A Christmas Truce

One final note about Devon: he's not that bad. We're calling a truce. He's been a great competitor throughout these races.

Here are 2 more photos that Jared got just as the swim off came to a close:

I swam a 1:09.6 100 and Devon swam 125 in 1:10.4. At that pace, Devon did a 100 in 56 seconds. That's nuts. What a swimmer. (It's funny - when you watch us race in the video, we don't look that fast. A 56 second 100 isn't impressive looking at it on tape. But he was cruising!)

At the end of my 2013 Gear West Duathlon race report where Devon and I first went head-to-head, I ended with a few final points. The last point was to race against a friend / foe like this sometime. Here's what I said:

I've challenged friends to races in the past, but never something like this where 1 person (pro triathlete Devon Palmer) is obviously WAY better than the other(s). You could always say something like "OK, we're both training for this 10K, but you always finish 2 minutes in front of me at that distance. If I finish within 2 minutes of you, you buy me dinner." Or what-not. This is a fun way to stay motivated among friends and push yourself. And you could choose to partake in smack-talk if you want... that's not a requirement. (But I have to say that it did make things more fun.)

I still agree with all of this that I said back in May. This is something that I'd still recommend to do with a friend or frenemy. I've put in more yards than I usually do this time of year in the pool. It's extra fun motivation. Try it! Our race (actually, our 2 races: this swim race and the duathlon back in May) shows that you don't even need to be the same speed. We just agreed on a handicap and went from there. It's a GREAT way to keep your butt moving!

It's been great racing with you good-buddy, Devon.

So Devon's agreed to stop making horrible allegations about me, and I agreed to stop making sweet love to his mother.



... at least for the rest of 2013.