"Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man..."

Can a call myself a Tin Man?...Iron seems a little far-fetched right now.

Well, i did not drown, Woo Hoo!!!

Who knew horses could swim. I was jokingly called aClydesdale again, by my swim coach....remember whose husbands butt i kicked ;). Hey she called me a clydesdale, and i was able to correct her that while a Clydesdale is a beautiful animal, i prefer the no-nonsense approach of the Draft Horse.

She appreciated the distinction, as her daughter is starting equestrian stuff. but.....

Back to me.

Here i am at the start. Downtown New Baltimore, city of fish-flies, and Anchor Bay in the northern part of Lake St Clair.

The only known festival celebrating...an insect, but their apperance is a symbol of a living lake.

speaking of lake, bay, whatever...

1/4 mile seems a lot farther when laid out on end in a lake, bay, whatever...There are 4 buoys in this picture. ouch


and here i am waiting, looking at the buoys and thinking....

"just don't be the first guy to wave for help from the lifeguards"

big horn sound aaaaannndd. we're off!!!



Fun Guv called it a bunch of salmon swimming upstream. i stayed to the back....like it was intentional, ha....but i was very surprised by the contact in this part of the sport.

26 minutes later, after one major panic attack, and a bunch of little ones.



It was a long walk, saunter to the bike/run transition area

i brought some G2, took my time and went back to the standard, socks, shoes, shirt, helmet,


aaaannnd, Go..



It was basically a nice bike ride. 11 miles long, it took 39 minutes. i got to see some interesting things in regards to traffic, and "man vs auto" moments but overall nothing odd so....
\

It was admittingly nice to pass some people on the bike portion. After being one of the last out of the water, notice the empty bike racks in previous picture, i was happy to feel a little bit athletic. Also, after watching the number of people thrown "noodles" in the water by life guards and a few broken down bikes and accident bike victims, i was happy to still be on my feet.

Speaking of that, now here we go....my area....the run...3 miles piece of cake, eh?


i mean really, look at the confidence here. where was this an hour and 7 minutes ago??? i like this picture for a couple reasons. One, i'm actually running. proof, finally that yes, both my feet are occasionally off the ground at the same time. Two, i look thin in this picture due to clever choices in attire, (Oprah was right). Three, i'm still smiling. and Four, thanks to clever photo skills, Fun Guv caught me with a decent size fold/bulge going on. This is real trick photography, and thanks to all the people saying "Eeeeewww" to themselves right now. heehee...made ya look

As for me....i'm gonna start looking for an aircraft carrier at nearby Selfridge Base from which i can shout "Mission Accomplished"

yeah, i know....Selfridge is an Air National Guard base, and there are no aircraft carriers in Lake St Clair. Got it....



After the halfway point my run turned....unispired.

It was hot, humid, and really, i was just doing this for the fun and i thought.

"Take a walk, enjoy this, don't set the bar to getting a PR, if you ever do this again, tooo high."

So i walked through the water stations, and chatted with guy in my age group and we rounded the bend. One more corner and the finish.

i had mentioned that my wife would cheer me to go faster and if he wanted to keep up, but he was pooped. Sooooooo.....



At least i wasn't last in my age group. Actually i was 4th from last.

But, i finished, had a good time, and feel super re-invigorated for a good Detroit Marathon train.

Time on the run, 31 minutes, funny eh?? It was a tough overall event.

So there it is...a quick, timely, race report.... with pictures. Soon Fun Guv will throw in her experience, hopefully she blogs about the family of ducks ripped apart from each other by the incomming swimmers. Screw watching the race....the real action on the pier was concern if the momma duck and the ducklings would ever reconnect.

Anyway, i will post after taking some time and reflecting on whether i want to "tri" this again.

Oh yeah, official race times gooooo here

Best guess, 1:39:46

Thanks for reading