-great meeting you dude…good luck at Rucker. Great pics! Are you still going to be at Rucker in July?
Spot
Whew, Yeah, as I said, I didn’t finish till late, so I totally understand bud. It was damned good meeting you, and maybe I’ll do the La Grange Oly with you. Keep me informed as to when it is.
peace bubba,
Trae
Tx Michael for the photos. Man… that stupid all3sports tri-suit makes me look fat. Oh, wait, I am. heh.
Maybe by IMFL I’ll slim down to sub-200 range, who knows.
Thanks for taking the photos, and thanks for coming up. Maybe, if you are in these parts, you can do the R&Rman with us. I’m psyched about doing it again next year.
I think I’ve truly gotten the bug.
Trae
Mike, it was great meeting you. For those who don’t know it, Mike looks like he’s about 21 but is 30 and a helicopter pilot in the service no less. Enjoyed chatting with him.
Awsome pics Mike! Hope to run into you again.
Occy and the rest, great to meet you at Fazolis. What a tough race huh? The bike course was much hillier than I expected. I actually bagged the last 5 miles of the run cause I didn’t want to get too burnt for IMCDA in three weeks. My first (and hope) only DNF.
Hey Sunrider, was that you running out of the bushes on the bike leg. You looked real familiar
Lagrange Oly distance…July 24th.
The heat and the hills were pretty much sapping my will to live out there on the run…I was going OK until about mile 5 and then it turned into a major league suckex.
Spot
Great race!!! Very hot and humid!!!
Swim - Could not believe that you could have a wetsuit swim in the middle of Georgia in June. I would say it was more like 1.5K than 1.2 miles and others agreed. I am still looking for those wetsuits strippers I read about.
Bike - Loved the rolling hills on the bike. Good roads. I am still looking for the people manning the 3rd aid station. I heard that they did show up later.
Run - Great support! Aid stations did a fanastic job and everyone was giving encouragement.
Observation - I was very happy to see that drafting was not running rampant. I did notice one instance when a relay bike came by me with a guy right on his wheel. I could see them for 2 miles and nothing changed. Another guy I talked to saw the same thing. He said that he asked the guy if he was going to ride his wheel the whole way. This drafter had his name on the back of his jersey and he finished in the top 3 overall.
Tough race yesterday, congrats to everyone. I wish I could have met everyone for dinner Sat night. Yesterday’s 7 hour drive back was brutal. I actually was assessed my first penalty in tri yesterday, for drafting. On the back half of the bike course, much more traffic than on the front, and the roads were open. Going up a hill, just heard a motor behind me and I didn’t look back to see what it was. Just figured they would pass, and then I could pass the person in front of me safely. Turned out to be a ref. So, the moral of the story is, always look back to see what that motor is! My fault, no one elses.
And the swim was way short. I think the heat and sun and hills made up for it later. If you could finish that race yesterday, you can do anything. Just a brutal day, for someone who hasn’t had to turn their A/C on yet.
the humidity was really deceiving imo. kinda got bummed with the super short swim course cause it pretty much negated any chance of having a good time be legitimate (which i failed to have : /). it’s amazing how much more scenery you notice when you run the out section and have to walk/jog the back part of the run!!
Good to meet you too. Too bad we didn’t have more time to talk. Maybe at the next race though!
Trae
Hey, it just dawned on me…no pictures of the Spotmeister?? I’m hurt…
Of course, its probably better for everyone trying to keep their dinner down that you didn’t post pics of my 40 year old pudgy poser body in my tri-suit.
Spot
Yeah…wondered if you would notice that. (Trying to think of an excuse…)
I took some but they were all blury with speed?
Actually, you didn’t look like you were much in the “take my picture” mood when we were chatting across the fence. I am also a “bike” guy and only recognized occy by the Giant.
Guess you will have to do it again.
Michael