It's a little late geting this up, but I definitely thought I'd share it with everyone...
Over the Labor Day weekend, we (our family + Bethany's family) made a trip over to Calloway Gardens, GA for a Olympic Triathlon Relay race, and a weekend of relaxing. The idea was to get out, see the gardens, check out some of the butterfly exhibits, and race.
The race was setup as a 1k swim, a 30k bike, and a 8k run. The three of us, Ben, myself, and Dave all signed up to tackle this thing as a 3-man relay team. Shortly after signing up, we learned that our swimmer, Ben, may be out do some illness and lack of training. I started training for both, the swim and the bike at that point, while Dave was more than ready for the run.
The day before the race, while enjoying the gardens, I did a little easy ride to get a feel for the bike course and then followed it up with an easy swim too. For the swim, Ben joined me, just for fun. It was then, on the spur of the moment that he realized he could knock out the 1k and wanted to race. He signed up, so might as well, right?
SWIM HE DID. Ben absolutely crushed the swim course! The team relay group started in the 4th wave of the swim. When he came out of the water, he was amongst some of the competitors from the second wave. For someone who hadn't swam in a while, he found it inside himself to help us with a huge lead
Time: 12:10. #11/440 out of the water.
Ben coming out of the water amongst the competition.
I took on the bike course as part of the team. Knowing it was a relay course, I was able to go hard and go all out for the course. And that I did. I rented a pair of race wheels from the local bike shop, just because it was my last race, and I wanted to try them out. In my head, they worked, even if it was just a bit. I took it as a mission to pass everyone and give it all I had.
Time: 56:16. #76/440 - 19.8mph
Hammering along on the bike course.
We saved the run for Dave. He's always been the runner so it seemed it would suite him fine. The race director made sure to note that the race course was fast and flat, but after listening to Dave, it wasn't. He ran it hard and fast hoping to hold on to the lead we had built from the beginning. Of course, he didn't let us down! He put the throttle down and held it for the 8k race.
Time: 38:47. #120/440 - 7:46/mi
Dave closing the final stretch of the run.
When it was all said and done, we waited around to see how we did and to see where we stood amongst the competiton. Turns out TEAM BRD took 1st place in the relay division with a final time of 1:48:44. The second place team was a solid 16minutes behind us. Go Team BRD!
Receiving the award for 1st place!
Go Team BRD!
