The family and I drove out to Texarkana, TX for the 4 States Triathlon. They call it the 4 States Triathlon because it is held in the top east corner of the Texas/Arkansas border, and since Oklahoma and Louisiana are close enough ( we drive far in the South) you get our version of the 4 corners!

This race is always well run, they give prize money every year, and it was also the SouthMidWest Triathlon Sprint Championship! I decided to give it a go. With it being a championship race and prize money, you never know who shows up for a race like this, so I was prepared just to go hard and see what happens.

Swim was good and I came out of the water in 3^rd without having to push to hard with my Blueseventy Helix wetsuit. On a side note, I like non wetsuit swims because being a good swimmer I have more of an advantage, but at the same time swimming 1:10 100’s without kicking isn’t to bad either! I caught the 1-2^nd place athletes in transition and was off on the bike.

An athlete and myself cranked up the pace and we established a gap quickly on the flat and smooth course. It always helps having somebody close in a sprint to help in keeping the pace up when it starts to hurt. We got back to transition together and covered the 13 miles in 30.31 on a course that had 2 u-turns! That is about all I had speed wise, and was happy.

I knew the athlete with me is a better runner than I, but right from the start I was able to run with him. That was until he decided to discharge his breakfast a couple of times, and then just took off after about a mile. I was running hard, and with about .5 miles to go, I was being chased down. I tried to sprint, but these old legs don’t go like they used to and got out leaned at the line! I had a good run, but will never match guys running in the 16’s for 3 miles.

My redemption for the day, besides winning $150 bucks, was during awards when I brought my 5 year old to the podium. The 1^st and 2^nd place guys were 21 and 17, closer to my daughter age than mine!

Oh well, at least I represented the 35-39 age range!