I wanted to do a sprint for a pro qualifier, and found a nice-looking one (i.e., short bike) that usually has over 500 people, which is what's required to be used as a pro qualifier. The only thing I forgot to check was whether or not it was USAT certified. Oops. I had already paid my 60 bucks, so I went anyway. I figured it would be fun. Ended up being less than 500 people anyway, so whatever.

Race morning shows up and I roll out of my $50 motel room (first time I've stayed in one....besides the four-foot-tall killer bird and slight musk of the room, it was pretty good....plus it was only like 5 min from the race). Tropical Storm Barry had just gone through the day before, so it was still a little windy, so they canceled the swim because it had too much chop. All of us swimmers were upset, but oh well. They replaced it with a 1-mile run. I lined up with the elite wave to start (not USAT-certified, remember? no pro card needed!) and sized up the competition. Spencer Smith was going to kick my butt (he may be 10 years past his prime, but I don't think World Champions ever get slow!), and there was a guy named Javier on the Jr Natl Team who would also beat me. There was Phil LaHaye, the RD for St. Anthony's, Kerry Sullivan, a level I coach out of Tampa, and a few people I didn't know. So now the race....

Gun goes off and I settle at the back of a pack of four (Spencer, Javier, Kerry, and me), letting them work in the wind (and plenty of it). About 1/3 mile in, Spencer and Javier go off the front. I think for a few seconds and decide to go with them. Spencer's a lot bigger (seriously, the guy's stacked!), so I sat right on his shoulder. We split up a bit the last few hundred meters, and came in 12s back from Javi and 5s back from Spencer in 4:53.

So-so transition....I always have trouble with my helmet strap. Maybe I'm mildly retarded. lol.

The 12-mile bike was uber windy, mostly on a causeway connecting to the mainland. One way was mostly about 30 mph, the other way mostly about 20 (stupid tropical storm!:D). Spencer absolutely took off. There were 4 turnarounds and he added about 20s on me and Javier each time (as I very much expected....you have to be fast to have a bright pink bike! Oh, and mdd....it's a Planet-X). I kept pushing harder and harder to catch Javi, but he stayed at 40s up. Good thing was, though, with all that chasing, I had gapped 4th place by almost 2 min (totally not expecting that, but very happy). Ended up with 32:05 @ 22.5 mph (3/8 Elite, 4/464 OA.....some 33 yo beat me by 3s....darnit!:))

T2...nothing exciting. I put on my running shoes.

The run was half super-long parking lot and half trails overlooking the Gulf. Very pretty, but very windy, too. I started out slow, since I have a terrible habit of going out way too fast. I didn't want to push too hard since there was no way I was going to catch Javi for 2nd from 40s back (he was XC in HS....I ran the 400...lol) and I remembered that kevinb got hurt last week running too hard in a duathlon. Everyone was yelling "Go Gators!" which is awesome....I'm going to miss college in another year! I had to do a couple Gator-chomps for big groups of Gators. Even the Seminoles were mean in a nice sort of way. I kept checking the time I had on 4th at the turnarounds and figured that I was ok. Kerry and Phil were duking it out, but I was safe. Side note: some kid who was corner-marshalling at the end of one of the trails was too busy text messaging and sent me the wrong way, but he sent everyone in the elite wave the wrong way, so I guess it's not a huge deal. I thought I was lost for a second, but I saw the big building next to the finish line through some trees, so I just followed the road in that general direction and my boy scout skills got me back on the course pretty quickly! I came across in 17:27 for 3rd on the run (Spencer was 15:40 and Javi 16:05....just too damn fast!). My time on the run was a huge surprise to me...I thought I had gone slow, but I guess it was just the first time I hadn't died in a 5k....haha. Ended up 3rd OA out of 464, which is my best place ever....superfun! (well, except for that one 5k at the nudist resort...I was the 2nd fastest naked guy that day!). That was my last race until Natls in 4 weeks in OR....I think things are looking good. Maybe if an earthquake levels some of the hills out in Portland for the bike course it'll look even better!