Wow! What a hard race that was for me. A 10K run, 40K bike, 5K run in wet sloppy conditions. I am thinking perhaps running the Charlottesville Marathon the weekend before was not such a good idea or maybe I just suck. Off we went through a historic canal site down to the James River crossing it on a suspended footbridge that someone had walked their horse or St. Bernard on after feeding it Ex-Lax. I did my best ninja dance to avoid the piles, a leaping lotus blossom here, a flying white crane pirouette there. We eventually crossed that bridge 6 times as the 10K was 2 loops of the 5K course. Once across we ran on a large island in the river that had many cool views of the rapids and other stuff on the James. It was a trail run on the island and some parts were pretty slippery and there were large muddy puddles everywhere. My run strategy paid off as by the time I got to the TA for my bike most were gone and my bike was easy to spot. There was a windy steady drizzle by now and the temps were hovering around 60 which was great for the run but for the bike not so much. We immediately had to climb a steep hill out of the TA but there were 4 hairpin switchbacks on it so you were not grinding your way up the hill. But as the bike course was a 10K loop we had to go around it 4 times. JimBob you’ll need another Jerry Phelps Memorial Hill/Corner way point for you map but more on that later. Because of the wet and my unquestioned bike handling skills I was not to comfort flying down the steep hills as they usually ended in a turn or stomping my way up a hill as there was lots of wet material from the trees all other the road. In addition to the hill right at he TA there was a monster downhill into the river valley which of course we had the climb out at the other end then loop around and go back the way we came. So each loop had 3 killer climbs and descents. Lots of people got flats, I’m amazed I didn’t get one, and those on their $5,000.00 Tri bikes with tubulars had a long walk back to the TA. I also saw several folks go down and they didn’t get right back up. As I started my last loop a spectator walked right in front of me, never even looked my way as I was yelling lookout!!! I didn’t hit him and didn’t go down but I got pretty mad as I started up the hill with the switchbacks. That was a mistake. Instead of just peddling I stomped my way up the hill and on the 3rd switchback I went in sharp and sure enough the bike shot out from under me. I hit the deck pretty hard but jumped right back up and checked out my bike. Fortunately I had tighten down everything pretty good before the race so the saddle stayed straight and so did the handle bars. The right shifter moved in about 30 degrees but the brakes worked and it shifted, so I hopped on and finished my last lap. Then came the last 5K run. As I was chugging a long on the island, again, I noticed some young people flying by me and I realized these must be the pros. They had started them way after us so that the course would be pretty clear and a little drier. With only a mile to go a little blonde pro ran past me and from the backside it looked like she was just wearing panties, not very big ones at that. Dang this is turning out to be a pretty good day, I think, so I yell “Thank you!” as she went down the trail. She held up her hand and indicted she was number one or maybe I was, I’m not sure, but there was definitely only one finger extended. I plodded into the finish at 3:06:28. Before the race because of the hills I had set a 3 hour goal so considering the conditions and the fall. I am pretty happy!! 8)