My last go at the 70.3 distance ended after about 5 miles, and I was really happy to find another race for this year. Atomic Man is in HILLY eastern Tennessee, the highlight of the course are 2 trips up a hill that over looks the plant where the U.S.A. built the A-bomb. I am history nerd and this was very cool... but to the race.

Swim- The start was delayed 30 minutes because of fog, according to my parents who were watching from the beach the fog got much worse after we started. I stayed on one persons feet for the whole first lap. The kayak guards were chasing people down who were too far off course and pointing them in the right direction. If you didn't know exactly where to look the buoys were impossible. The fastest swim time was 34 minutes and mine was about 5 minutes slower than usual so i think the course was long. This would become very important later.

Bike- Hills, Hills, Hills. and I really stink at descending. I like riding hills though and I can get up and over most of them without too much struggle (thank you summer in steamboat springs CO!). There was very little traffic and the roads were in great shape. Also, there are no residential areas in the race area because of the nuclear plant. The course was very tough, there were 2 times that hills slightly off the loop were included in the loop with a 1 mile out and back. Cruel. I really liked this course and I think most others did too. It was challenging but it did have some flat sections and bottle drops every 14 miles.
I had a plan and I stuck with it, I think I could have gone faster but in my previous races this year I have really struggled on the run so I wanted to have a good run rather than a good bike.

Run- The course was rolling hills and very pretty. There were enough trees to provide shade in sections and it was a 2 lap out and back. My plan was to take it easy for the first 20 minutes, this had worked really well for me in training. I had an unbelievably good first 6.5 miles. Then my stomach turned on me so I started walking and running when I could. My goal time was 6 hours and I knew it was slipping away. At this point I was really cursing the extra 5 minutes of swimming. The farthest I was able to run with out cramps was about 5 minutes. Then it started to get better, I ran 8 min. before hitting an aid station so i walked to take in a little water and I felt GREAT. By mile 11 i felt like I hadn't even been going for the last 5+ hours. When I was able to see the line I looked at my watch and knew I'd make it. I crossed the line in 5:57:XX.

The volunteers at this race were top notch and the RD obviously responded to last years complaints of a boring run course.

I want to thank all of you on Trifuel and I hope you know how much you contributed to me even finishing this race. Your stories inspire me and your advice is priceless. Thank you.