As an Ironman All World Athlete (a designation I earned from my IM race results last year), it comes with a few perks. One of those perks is a low bib number which translates into a better bike racking position. I ended up getting bid #166 which placed me in the third row of racks. Only the pros, in the first two rows of racks, had a better position. With 27 rows of racks it was nice to be right next to the Bike in/out. In the above photo you can see my bike (yellow arrow) in comparison to the Bike In/Out (red arrow). 

Race day turned out to have beautiful weather, even if it was a bit warm on the run. The staging area for the swim start was at SRP Stadium (home of their local minor league baseball team). It was a nice venue to wait for the start and they even streamed the beginning of the pro race on the stadium's big screen while waiting for the age group start. The downstream swim in the Savannah River always makes for a fast swim time (although nothing comes close to the speedy swim I experienced at IM Oregon 70.3 last year). 

As I was exiting T2 I knew I was on track to meet my time goal of breaking six hours. Whenever I compete in an IM 70.3 event I usually have two goals. One is in my control (finishing under six hours) and one isn't (finishing on the podium). In my age group of 65-69 a sub 6 hour race usually has a good chance of a podium (top 5) finish. That's one thing that keeps me motivated towards the end of the race, because slowing down may cost me a spot. In my last 70.3 race in Galveston, Texas earlier this year I finish 2nd and was only 11 seconds ahead of the 3rd place finisher. Things like that keep me moving forward. The course itself had three distinct parts. One was along the Riverwalk, one was through the downtown streets, and one was a long boring section (miles 5-10) in the middle of the route. The first few miles and the last few miles covered the same ground so we knew what to expect. With less than 3 miles to go I was feeling good and on my sub 6 hour pace. Then out of nowhere I got a terrible cramp in my left hamstring. It forced me to stop for a couple of minutes to work it out, and even when I started to run again I couldn't go quite the pace I wanted for fear it would flair up again. I ended up crossing the line at six hours and one minute (oh well).

But what made it even more frustrating was that when I pulled up the results it showed me in 6th place, missing the podium by one minute (stupid cramp). However, I felt better a few hours later when I looked at the results again and saw that someone who had started the swim later, so he wasn't finished yet when I first looked at the results, finished about ten minutes faster than me and pushed me down to 7th. Probably the first time I can remember being happy to actually finish lower than I thought.