This is my first post here on trifuel, so, hi all!

Just wanted to report in on the first ever Ameliaman Olympic Triathlon (that ran in conjunction with the Atlantic Coast Half-Ironman) this past weekend on Amelia Island (Fernandina Beach), Florida. This was my first Olympic length ever (did a few sprints run by the same company this summer) so, needless to say, I was a bit excited. The first Olympic wave set off at 7:30 a.m. on the dot, and the water felt great... It was a good diagonal out, over (to the left), and back swim. I had never swam 1500m straight in the ocean so I was a bit slow (about 33 minutes) but I left the water feeling good and having alot of energy for the bike.

A short jog up the beach to the transition (which was great, being the inaugural running of the race, there were only about 150 bikes) and I was on my way. I did the 40k bike in about 1 hour 14mins, which was pretty much average for the race. They had blocked off an entire side of the road for the race, though, which was nice, and it was mostly flat (minus a bridge that crossed over some beautiful river up there). Great bike course.

Got off the bike and ran for the first time without sucks, trusting my feet to the wonders of Body Glide... About .25 miles was in the sun, the rest was in a WONDERFUL canopy road in the local state park. This was amazing, considering it was in conjunction with water/gatorade/energy gel stations EVERY mile! Did the run in straight 6:59's, which I was quite proud of. LOVED the run course!

Finished in 2:35:00.0 on the dot, and got a +2 for losing my race number on the run (forgot my belt, bleh) but still got 1st in the 15-19 division, and a sweet medal. The athletes only food area was nice, and being one the first 50 to finish, I got dibs on the pizza. There was a great expo there with every race necessity you could imagine (wasn't used to this having only done sprints) and these really cool KEEN shoes that formed to all of your toes.

All in all, I had a great experience and now am more motivated than ever to keep up my training and work towards the ultimate goal of a 2010 Ironman! Feel free to comment/speculate and hope to see anyone who feels like making the trip in the Spring (they decided to separate the Olympic/Half-Iron next year so the Olympic will be in Spring) out there!