The Cedars of Lebanon Tri takes place just outside of Nashville, TN in a nice park, and features a 300 yard pool swim, a 16.5 mile bike and a 3 mile run. It is run by the good folks of Team Magic and thus you know that it is a well run event before you even get there.
I left for the race very early (4:50am) on race day and encountered bad weather with thunderstorms as I got close to the race site. Evil clouds were still looming in the distance as we were getting ready for the time trial start swim and even though I don’t like swimming that much, I wanted it to be a triathlon and not a duathlon. (Prolonged lightning might have changed it into a duathlon). It ended up that there was just a bit of a drizzle/rain and no lightning and the race went off without a hitch.
My bib number was 72 out of about 400 starters, which meant I was in a far enough in front position to not encounter really bad swimmers, and would allow me to hunt down a few folks on the bike. After a 5:30 swim (I think it was meters and not yards) I jumped on my bike and felt quite good. It was windy and the streets were completely wet, but that did not really bother me. I passed lots of folks, but had no idea where I was in terms of placing. The course was quite hilly and the last 3 miles were quite rough, but that is how I like it.
When I hit T2 there were only about a dozend or so bikes in the transition area. I got my running shoes on decently fast and off I went. The lead 2 women were just ahead of me (bib 9 and bib 11) and for the first 1/2 mile I paced of them, but I realized that I could run faster and ended up passing them. Shortly before the turnaround I also saw my buddy Lee and Mike Roberts (Mr Mike on Slowtwitch) from Nashville who had been my nemesis in all the tris I have done recently. I tried to figure out where both of these guys were timewise compared to me in my age group as they had started a few minutes before me, and all I could figure out is that I better run hard as it looked to close for comfort.
I eventually crossed the finishline in 1:09:11 and that ended up being good enough for 4th overall, and top masters racer. Mr Mike finished second (well 1st 40-44) by 20 seconds and 5th overall. My bike split was actually the fastest of the day, and that of course is all that matters. 
Seriously though, I had never finished 4th overall in any triathlon, so this made me very happy even though I missed being in third by 40 seconds.
My friend Jeff Gibson won the race overall and had the second fastest bike split on his Blade.
Results: http://www.team-magic.com/results/CLT_OA_2006.htm
Herbert
Litespeed / Quintana Roo