I was in Indiana for a family wedding, and was lucky enough to find a race that was open on Sunday morning-and got permission on the home front.

This was a very short race as it was a 400 meter swim, 10 mile bike, and a 3.1 mile swim. Talked with Loran Storts(coach) and he said "let's just see how the training has gone so far this winter- brother let the clutch out." With that input I was off to race.

Sunday morning up at 5:10 grab a quick bite to eat in the hotel lobby and leave for the race a 5:40.

Get to race, I really wasn't sure what to expect from this event. I was amazed to find that this was really starting to look like a real talented pool of triathletes. I came to find out that there was some $$$ and a great set of wheels available for winners-so the big guns come out seeking the goody.

After a nice warm-up in the rain I made my way inside to the pre-race meeting. Normal meeting, but I was a amazed that it looked like there were 300-450 people there(official total I later learned was 492)

The swim was in the Carmel aquatic center's 50 meter pool. It was a staggered(self-seeded) 400 meter "snake" swim. Where you go down one lane then go under the lane line and return in the next lane. I seeded myself in the 1:20-1:35 group and went off with a group of folks setting in the 1:30 range.

Swim starts and I find that I should have seeded myself a bit faster, or the folks ahead of me should have seeded themselves a bit slower. I immediatley close the 4-5 people ahead of me and just basically set in their wake as they were swimming in a pack and didn't want to waste a bunch of juice until they really slowed. Finally passed on flip turn from lap 2-lap 3. Swim felt real solid and I swam right at 1:20(per the race clock) but I think that my Polar was more accurate in saying 1:30.

Transition to bike was a bit slow. But head out on the bike. Lots of comfort on the bike except the two speed bumps that were on the downhill out of T1. Bike was really solid(for me) and pulled a 21.2 mph split and knocked out the bike in 28:34.

Transition to run(my weakest sport it is important to note that in all of my previous races I have never gotten below a 9:00/mile run-in any race.) Out of T2 decide to trust my training this winter and open up the HR into the Z3 range.

Mile 1-7:59 First thought-they must have missed the mile marker placement. Let's see what mile 2 looks like-Nobody passed me in the first mile-weird.

Mile 2-7:54 No kidding? Well this is amazing, let's see what happens here on mile 3. Couple of dudes pass me.

Mile 3+.1-7:42 Wow. Kick into finish line was ok. Crossed finish line and realized that I had just gone 1:01'ish.

Great day for me. Huge PR. Finished in 4th place in my division just outside the "money". Irritated with myself about that as I later learned that 18 secs between me and 3rd-I know now to dig deeper. Overall finished in the top 20% and know that I have a bit more speed in my legs than I ever realized.

Several folks asked me about my Rassy's kit-got to share the story. This was a great race! As I mentioned earlier the race was FAST. First place was a 45 minute total for the entire race-amazing!

I look forward to Race for Sight in two weeks.

Thanks Loran!

--Jeff