Local Peaches

The traveling circus took it on the road to Mattawan Michigan Saturday for the first annual Calvary Reformed Church Race to Rejoice. Teammate Kevin and I went to battle with 45 other multi sport maniacs to benefit the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission.

Kevin came out of the water after 500 yards of freestyle in 3^rd place and I followed 4 minutes later (12:30 swim NEW PR!)

The out and back 12 mile bike leg was mostly level with three steep humps before the turn around. Promoters shortened the course by two miles the night before cutting out several steep rollers, disappointing all athletes whose strengths lay in the pedal power portion of triathlon racing.

I put Tropic Thunder into the biggest of big rings and went to work. I pulled back several fast swimmers and wheezed through the rolling course reaching speeds of 40 MPH plus.

I ditched the bike quickly and my pit team (Holly and Izzy) told me I was sitting third about 2 minutes back. I slid on my Brooks Glycerin 7 size 13 shoes and took to the asphalt for 3 miles of damage control.

I still consider myself a rookie and need to throttle back on the bike to save some legs for the run. I was passed and dropped by 3 runners on the rolling course before kicking to the finish in 1 hour and 12 minutes, 8 minutes off of the overall winner and four minutes ahead of 7^th place. The result was good for a 2^nd place age group podium spot, 6^th overall.

Kevin came in shortly after with a 6th place age group finish.

I am going on a blog vacation. I will be offline until the middle of August. During that time I will be riding with the guys from D2, visiting Chattanooga, Charlotte NC, Chicago, ordering a cross frame, seeing Blink 182 in concert, finalizing my race schedule and taking hundreds of photographs.

I hope my beard and Tifosi Vogels impress you

Love dan