Race Report: Alabama Coastal Triathlon - Olympic Distance

I completed the Alabama Coastal Triathlon in Gulf Shores today. It is an olympic distance event. I was concerned about the event at first as I started having pain on the right side of groin yesterday and could feel it some this morning. Fortunately, it seemed to pass and disappear by the end of the race.  I have to travel to Orlando tomorrow. As a result Betsy and John choose not to accompany me as she would have to spend tomorrow here alone and drive home alone. The race went well, but I sure miss Betsy and John. I need to work once I get passed this race report anyway. So, its for the better, I reckon. Sure is lonely though.

The swim went well, but I did start by swimming to the wrong buoy:

And, I saw lots of jelly fish. I felt a minor sting on my right forearm on the first loop. I mistakenly hit stop of my Garmin 910XT watch as I entered T1 :( I did figure it out before I lost too much time. The ride felt great and the run was not fast, but was steady. For a minute, I thought I had a chance of breaking 3 hours. But, I missed by 6 minutes. But, it was my fastest olympic to-date, so I can't complain.

Results

All results

September 7, 2013: Alabama Coastal Triathlon Olympic Time: 3:06:14
aaaa	Swim	Distance: 1.5K Time: 38:26
	Transition	Time: 1:40
	Cycle	Distance: 24.85 Miles Time: 1:15:05 Rate: 19.9
	Transition	Time: 2:46
	Run	Distance: 6.2 Miles Time: 1:08:19 Pace: 11:07
	Weather	Mostly Cloudy Temperature: 73.0°-84° Humidity: 90%

Some pictures from the day:

Beautiful day, let's go do a triathlon

Activity is starting to pick up

The transition area.

Transition set up and ready

Transition is ready

Betsy did so good I listened to the pre-race briefing from my balcony.

Time to join the crowd.

Into the water we go. Jelly fish await...

What we look like coming out of the water.

3 hours and 6 minutes after the start...

Yep, I'm a bit tired.

Some pictures added from Ronnie Blakney's Facebook.