I have felt really blessed over the last 24 hours. I have gotten numerous texts and calls asking how i did yesterday at the triathlon. I wanted to update everyone and thank everyone for their support of myself and the one and only Dave Tessmer, who also completed this triathlon with outstanding results!Sorry its long! Please read all of it. This is my biggest accomplishment so far in triathlon and i am very proud of it and Tessmer for doing it with me.
Let me tell you about Dave. This was tessmer's first real triathlon. He had done the FAC sprint tri last year, but it was nothing compared to this. He has been training so hard for this race and he ended up 77th out of 302! He swam 700m in 19:24, Transition 1 in 2:56, 18K bike in 37:00, T2 in 1:07 and finished it out with a 5K run in 26:20 for an overall time of 1:26.44! And, he might not want me to say this, but, he had to pee the whole time. In fact, he crossed the finish and we were looking for him. I mean, come on, how do you miss tessmer? He ended up being in the bathroom. Fantastic job by him!
My race was also just as great. I felt very calm the morning of. The transition area opened at 4:30am i was the second person there at 4:20. I checked my bike and gear and headed to the transition to set up my area. Once that was done, sitting around ensued as i still had over an hour and a half to wait before my race started. I found tessmer about 5:45 and we went over last minute questions that he had about the race and watched the other races before us start. We walked to the start boat ramp and said a little prayer. A gentleman next to us listened in and told us that he was going to be a campus crusade leader next year. I thought that was really great that other christian's were doing the same thing i was. It really strengthened my faith. The race started. Last year, i struggled immensely 
with the swim portion. I was not prepared for the open water swim and i lost my head. I honestly have never been more scared in my life. I hyperventilated out in the water and thought a couple times about quitting. I don't quit. I ended up finishing it and had a terrific bike split last year. God picked me up from a struggle and gave me strength to accomplish much more than i expected after faultering. I vowed to change that this year. I prepared myself better by swimming in lake mary a few times before race day. This helped a ton. I swam freestyle the whole way, i only stopped once to check if i was going towards the bouy. I finished the swim in 15:51. Transition 1 was a little slower than i wanted but i was in and out of transition in 1:27. An improvement of 36 seconds from 
last year.The bike was the only portion of the race i went slower on than last year. I know, I know, it shouldn't have been. I think i got caught up in my excitement and went to fast at the beginning. The whole way back on the out-and-back course felt slower. But, no one passed me. In fact, no one passed me at all after i was out of the water. About three minutes ahead of me was the kid i wanted to beat. Transition 2 is coming. My bike split was 31:05, 32 seconds slower than last year.Transition 2 was fast! Had some struggles with my shoes but still only took me 1:03 to get out on the run course.Remember the kid i wanted to beat? He was only 20 seconds ahead of me out of T2. I 
passed him and 4 others in the first mile of the run. One of those four, was a teammate of mine on FCA Endurance. Again, it gave me strength that others are out there racing for God. It gave me an extra push to do well. The run course was also an out-and-back course, which gave me an opportunity to see who was beating me. I was the sixth man. A couple times on the run i wanted to start crying because i knew all my hard work and training were paying off. I couldn't believe that i was going to be top ten and win my age group. It was way more than i ever imagined. I ran the last 2miles through a cramp in my right side. I still finished the 5k run in 21:40, which ended up being 1:41 better than last year and the fourth fastest 5k split out of everyone yesterday. The closest person behind me was over a minute back. I had done it! After the race my mom came up to me crying and congratulating me because she knew how much this meant to me and how much time i have put into training for this race. It made me cry too.I finished the race 8th overall (two women beat me, they started 5min after the men, which meant they didn't physically cross the finish line before me but had faster times) 1st in my age group, in a personal best sprint triathlon time of 1:11.04 
with the swim portion. I was not prepared for the open water swim and i lost my head. I honestly have never been more scared in my life. I hyperventilated out in the water and thought a couple times about quitting. I don't quit. I ended up finishing it and had a terrific bike split last year. God picked me up from a struggle and gave me strength to accomplish much more than i expected after faultering. I vowed to change that this year. I prepared myself better by swimming in lake mary a few times before race day. This helped a ton. I swam freestyle the whole way, i only stopped once to check if i was going towards the bouy. I finished the swim in 15:51. Transition 1 was a little slower than i wanted but i was in and out of transition in 1:27. An improvement of 36 seconds from last year.The bike was the only portion of the race i went slower on than last year. I know, I know, it shouldn't have been. I think i got caught up in my excitement and went to fast at the beginning. The whole way back on the out-and-back course felt slower. But, no one passed me. In fact, no one passed me at all after i was out of the water. About three minutes ahead of me was the kid i wanted to beat. Transition 2 is coming. My bike split was 31:05, 32 seconds slower than last year.Transition 2 was fast! Had some struggles with my shoes but still only took me 1:03 to get out on the run course.Remember the kid i wanted to beat? He was only 20 seconds ahead of me out of T2. I passed him and 4 others in the first mile of the run. One of those four, was a teammate of mine on FCA Endurance. Again, it gave me strength that others are out there racing for God. It gave me an extra push to do well. The run course was also an out-and-back course, which gave me an opportunity to see who was beating me. I was the sixth man. A couple times on the run i wanted to start crying because i knew all my hard work and training were paying off. I couldn't believe that i was going to be top ten and win my age group. It was way more than i ever imagined. I ran the last 2miles through a cramp in my right side. I still finished the 5k run in 21:40, which ended up being 1:41 better than last year and the fourth fastest 5k split out of everyone yesterday. The closest person behind me was over a minute back. I had done it! After the race my mom came up to me crying and congratulating me because she knew how much this meant to me and how much time i have put into training for this race. It made me cry too.I finished the race 8th overall (two women beat me, they started 5min after the men, which meant they didn't physically cross the finish line before me but had faster times) 1st in my age group, in a personal best sprint triathlon time of 1:11.04 
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