Buster Britton

Well, my first “A” priority race is in the books. Overall, it was a great experience. I finished 12/14 in my division (hell yeah not last!) with a time of 1:44:08. Not exactly my goal time of 90 minutes, but I’m not too disappointed. Here is how it all played out…

Friday night, Heather and I went up to the park so I could go ahead and get my registration packet. I checked my race number, 138, and thought it was a little weird that I was up towards the front of a field of 500 people. What the crap did I put down for my swim time!?! No way am I going to swim faster than half the flippin group! I’m going to get run over out there. I finally settled down a little and decided just to go out there and do my thing and not worry about everyone else. I can’t control what they do; I only have control over myself
Saturday (Race Day)
5:40 Me and my buddy Jeff rolled into the park to help with body marking before the start of the race. It was a lot of fun getting to chat it up with a bunch of fellow racers before the start. You could tell those who had been racing for years and those who were racing for the first time.

7:00 Headed over to our transition spots to make a few last minute preps before the swim start. I downed a GU and some electrolyte tablets before heading down to the swim start area. The clouds were looking a bit ominous. I saw Heather, mom, and Mo before we started getting lined up for the start. It’s always nice to laugh a little before the start to break the tension. We went and got lined up only to wait for a bit to see what the weather was going to be doing. The lightning in the distance made everyone a little nervous. Then, the rain started to fall. Everyone on the beach scattered like ants. Even people in swimsuits and swim caps ran which I thought to be kind of funny. The rain let up and we saw Jeff’s wife Leslie, their son Max, and Leslie’s mom. It finally looked like we were going to start the race. One of the buoys marking the course came loose and started floating away. So we shortened the swim a little bit (prob more like 300-350 yds). Around 7:45, the first person entered the water and took off. In no time at all, the first 100 people were swimming, then the 120’s, then the 130’s, then it was my turn. I ran into the water and dove to start swimming. I got into a groove fairly easily. I had to lift my head straight up every 10 strokes or so to make sure I hadn’t swam too far off course. Swimming in open water is a big change from the pool. You can feel others swimming around you, but you can’t see them through the murkiness of the water. I rounded the first buoy and headed towards the second still feeling pretty good in the water. By the time I rounded the final buoy, I started to lose focus a little and could feel it in my breathing. I started taking in a little water with each breath. I got a little flustered but before I knew it, the water shallowed up and you could plant your feet and take off towards the swim exit. I exited the water in 7:04; good enough for 11/14 in my division. I would have struggled to hit my 8 minute mark had the swim been a full 400 yds but heck, I’m happy with my swim time.

Missing Scenes from Baywatch


I walked/trotted to the transition area where the rain had soaked everything. I buckled my helmet, put on my gloves, shoes, downed another GU and ran to the transition exit. My T1 time was 4:17 (not too good). I mounted my bike and took off. The roads were soaked and covered with debris from the storms that came through the night before. I worked through my gears and found a comfy cadence to start out at. Everyone quickly noticed the effect of a shortened swim. The bike course started to get crowded. Every 10 seconds you would either say or hear “on the left” meaning that someone was about to pass you or you were about to pass someone. I battled my way up the hill just like the weekend before. I actually lost track of where I was on the climb. I thought I had one more bad climb to make and then the next thing I know we are riding down a hill to the first turn around point. Take that nemesis! The return trip was easy. It wasn’t nearly as crowded so you could get busy on the downhill sections. I made it to the bottom of the hill to on of the only flat sections and hammered on to the final turnaround. I made it back to the transition area in 51:00 which put me at 8/14 in my division. My average speed was around 15.3 (according to the most recent results). I was off my target time by almost 7 minutes.

Quick shot of me biking into transition


I had an awful T2. I took way to long to rack my bike and slip on my water logged running shoes. I slapped on my visor and started to trot onto the race course. I have to say that running is by far my biggest weakness. The three mile run took almost 40 minutes. It was a lot of uphill running. My knee started throbbing pretty good on the way out. I need to start doing more strength training to try and remedy this knee pain crap. The run back in was fun. I just kept telling myself that I only had 1.5 miles left to go. When you run out of the woods and pass the water stop, you only have ½ a mile to go. I started kicking like crazy. The cheers started getting louder, the announcer got louder, and then before you knew it, the final turn to the finish chute was in sight. I could see my family and friends cheering me on in their neon ponchos. I turned and sprinted on to the finish line ending the run in 39:08 which put me 13/14 in my division.

I know, the "theme" of this video is a little off, but it made me laugh...



Overall it was a fun day. The rain was more welcomed than hated because there is no telling how hot it could have gotten. Thanks again to everyone for coming out. I’ve got to give mad props to my buddy Jeff for doing awesome at his first triathlon. He smoked by me at about mile 1 of the run. Awesome race dude!

I know what I need to focus on now…running, strength training, & biking up hills. After wavering a bit, I've decided to stick with my initial race schedule and do Chattanooga in July. The distances are 1500m/40k/10k. I know they are doable. I just need to dig and get myself into a strong training zone. I've got three weeks or so to get in some mad training before I need to rest for the race. Have a great week. I'll update my training later this week.

Eric’s Quote of the Day: “My humility is probably my best quality” ~MH

Day before Race!

Well, my first “A” priority race is here. I feel pretty good about as long as I don’t dwell on the “what if’s.” The open water swim should be interesting. I hope I haven’t become too dependent on following a black line in the bottom of the pool. My goal is 8 minutes for the swim. I think it is easily doable as long as I don’t swim off course any.

Swim Course


The bike should be fun. It is 13 miles of pretty hilly terrain. As long as I remember to save some gears for the hills, I’ll be fine. My goal is to avg 17.5 mph which would give me a bike time of 44.5 minutes. I’m confident that I can make up time from biking up the hills when I fly down the other side (gravity is a big man’s friend when biking downhill).

Bike Course


The run course will be interesting. It is flat for the first ½ mile then uphill for the next mile to the turnaround. Good part is that it is downhill and flat for the return trip. I’m hoping to keep a modest 11 minute/mile pace (33 minute run segment). So far this year, I haven’t been great at the running. I figure I can take the first 3-5 minutes to shake the bricks off my legs and then focus on the run.

Run Course


Adding up the times and shooting for smooth transitions, my goal is to finish in 90 minutes. That might be too lofty of a goal for a beginner, but I know I have it in me. I just need to keep the “can’ts” at bay when I’m on the course. For those of you coming out to cheer, thanks for your support. For those of you racing, good luck. For those of you at home, drink a cold one for me!

Eric’s Quote of the Day: “Pain is temporary; quitting lasts forever” ~Lance Armstrong

Weekend & Weigh In (Nemesis 1 – Me 1)

Practice Run
The weekend went well. I didn’t go swim Friday morning so I could rest just a little for our practice tri on Saturday. We rolled up to Oak Mt. about 7:15 Saturday morning. I was a little surprised to see so many other people there to swim, run, and/or ride. It was a gorgeous day. We walked on down to the “beach” and decided to swim down and back the length of the beach. It is probably somewhere between 100-150 yds to the other end. We both did fine on the swim. I have got to be better at swimming without a line painted on the ground below me. I ended up being a bit off course when we got to the end despite Jeff’s best efforts to holler at me when he saw me swimming towards the dam.
We finished up our swim and headed back to the car to mount our bikes and hammer out the 13 mile course. I was a little nervous. My nemesis was coming up in front of me. I just kept my head down and kept digging until we came down a hill and found ourselves at the turnaround point…I was pretty pumped about making it there. It definitely boosted my confidence more for the race next weekend. We took a quick breather and headed back down the mountain. About a mile from where we parked, I got a flat. Hopefully I can go ahead and get it out of the way so it doesn’t happen during the race. It would definitely kill my bike time. It took a bit longer to replace the tube than I thought it would. It was pretty cool to see that just about every biker that rode by would slow down and ask if we needed any help or if we had everything we needed.
We cut the bikes back up to the parking lot and got ready for the run portion (my least favorite). We trotted off down the road up towards Pevine Falls. Notice the word up…it seemed like the first half of the 3mile course is all up hill. Not too much fun to do when your legs are all tight from biking. Jeff took on off ahead of me. I slowed down a good bit, walking at times, but jogging for most of them. I’m not sure how far I got, I’m pretty sure Jeff got close to the race distance if not more. Overall it was a very good day. Now it is time to do a little training here and there this week to rest up for the race.

Monday 6/8 (Weigh In day)
I spent Sunday and the first part of Monday resting. I was going to do a little bit of cardio during lunch to keep my legs loose. I rode on the stationary bike for about 25 minutes. Nothing too strenuous or hilly, just tried to keep a nice steady cadence.

Well, Monday is my weigh in day. I stepped on the scale to see 245. I was pretty happy with that since my last weigh in saw me had me back up to 250. Now, I’m right back on track.

Eric’s Quote of the Day: “Do or do not; there is no try” ~Yoda