Heart O' Dixie

This is one week late, but better late than never. I traveled to Louisville, MS a week ago with a friend to race at the Heart O' Dixie triathlon. The race was a 0.5 mile swim, a 27.5 mile bike, and then a 7 mile run that started in Louisville and ended in Philadelphia, MS. I had heard that it was a well-ran race, so I decided to give it a try.
The swim went well because I actually got a chance to warm up in the water, which is huge for me. For some reason my arms always tighten up if I try to immediately start swimming at race pace. It was a 400 meter out-and-back following the right side of a line of buoys. On the way out there was some major congestion, as they only seeded the top 10 and started everyone else by how they signed up...which is retarded. On the way back, some idiot ran head on into me...yes, head on. My head rammed into his shoulder. I honestly don't know how I didn't hurt my neck. Overall, I averaged a 1:40/500m, which is about what I thought I would be able to do.
The bike was probably one of my top 5 best rides. It was largely a rolling hills course with a few that were slightly more than rolling. I hit a rhythm early on, as the first few miles were relatively flat. This rhythm helped out significantly when I got to the rollers; I was able to power up them and maintain my speed for the most part. I ended up with an average of 23.2 mph, which was tied for the fastest in the 20-24 age group!
I was determined to not break on the run like I did in Chattanooga. Even after hammering the bike, I still felt pretty good starting off. One thing that I've learned is that pre/during-race nutrition is super important. I think I'm close to figuring out exactly what food to eat pre-race that will give me the most energy and that will settle the easiest...and the same with during the race. It just so happened that a guy about the same exact speed as me exited T2 right in front of me, so I spend the first 3 miles drafting off of him. After 3 miles I picked up the pace a little bit and left him, and with 2 miles to go I picked it up a little bit more. My intention was to run out of gas right as I crossed the line, and I think I was pretty successful in that venture. Overall, my average pace was 7:41/mi, which is an 18 sec increase in speed from Chattanooga (even though this course was almost a mile longer!).
Overall, I finished in 2:20:34, good enough for 6th place out of 17 racers in the 20-24 age group. Whew.