It was a calm brisk morning at Mexico Beach, FL. The air was cool, gulf was flat, and only a light breeze to contend with from the north. Perfect conditions for a race day. Charlie Johnson was first to start at Mexico Beach. He was defending his title in the Olympic distance Triathlon from the fall 2010 race. It was a mass start of all Olympic swimmers. They had two .35 mile loops to complete. After the second loop Charlie exited the water in 4th place with a time of 20:57.
30 minutes after the Olympic distance swimmers hit the water, two waves of sprint athletes were sent off to complete one .35 mile loop. The women started three minutes after the men. Laura Register, Kate Blankemeyer and myself were ready to hit the water. The horn sounded and we were off. This was Kate's first sprint triathlon. Her and Laura managed to dodge the jellies and make it back to shore ready to take on the bike. Despite my overwhelming nervousness from the jelly fish, flipping to my back so I didn't have to see them and completely loosing form from being scared I managed to be the first woman out of the water in 12:13. Out onto the bike it was a fast and flat course with one bridge to go over twice. Charlie had 25 miles to complete and us ladies had 15 miles. Charlie had the second fasted bike split of the day, he averaged 24.3 mph, that was fast enough to put him in the lead starting his strength, the run. I too had the second fastest female bike split of the day, my swim lead was enough to keep me out front while heading into the run.
Charlie never looked back from the the first step of the run. He let his true strength shine posting the fastest 6.2 mile run split of the day in a time of 34:43 for a 5:35/mile average. This was Charlie's fastest 10K split in a triathlon to date. Charlie successfully defended his title winning Beach Blast Olympic Triathlon in a time of 1:58:39.
After the 15 mile bike the sprint athletes had to run a 3.1 mile course which seems to be the longest 3.1 miles I have done. Note about course......garmin puts this course at 3.3 miles. This run proved to me that all my run training is paying off. I was lucky enough to have the fastest female run split and the 6th fastest run split of the sprint field. I finished 7th overall and was the female overall winner for the sprint distance in a time of 1:19:24. Laura Register had a PR bike and run time. Both Kate and Laura finished 2nd in the Age Groups. Congratulations to both!
As always the post race party was great. Free beer, shrimp, pizza, and tons of fun. Tallahassee represented very well in this race. Congratulations to all finishers! For complete results of Beach Blast Olympic and Sprint: http://www.eventtiming.com/
