Music City Triathlon 2009

I have been with the Music City Triathlon through three incarnations of the event.  Initally, it was apparently a Bill Ramsey one-man show.  For instance, when I wanted a different sized race t-shirt (really cool "triathlete crossing" shirt)  I called Bill Ramsey's law office directly and talked to his secretary, who sent me a new shirt the following day.   It was a pretty good event with some terrible parking.  You had to parallel park all around a windy road to the Percy Priest beach front swim.  Then Team Magic took over and hosted the event at Nashville Shores where the parking was great.  The swim was good and the bike and run coarses were so/so.  Last year, there was a terrible storm and the swim was called off after I had already swum half the coarse.  The bike was so windy it was dangerous to stand up hills and the run was so/so.  

This year, Team magic really stepped it up and moved the event downtown.   The swim was a good, safe swim, though it involved a challenging current that downed my swim time by a couple of minutes.  We jumped off a dock feet first in three second intervals, and swam up current, then down current, then finished up current.  

I was disappointed in the ladders that were used to get us out of the waters.  There was a homemade wooden ladder that did not have enough rungs, which made getting out of the water and feat of upper body strength, and there was a dubious looking painters ladder.  I chose the dubious looking painters ladder, which did get me out of the water, but could use a change for next year.  

The bike was a good surprise.  Sad to say, I typically show up at triathlon without ever having looked at a course map of any kind.  I just pedal out of transition following orange cones in much the same way Dorothy followed yellow bricks. I assume there is a finish line out there somewhere. "Really?", I thought, as I exited onto Ellington Pike on my bike.  The bike portion, however, was great!!  Two loops on a closed course, so no traffic.  My bike was, as per usual, my weakest link.  16 miles per hour, and that was riding like the hounds of hell were after me.  Interesting, I was the 2nd best swimmer in my age group, the top runner in my age group, and the 11th biker in my age group, giving me a fourth place finish in my age group over all.  If my bike improves, I might be quite competitive.  This firms up the necessity of committing myself to Todd Nordmeyer's bike classes  http://www.endeavorperformance.com/html/cms/page.php?siteid=1&id=10225617&nav=1

Hopefully, I will commit to these in September.  

The run portion of the Music City Triathlon was a good bit uphill.  Up First Avenue, down Second Avenue, up Third Avenue.  This was run twice to be six miles.  It was not an easy run, but it was quite doable, and the run is where I am most competent.   The run took me 48 minutes, which is not a great run time for me, but still made me first in my age group.

The finish was right by the stadium and felt great!!  After the run, they served Bar-b-q sandwiches that were delicious, along with Doritos and Cheetos, and Oreos for dessert.  I was so thrilled that someone would offer me Doritos, Cheetos, and Oreos at such a time which the calorie burn I had just exerted made them justifiable.  It is so rare that you can eat a sleeve of Oreos without the concern that you have just upped yourself a jean size.  THANK YOU MUSIC CITY TRIATHLON!!!