Titanium Man Tri - Kennewick Wa. (Tri Cities, Wa.)

Right after the Emmet Tri, we were contemplating the original plan to do the 70.3 down at Bear Lake. We decided to stick to Oly this year and heard that Jimbo was doing the Titanium Tri over in Tri Cities. Well, Stevo and Jesus were in, so we called it a go and signed up that day. I called Rod, who was on his way back to Moses Lake Wa.-- he signed up using his iPad while his wife was driving. So there you have it, a final event for the year. Steve, Jesus, Jimbo, Rod, and myself decided to go do this thing...

The swim was down the Columbia River. Nice, this should be to my advantage. As it turned out... It was. I was only a few minutes behind Zeus & Rod after the swim.

Swim start was a rush. Everyone gets in at only a few minutes until start. They start swimming up stream while awaiting the cannon. Seems some folks got too far out and couldn't stay above the start so the cannon went off a little early. After the Boom, everyone angled for the middle. They continued to angle out for quite a while. I was continually trying to gauge when these guys would shoot down rather than across. It's not like this was a real swift current, but the further towards the middle, the quicker the river shoots you downstream. What a rush. All these swimmers and I seemed to be midpack... I reached the 1000M bouy in what seemed like a few minutes. Then, before I knew it I was getting out and heading to T1!

I saw Jimbo leaving. I thought, "awesome... I am right up here for once!"

Then, as we all stacked our bikes next to eachother, I get to my bike and see Steve and Jesus sucking down a shot of "pure oxygen" that Stevo picked up from Mavrik... Steve was out of there. Then Jesus must have freaked when he saw me there. He dropped everything and took out of there like his pants were on fire. He left all of his gear out in the grass; never placing it in his T1 gear bag. (cheater!)

Rod and I were left struggling to get out of our wetsuits. I was just thinking Jesus is one minute in front of me now. As I carry my bike across the grass I thought, one minute will take me 10 to catch him. Sure enough, like clockwork, I went past him right at the 10 minute mark.

No idea where Steve or Jimbo were, but Steve can hammer the bike. He beat me by 5 minutes at Emmett and flies up the hills, which were plenty on this course. I ended up catching Jimbo at around mile 2 on the run and Steve at mile 4 or so... Bam! I'm in it to Win it. Or I'm in this to Win! (the little boys club that is)...

At around mile 3.5 or so a see Zeus. I think "man o man, I hope nothin goes wrong". Then a short bit after passing Stevo, I am just getting tired and feel a bit slow. I thought if Jesus catches me -- he deserves this. As it turned out I made it before Him. But not without a nice battle at the end.

The day prior to the event, as we were scoping the course out we ran into a couple. They signed up late so had to go as a team. Husband swam, wife rode, then husband ran. Thus, zero transition. These folks looked like they were in stellar condition. Ripped, talking about Ironman, Vineman, Canada. They looked at us like we were the punks. Reminded me of the couple on Vacation with the gal from Seinfeld. A bit snobbish.)


Around 100 yards or so, I hear someone making a dash. So I pour it on and out sprint the guy. Turns out he was the same guy from the day before. I couldn't have been happier to beat him.

Shortly after, Steve flies in. Then Jesus came in with Jimbo. Again, out of nothing but respect. This guy has done marathon after marathon as well as out ran teams for the 62 mile run from Stanely to Sun Valley. Switching to tri to break up the straight running game.

Stevo and I high five out of excitement to beat Jesus for once. What a bag of lungs He must have. At 215lbs he still out runs most of us.

Time for a huge burger and beer or three!