This race had been on my list for a solid year. I tried to make it work in 2023, but the timing just didn’t work out. I also tried to make one of their July 2024 races work, but the logistics just didn’t.
Prior to going into the race, the RD (Marc) had worked with us so that this race could potentially count as a Nationals Qualifying race. I really appreciated him / them (FSService) doing that. It did mean that like Glenview, we would be the last ones into the pool.
Once we were in the pool, it seemed to be a solid swim. I believe we were out about ninety seconds behind where I wanted to be. But I was OK with that since I couldn’t see anything in the dark pool area.
After making it through a little bit of a gauntlet to get to transition, I had a very solid and extremely fast T1. I believe it’s the fastest I’ve ever gotten through T1.
On the bike, we had lots and lots of hills to deal with. I would guess that they were 6-7% grade. Not as bad as they were in Knoxville, and even on the worst of them (those with false flats), I still managed to make it up.
Even though it’s been more than two years since the crash in Texas, I am still working through comfort issues on ths bike. This reared its head as we were going 30+ downhill. Having Paul as the pilot and guide at that point helped tremendously. Not only did I know that he’d keep us safe in that moment. But I also knew from experience that we had done 22 into and through curves (prior to the TX crash) without any issues. Therefore, instead of panicking, I was able to just curse out my anxiety…
After a normal T2, we headed out on the run. The run course was most of the first mile of the bike course. This meant that all of those fun hills we had done on the bike came back again on the run… Even still, I was able to put together a fairly solid walk/run through it and finished strong.
Thank you to Marc, Rob, and the rest of the FSService staff. I cannot wait to do my next race with them. Check out their race calendar at fsseries.com. Thank you to Paul for all his help and guiding!
