I had set out this weekend excited to the fact that I was going to be busy but not rushed like I normally am when I travel home for the weekend from Central Illinois to Michigan. Of course being the 4th weekend we did a bunch of family mumbo jumbo but I was more excited about Sunday morning.

Race Day: Got up and loaded up the car (girlfriend, check! phone charger, check! etc.) and headed to Howell Mi. from Jackson Mi, a little over an hour. Howell City Parks were putting on a 1 mile open water swim and an Aquathon (1.2 mile run, 1000m swim, 1.2 mile run) of which you could do both races for 30 bucks!!! GREAT DEAL!!! With me being from Illinois I jumped at the opportunity to get in some non-pool swimming.

1 Mile OWS (9am)- Swim was a 2 loop course, never had to leave the water though, worked out wonderfully. I started on the left and at the front as many people were lining up way right and would of bottlenecked at the first buoy. There isnt really much to say in a swim race, minimal contact because of my position at the start line. My only real excitement was in the last 250 yards; a guy came up on my left and I casually let him pass me and then attached myself to his feet till about 50 meters to go. I PULLLLLLLLLED so hard that last fifty meters my lats were screaming! He decided to trudge through the last 10 meters in the water while I dolphin dived (you can guess who made it to the beach finish first.) I finished in just over 21 minutes, 14th OA and 1st in my AG.

1/2 an hour later.....

The Aquathon (which Ive never done before) started with a 1.2 mile swim, 1000 meter swim, 1.2 mile run. I didnt know this before I signed up but 5 of my old teammates from a previous race team were there so we all got to line up with each other, it was awesome! As soon as the gun went off we bolted off the line and quickly formed a group of 6 that slowly stretched out over the first loop, I hit T1 5th OA in 6 minutes (5 minute pace).....about 200 meters from the T area I put my goggles on and got a lot of laughs from the spectators lining the course and T area. I threw off my shoes, no time for a swim cap and jumped into the water with a HR in the high 180's. Let me tell you what happens when you hit the water with a HR of 180's, "you want to die" and my arms were still tired from the mile swim a half hour ago. A boat went by about 150 meters into the swim and I spent the next 100 meters trying to get a breath and remove the water from my lungs. I finally settled down and started to move but I knew I lost a lot of time with that boat. My 1000 meters suffered pretty good from the boat and the previous swim and I notched a 20 minute swim ( 2:00 x 100 pace) which was about 3 minutes slower then what I was expecting. I finished the race with another great run, 6:15 for the 1.2 mile loop. I finished just over 32 minutes for the whole race and a Top 10 finish with a 2nd AG.

This was soooo much fun, I would do another one of these in a second. One of the best workouts Ive ever put myself through!