I first want to say how grateful and honored it is to be on Team Timex! Not only is the support from sponsors incredible, but the athletes on the team are incredibly talented and motivating. Between seeing your teammates do exceptionally well in races, and the aura that surrounds you when you show up in a Team Timex outfit, makes you want to train hard and perform well!

Being I hate cold weather and water(yes, 55 degree air temp is cold to me, I live in Texas) I really don’t get racing until late spring. I decided to race the 25^th Annual Corpus Christi Triathlon. I looked at the past results, and thought I could do well in the race and get a win for the team.

I line up for the swim, really don’t recognize anybody(then again when people are in wetsuits, caps and goggles, you can’t recognize anybody anyways) gun goes off, and I storm off into the bay with my Blueseventy Helix suit (http://www.blueseventy.com/). I am a pretty good swimmer(not Bruce “beecho” Genari ability) and I finish the 1000m swim in 3^rd place about 30 seconds behind the leader.

I jump on my new Trek TTX (http://www.trekbikes.com/) and cycling being my strength, I took off in pursuit of the leader. Now my race plan is usually to stomp the first 5-6 miles of the bike to catch whoever is ahead or put distance into the chasers. I knew right away I was in trouble when I was riding 24 MPH into a stiff headwind, and the lead motorcycle didn’t get any bigger! At the turnaround I was 1:30 down and couldn’t believe they guy put almost a minute into me! Rode back strong (I love tailwinds) and set off on the run.

Now running is my weakest event, so I usually try and hang on for dear life here.1st place was history, so I concentrated on keeping second. Well, I was slowly being run down, so with about a half mile to go, I slowed my pace, tried to catch my breath, and planned on running on the shoulder of the guy chasing and turn it into a sprint. I think the guy saw me doing that, so he countered and sprinted by me! He got a gap and maintained it to the finish.

3^rd overall, beat the course record, but lost to two pros (first place guy who destroyed us was 2^nd overall in the military championships)who also set course records and I have ZERO leg speed now that I am Ironman training!