As good as Augusta 70.3 is, the race itself is only a small part of the reason I made the trip to Georgia. The main reason for the trip was to spend time with awesome kids of the Dream Team Youth Tri Squad in Athens. Over the past 3 years Kim Landrum along with her coaching team have developed the perfect environment for kids to have fun while training and racing in triathlon. The success of the idea has now meant the team has spread itself to 3 separate camps in Atlanta, Athens and Augusta. In 2011 I was honored to become team captain. To be part of such a great initiative and to see the enthusiasum the kids (and parents) show is inspiring. It's so pleasing to see a bunch of kids having fun and being healthy and happy in the outdoors...like kids should be. I love getting updates on how they're all doing throughout the year and giving them hints and tips along the way. This year I got to watch a handful of them race the Ironkids National Champs in Des Moines which was awesome.

Jared and I spent almost a week in Georgia this year. In that time we were shuttled around and looked after like long lost family members. We arrived into Atlanta late Wednesday evening after a full days travel including a taxi, boat, bus and plane. Seth was there waiting to pick us up (getting constant Mel-Jared flight ETA updates by phone from his 2 kids back home in their command centre). He kindly drove us the hour and a half to Harveys place in Athens (via a quick dinner stop) where we would set up base camp for the next few days. Harvey is the man behind TriCoachGeorgia, a local group of triathletes having a good time smashing their PR's. Harvey himself is a man-mountain. He drives a monster truck, rides a monster Shiv, and eats from a lazy-susan-style pizza tray perched on a pedestal a foot above the table...only when the opportunity presents itself of course. In the space a of a few short years he has transformed himself from a 290-pound 'clydesdale' to a genuine contender for World Champ qualification (on the back of a 2.22 bike split, he just missed 2014 qualification with his Augusta 70.3 result). His house is the perfect Tri training facility for his athletes, having 8 computrainers set up down stairs on a split platform stage in front of 2 big screen TVs. His athletes regularly grind away down in this bunker riding over the virtual ironman courses on screen. In the backyard, Harvey has his own 250yard-long lake for open water swim practice. If you don't mind sharing with turtles, fish and the odd snake, it's perfect.

Thursday we spent the day doing a little bit of everything. a short ride in the morning with Harvey, a few laps of the lake with some of the tricoach georgia athletes and then a run in the afternoon. After training was out of the way, we spent the rest of the afternoon at one of the Dream Team training session. We caught up with the kids and parents and also met super swimmer (and local girl) Haley Chura. After the training session, Haley, Jared and I sat down with the kids for a Q&A and finished with a spot quiz/prize give away frenzy. The kids are so knowledgeable and so engaged. The questions they would come with were thoughtful, genuine, funny and 'different' in ways that only kids could come up with. After all the kids were wound up with excitement, we migrated to the local favourite restaurant Chops and Hops for dinner and more fun with friends.

Friday, a few of us started the day with a swim session lead by Haley followed by a couple quick laps in the lake. She made us all look silly in the water..and did it with such ease. We then got our race gear ready and made the 1 1/2hr drive to Augusta to have a small get together with some of the Tri Augusta crew. Here we made the next exchange as we were passed over to Tony who lives just across the river to the Augusta 70.3 race start. Very convenient. Tony and his family were incredibly helpful providing everything we needed for the weekend. Tony also raced Augusta 70.3 so he was not only helping us out but also looking after his own race preparations at the same time. Some nutritional mistakes (easy to fix) leading into the race made for a tough, long day out on the course. Despite this, he still grit his teeth and made it through to greet his family at the finish line...and collect his medal of course.

Race morning for myself came went without a hitch. Up at an ungodly hour as usual, arriving at transition in the dark with floodlights and speakers blaring. The race itself went well. I had plenty of support along the way from cheering Dream Teamer's, parents, families and fellow competitors. After the race I enjoyed spending the afternoon in the Dream Team/TriCoachGeorgia/Tri Augusta tent with the kids and parents chearing on the other Tri Augusta athletes still out on the course. We cheered, rested, yelled, drank, cheered, ate, played games, rested, made cool rubber-band bracelets (well, Aiden's the only one that can do it really)... After the awards ceremony later that afternoon, Jared and I made a quick trip back to Tony's to grab our stuff and then back on the road with Harvey to Athens. Harvey, Jared and I feasted at an Italian Restaurant when we got back, shoveling in soups, salads, breads, pastas, pizzas...everything the waiter could throw at us. It was a sight to see!

Monday we had a nice walk through Athens with Harvey and Julie. We got to see the massive University of Georgia stadium (seats 100,000), walked AROUND the University arch (dont go under), got a photo on one of the many bulldog statues throughout the town and caught up with Marcus for awesome lamb burgers for lunch. Delicious!

Tuesday was our last day, and it started with a ride in the morning thanks to Rueben who picked me up and took me along to one of his local bike routes. One final quick swim in the lake and a half hour run around the block before we packed up to hit he road again. This time it was Joel who offered to haul us and our luggage all the way back to Atlanta airport.

Its true that the people in a community make a place worth visiting, not the destination itself. Even though the weather was perfect, the places to train were great and the race itself ran smoothly, it was all the PEOPLE in Athens and Augusta that made the trip so memorable. I can't thank you all enough! I'll see ya'll again next year...Chase Your Dreams kids!

   1st   4:03:27

   Swim   21:03      4th
   Bike     2:19:23   1st
   Run     1:18:59    1st

Last year, the current in the Savannah River was moving at 5000 something-or-others (aka fast). My kind of swim course...'down hill' so to speak! The days leading into the race this year the hot topic on everyone's lips was about  the current being a whopping 8000 or even up to 12000 something-or-others (aka faster!). There was even a story being thrown around about a packet of chips with a garmin attached that had made it down the course in 34min. I like the sounds of that. By race morning though, it had all become 'just talk'. The water-releasing dial upstream had been turned back to 'normal'. Not quite the rapids predicted, but still plenty strong enough to give us all a helping hand along the way.

To prevent us floating away before the start of the race, we had a diving start from the jetty rather than a deep water start. I think the siren must've broke so instead of the 15 of us all diving in together it was...well, pretty funny for the spectators. The clock had started counting down but no sound alarmed so we all stood there waiting. About 6seconds later an official yelled "go, go, go". We all didn't quite know what was happening. None of us wanted to break but we didn't want to get left behind. The girls on my far right fell into the water. I looked to my left then to my right and we kind of exchanged a "yep, I think we're good to go" nod then dived in. Not quite the explosive diving start I expected but I did get off to a good start all things considered.

I was super pumped to smash this course today! The swim was dead straight so you'd think very little sighting. If I trusted my navigation completely I would have kept my head down and not sighted until I thought I was near the end but I'm not completely confident that I can swim dead straight so I probably sighted a little more than I really needed too. The sun was right in our eyes so sometimes I did a double take to sight the buoys. These are the few things I went back over after the race thinking "maybe I could have got a few more seconds here and there" but other than that... I swam hard! After the long run transition I got to my bike just as Emma Kate was leaving. "Whoa! Either she has had a shocker of I'm going well". The later was what I was hoping for. As I jumped on Ronny, Jared yelled "that's the lead just there...you and Emma Kate". I was stoked. I rolled out in control and took the lead 4km into the bike. I'd never been in this position before. I'm always madly chasing on the bike which I guess makes it easier to keep the pressure on. How do I push when I'm already in the lead and my strongest leg is yet to come? 

Sub 4! That's what I was thinking about. Keep pushing. I really wanted to break 4hrs. I started pushing hard but then we hit the bumpy, cracked, ripple filled roads. I was bouncing around like I was on a bull at the rodeo. I zig zagged from right to left trying to find the smoothest line. It didn't exist. I was getting so frustrated cos this course was perfect for me. Long steady rolling hills. But I just couldn't get into rhythm. After 40km the roads got better, for a bit. I tried to use it and kept pushing. 

Just before I dismounted my bike I took a quick look at my Garmin. 2:19. Damn! Only 1min faster than last year. I won this race last year in 4:06-high. Somehow I needed to cut 6+ minutes and I'd only made up 1min on the bike. I didn't know what I'd swam but I was hoping it was mighty fast. 

I threw my socks and runners on then grabbed the usual - race belt, visor and gel. I was in such a hurry this time though that I dropped my GU gel. I looked back briefly then thought "stuff it, the clock's not going to wait for you". Luckily I knew GU was the race nutrition sponsor so I could grab one at an aid station. Maybe not Salty the Yeti, but I'd get one. As for rushing through transitions I also dropped my goggles running up the swim exit. Clumsy! I also left them.

So onto the run my trusty husband Jared appeared to give me an update. "Your 2 1/2minutes ahead of last year, you need a 1:16 run, that's just under 3:40 pace". I quickly absorbed everything he said. I processed it and thought... I'm gonna give it a shot!

3:34, 3:33, 3:38, 3:39, 3:38, 3:38, 3:40. Hold onto it Mel, you can do this! 3:42, 3:46, 3:48... 10km done, still on pace but legs are tiring. It was a tough ask. I haven't done all that much since Vegas (3weeks ago). I've been on my semi-break. But I was gonna keep pushing to the line. Get as close to 4hrs as possible. I did the following 11km around 3:50 pace which wasn't fast enough to break 4hrs but I crossed the line in 4:03:27. I was still very happy! I got the win. I had an awesome swim. And I finished around 3minutes faster than last year. Next year 4hrs in going down!


A massive thank you has to go to so many people in the TriCoach Georgia squad and the Dream Team Youth Tri squad for making the whole trip possible. It was like an intricately orchestrated human relay performance to get Jared and myself everywhere we needed to be. In particular, thank you so much to Tony Creed (not his best day on the course but still showed he can soldier on to the very end, get it done...and take home his medal) and his wonderful family in Augusta. And to Harvey 'Slayer' Gayer (the 8-foot giant with a rocket 2.22 bike split aboard his foaming monster Shiv) and his incredible family in Athens.