Ha! I'm in the same boat as you, but you finished with the better time so isn't the ball in your court? ;) I've gotta off load some pics rom my camera to make it an interesting post and maybe I'll start typing in a bit!

Alright, I got the photos, so here goes!

Mad Beach has always been my favorite race. The venue is great, the RD does a fantastic job, it's a very smoothly run, fair event.

They altered the direction of the swim from previous years to go with the current, which was nice of them. But yes, it may have been a bit long. I suck at swimming anyway, so I just took it nice and smooth. Maybe a little TOO nice and smooth- I had a horrible time, even by my standards. But the benefit of that was I felt great coming out of the water! :rolleyes:

Swim time: 15:57, 20/23 I didn't think I had done THIS bad. Note to self: swim faster next time. This was gonna hurt.

T1: 1:02- a little slower than normal, but still passed quite a few guys on my way out. Shoes on pedals works, people. I didnt even put my feet in untill mile 2, and passed quite a few people during that time.

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The bike is a fairly smooth, mostly flat (yes, it's Florida but we have bridges along the coastal waterways, so be quiet) semi loop course. FAST. Wind of 10- 15 mph out of the North made the going out portion a little slow, But I felt good, only got passed by 3 dudes on the bike- all on NICE rides w/ aero wheels and helmets. I pushed the envelope a little, picking off people one at a time. It was nice when we turned around and had the wind at our back, made for some easy going.

Crossing the last bridge: some dude on a roadie with clipons gave a LOT of effort to pass me on the flat leading up to the bridge- I'm not sure if he forgot how to shift or what, but he went up on his hoods and was grinding away. It was fun to pass him in aero going 19mph w/ not too much effort. Right at the end a local guy who normally winds the Masters group came up along side me. I see him riding the trail I work at a lot, and he blew by me on the run last year at a different race. Clyde Ball is an awesome triathlete, and I only hop I can still race with his kind of speed when I get to his age bracket. Shoot, I wish I had his speed NOW! Anyway, we were just a few feet apart heading into transition, and his shoe disengaged and he ended up stopping hard to pick it up. Luckily, I practice my dismounts pretty much every ride, so I had a nice manuever around him to the cheers of the crowd. That was nice!

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Bike Time: 39:49 6/23 Avg speed: 22.6 mph Max speed: 30.5 I'll take it. I passed quite a few guys in my AG and wave, so I got back a lot of the ground I lost on the swim)

T2: 00:43 Better. I grabbed a gel and for some reson opened it while crouched instead of running. Cost me a couple seconds.

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The run is straight out down the roads, turn onto the beach, straight back. Passed 3 guy in my AG in the first mile. After that it gets fuzzy. Clyde caught me on the run almost to the halfway mark. (Thanks to his shoe thing, I was out of transition a little before him.) He offered his encouragment, and kept on trucking. I was determind not to let him go like I did at Tarpon Springs. I hung on for as long as I could, but that dude can run.

Run time: 20:28 5/23 6:36 mins/ mile. Made up ground, but not as much as I wanted.

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AG: 6/23 OA: 36/ 636

Meeting fellow Trifuelers is always cool. Congrats to Matt on his AG win. By the way Matt, my sister's still interested! ;)

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Nice job, and excellent report!

That's odd, as I didnt tell anyone on ST that I was doing Mad Beach. I dont tend to post there a lot. Hmm.

I'll consider Dunedin if theyve done away with the no passing zones. I'll drop them an email.

Nice race, guys! Glad you had fun...hope you stayed around to party with the Mad Dogs :D