Just before the semester wrapped up a few weeks ago, one of my students (a swimmer) told me that she and a firend needed someone to ride the bike leg with their relay team at the MIM MTB Tri. I thought it sounded like fun, so I went for it. In the morning, a downpour seemed immenent (see radar screenshot below), but it broke up as it neared Memphis and ended up just being a little damp and very windy.

The fun thing about this race was that the course was mainly through grass fields. There may have been 25 yards of singletrack total, but that could be pushing it. It was a total power course. When it was my turn to go, I ran full speed out of the transition area and did a perfect mid-stride mount when I hit the exit line (it was 50/50- I was either gonna do it perfectly or injure myself and look like a fool). For the next 7.3 miles, I put my head down and generally rode it like a time trial. The wind was relentless, the grass was deep, and the hills were long. I have no idea how many people I passed, but for the next ~33 minutes, it’s all I did. When I arrived back at the trasition area, there were only a few bikes there (turns out, my 33:27 was the 5th fastest bike time of the day- 4 guys rolled faster). Our runner headed out for the final leg and ended up finishing in 22 min & change.

Total time 1:09:18. Not only did we win for the mixed relay division, we beat the 4 male-only teams as well. Woohoo!

We waited around, recieved our awards, had our photos taken, then I jetted off back towards home so I could clean up and pack the car to head to Dickson/Montgomery Bell State Park…