Buffman race report

About 20 minutes before the Buffman & Squeaky I walked up this gigantic hill to my van. Once I got there I dropped Off my bag and headed back down to the transition area. I decided to leave my new Blue Seventy wet suit in the van because a triathlete is never supposed to try a new piece of equipment the 1st time on a race. And as usual I hadn't been swimming in many months. No swim, no test swim equipment. That simple. By the time I got to the bottom of the hill there was 15 minutes until the race and the pre-race meeting is being held. As I got to my transition area I hear the RD say "The water temperature is 64 degrees." I'm glad everyone was paying attention to the pre-race announcements or their transition area when I heard this because I'm sure I looked like a deer caught in the head light! 64 degrees? Dang that's cold! My eyes got great big and round and I took off running the half a mile or more to my van-up that HUGE hill again! By the time I arrive at the swim start I have 4 minutes left. It'll be close but I can get my wet suit on in time. As I pulled it over my shoulders and turned to ask someone to put the pull string under the Velcro for easy reach I realize I put my wet suit on backwards! AAHH, I'm panicking! I ripped the suit off as quickly as possible turning it inside out in the process! AAHH, somebody help! I was 100 pounds of potatoes squeezing into a 50 pound sack turned inside out with a time limit!!! AAHH. I finally turned it right side out and got it over my feet, I quickly stood up and tried running to the mass lake race start while trying in vain to pull my wet suit up at the same time!!! AARRR. I looked like a panguin running with a black wet suit around my ankles! I heard people giggling at the boat ramp, but I cared not! I was determined to start this race with the rest of the other triathletes fully dressed! I finally got to the edge of the water, bent over for one more big pull of my wet suit to get it up and my head jams into some into some guys butt knocking him foreward into the water. By this time I'm getting an audience, there's no one laughing anymore. I think they were to the point of pitying me. Finally I get the wet suit over my shoulders, use the draw string to zipp up, and some guy behind me is kind enough to strap the string under my Velcro without me having to run around pleading SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME! I think the RD saw my my trial and tribulations and waited until I was calmed down sufficiently before he started the race. After about a minute of me standing there at the ready position my heart rate finally started to slow, and BANG, the race starts! My heart rate promptly shoots sky high again. This is one of the problems I found I have for races where I want to do well so badly, I can't calm down because I'm so exited. At the 20 minute mark I look up and realise I am only at the half way point! If I keep this up I'm going to have a 40 minute swim!! "Come on man! Calm down! Concentrate on you breathing, relax!" I told myself. It wasn't until then that I finally started to make some progress. I passed more people in the last half of this swim than any 2 of my races combined! Only the 2nd swim of my life where I felt fast-well on the 2nd half I felt fast. I finished in 33 minutes, which was an Oly swim PR. I don't have any idea how I pulled that off with such a bad swim start! Thankfully I had a relatively uneventful transition to the bike.

On the bike I was pushing my best but couldn't seem to get much speed out of these X-large thighs of mine. I think that was because of the slow base mileage I'm putting in for my Iron in Nov and because of me coming down off my pre-swim adrenaline rush. I kept praying to God to either let me have fast race, or for him to give me the strength to accept a slow one. By the time I got off the bike I was at 2 hrs flat. That was exactly the time I got out of T-2 last year, but last year I didn't push myself as hard on the bike or swim, and last year I ended up having the 2nd best run of my life(next only to Soma 2005)! So I wasn't optimistic about breaking any PR's. This is usually a sweltering hot race but almost as soon as I started the run a whole bunch of clouds covered the sun and a nice breeze started up from across the lake. Felt great and I think that God answered my prayers because that sure helped my performance allot. As I was finishing the run I saw my wife and baby girl standing about 50 yards in front of the finish line. I looked at my watch and realized I had enough time to run over and pick up my daughter so that I could run the last 50 yards with her in my arms while still beating my best Oly time.

Best part of the day was that I finished with my 19 month old daughter in my arms! As we crossed the finish line my daughter saw everyone clapping for her and she got this huge smile on her face and started clapping those little hands as fast as her little arms possibly could while screaming "Hurray!" at the top of her lungs! No one can tell me Jesus doesn't love me. Life is good. Every Outlaw who showed placed in thier division Stuart & Helen Crane, Carl, Onearm bandit and her husband, Misty(El Chivato's Mom), & El Chivato finished in 3:35, breaking his old PR by an HOUR!!! Another Outlaw and a fellow Clydesdale we call Miles(who is El Chivato's Dad) ended up breaking his PR also with a 2:37! Miles had the 3rd fastest Clyd finish in Buffman history! I ended up 1st place Clyd 39 and under with a 2hr 52 minute race. I PR'd by 2 minutes. I love you too Jesus, and thank you for a perfect ending to a wonderfull race.