“I think I’m going to do White Lake”

WARNING:  This write up is almost as long as the actual race!


"I think I'm going to do White Lake"

Those are the words I spoke to Johane at dinner immediately after finishing the Goofy challenge at Disney world in January.

A year previously, I had blown out my IT band doing the Disney marathon.  Since I couldn’t run, I started going to the pool again and swimming.  Eventually, I could bike again and started doing that too.  Since I was already doing the swimming and biking and running would be soon, I started thinking about maybe doing a triathlon again, so I signed up for a sprint Tri in Cornelius at the Y.  I wound up adding 2 other tri’s to my schedule, another sprint, and an Olympic distance, the first one I had done.  In the middle of all this fellow dart-er Todd Hartung told me that I really should start talking to his friend Tony Read. Tony had done a few Half Ironmans and even a full Ironman and was a great resource to talk to.

The very next week while sitting outside Summit Coffee with my wife post run, both Tony and Todd were there, and Todd introduced me.  Right off the bat, I had my first encounter with Tony’s enthusiasm, as he invited me to his place for a group open water swim.  After that day Tony and I have been swimming a lot, and have even biked and run quite a bit. 

So when my knee flared up at Savannah, he reminded me that I felt best the previous summer when also biking and swimming along with running.  He also started gently prodding me to do a half ironman.  Tony’s mantra is “ Believe, decide, do”.  He kept asking me if I believed I could do a half.  Eventually the answer became yes, though I was still skeptical.  I sometimes have a hard time looking beyond my next goal to the one beyond that.  So I was focused on Disney, and didn’t commit.  After Disney, I knew I had New Orleans coming up, so I couldn’t commit completely to it, but I did start ramping up my bike and swimming workouts.

Once New Orleans was over, and I felt pretty good, I decided to go fully for it (after making sure that Jo would be ok with the long training hours), and then the training started in earnest.

Basically my training involved a long bike ride on Saturday of around 4 hours followed by a 30-40 minute run.  Swimming 3 times a week of 2,500 yards each.  Runs (in addition to the Saturday run) of up to 80 minutes on Sunday, a long run of 10-12 miles on Tuesday and a shorter run of 5-6 miles on Thursday.  Plus my shorter runs on the other days.

For the most part, my training went pretty well.  I had a couple of hot days where I started too late and my nutrition was off and I bonked.  I think in addition to the training for the distance, there was a lot of training around nutrition/hydration, and I learned a lot.

Sooner than I knew it the day was here.  We left after school on Friday and made our way to White Lake, NC, which is about 3.5-4 hours from my house in a little town east of I-95.  White Lake seems to be a area that was a resort location in the 60’s and 70’s (much like the poconos or catskill mountains in the northeast) and not much has changed since then, including the hotels.  We wound up staying in a little place on the shores of the lake.  The lake views were fabulous, the hotel room view, not so much.  After getting to the location, we went to packet pickup, and got everything I needed, then checked into the hotel.

Hopefully, I'd be seeing the finish line again the next day

The Pier behind our hotel

White Lake at dusk

Tony dispensing last minute advice

We met up with Tony and went for pizza and ice cream (yes, I actually ate that!).  I like going to these races with Tony since he’s so calm, that I feel myself calming down.  I had been particularly worried since the forecast was calling for temps of 90 degrees and upwards.  But he also gave me some last minute tips.  More on that later.

Next morning I was up at 5am.  I rolled out my leg as usual, ate my bagel and peanut butter, and loaded up the car. As I was loading the car, Tony drove by and said he’d meet me at the start.  We rolled up a few minutes later and the parking lot was already full.  They said you could park 1-2 miles down the road, so we started driving down.  About ¼ mile down the road there was a guy selling spots on his lawn for 10 dollars.   SOLD!!!  With the amount of crap I had to carry, I was truly relieved.  Jo and Julia helped me carry my stuff to the start, and I went to my spot and tried to organize.  I ran into darter Brian Helfrich and we chatted for a few seconds, but I was almost in full panic mode.

A small part of the transition area

 I visited the port-o-jon a couple of times and then started heading down to the swim start with Tony.  Halfway there I started waffling on having a gu before the start.  Tony patiently told me to go get it and I scarfed it down quickly and then headed for the water.  I think the water was warmer than advertised, but was very glad we got to wear wetsuits.  Definitely swim better with it on.  Tony and I ran into another friend of his that I’ve swum with at his house and we chatted for a while.  They both kept telling me not to go out too hard on either the bike or the run, because with the temps in the 90’s I’d pay for it.

The swim starting pier

My group was earlier than Tony’s so I headed out to the start.  I saw Jo and Julia on the pier and had a chance to swim in their direction and have them take a pic and wish me luck.

In the water and ready to go

Before I knew it, it was time to go.  The countdown started and we were off.  I tried to stay towards the outside, since last year when I was in the middle at the Lake Norman Sprint, I got completely abused by being kicked.  The good part about the first 500 meters was that I didn’t have to do any sighting of buoys.  I was neck and neck with some other guy, and I just sighted off him.  After the first 500 when I was warmed up, I pulled away from him and then the sighting fun started.  They had buoys every 100 meters for the first 600 meters.  After that they seemed to be every 200-300 meters.  I was going pretty good for a while.  The course is a sort of rough triangle, going out around 700 meters, turns right, then goes for another 700, then turns right again and back in for 700.  The last 700 felt a bit dicey for me.  I had a hard time sighting on the buoys and it felt like they weren’t in a straight line.  Luckily, the swim finish has a giant balloon man, so I just sighted on that and headed for home.  It was rewarding passing not only people in my wave, but then people 2-3 waves ahead of me.  As I got to the pier to leave Tony Tip # 1 popped into my head.  (Tony Tip # 1 – don’t go for the first ladder on the pier, everyone does.  Skip by it and go for the second)  This was dead on.  There was a line getting out at the first ladder, and absolutely no one at the second ladder.  Got out and started running towards the transition area, taking off my swim cap, goggles and nose plug.

Out of the water

Somebody take my stuff, please?

I saw Jo at this point and she took my pic.  As I entered the transition area, I ran into another darter, Ashley Ackerman.  Ashley has done a ton of halves and even some full ironmans.  He was there as part of a relay team, and he was doing the run portion.  So I got to see him for a few seconds, say hi, good luck, etc.  That got me even more pumped up. I headed for my spot, took my first dose of salt pills, and prepared to head out.

Getting ready to head out on the bike

Tony heading out on the bike, and about to crush me

And then I made mistake # 1.  I had bought a pair of triathlon shorts.  Tri shorts have a pad like bike shorts but not as think.  The advantage is you can swim and run in them also.  The disadvantage is that they don’t have much padding against the bike seat.  And my tri bike has what’s called a tri seat, which means it’s nice and light, but can feel like you’re sitting on a sharp rock.  For 3 hours.  So I had brought a pair of bike shorts that I planned on putting on over the tri shorts.  I got about a half mile down the road when I realized I had forgotten them.  Instead of going back I figured “how bad can it be?”  Bad idea.

My first  bunch of miles were at a decent pace, though I did have to stop twice, once to go to the bathroom in the woods, and once when I dropped a water bottle and had to go back (they’re $20 bottles, and I knew I’d need the water).  I was averaging almost 20 mph for the first 20 miles.  I settled into a pattern of nutrition and hydration.  I had 2 salt pills every hour on the hour, and had half a clif bar every half hour on the 10’s and 40’s.  I also made sure to drink a whole 21 oz water bottle every hour.

Part of my challenge to myself was to see how long I could hold Tony off.  I knew that my swim started 10 minutes before him, and we’re pretty evenly matched, so I knew I’d be good there.  I knew his transition would be faster than mine, but not by much.  So I figured it would be just a matter of time.  However, I was hoping it wouldn’t be until at least 30 miles in.  But at mile 20, he pulled up next to me.  He had talked about going out hard and banking some time, because the second half had some serious headwinds.  We chatted for a few seconds and he was off.  Most of the rest of the bike ride was uneventful, except for a few things.  1)  The lack of padding definitely hurt me.  By mile 50 I was almost desperate to get off the bike.  2)  The was a heavy headwind from around mile 25 on.  3)  It started getting hot enough that I felt it even on the bike going almost 18 miles an hour.  All of these factors played into my steadily decreasing paces until we were mercifully back at the transition point.

I took my time at this transition, almost because I knew subconsciously that I didn’t want to go out on the run.  By this point it was over 90 degrees.  I sat down, changed into my Noosa’s, strapped on my water bottle belt, changed into my dart singlet, put suntan lotion on my head, neck and arms (I’d be wearing a visor), and at the last second picked up my other running pouch thing that had my phone in it.  I walked until the transition mat and then started running.

Thankfully, the first mile had a slight downhill, so I tried to get my running together.  Though the run was all on blacktop and by the time I got to the first aid station at mile 1, I thought I was in trouble already.  It was hot, and I started to feel myself overheating already.  Thankfully I got to the first aid station, and it truly was an aid station for me.  The first thing was that they had chilled washcloths/small towels that they were giving out.  I put one over my head and that cooled me a bit.  The second thing was something I had gotten from Tony.

Tony Tip#2 – after the bike, don’t try to eat anything (gel, solids, or anything) for the first 3 miles of the run.  Get some of the flat cola at the rest stops and drink that. 

Well that paid off in spades.  It sounded weird, but I had the cola and felt that little sugar jolt right away and I was off.  I decided to walk through each of the rest areas, but try to run in between.  I told myself that If I could make it to the turnaround point while running, I would let myself walk more on the second half.  I set off between mile 1 and 2 at a slower than usual pace. Due to the heat, I knew I’d have to so a little slower.  Between the cola and the towel on my head, I felt a little better.  I made it to the mile 2 aid station.  There, I realized that if I took my visor off, and put the towel on me head, I could put the visor over it and keep it in place.  I also got another towel and put it on my neck.  From mile 2 on, at every mile I gave them back their towels, and got 2 fresh (well, mostly fresh anyways) towels and kept replacing.  I actually felt much cooler than I should have.  By mile 3, the cola was feeling good, and I basically pitched my entire nutrition strategy.  I had planned on gu every 5 miles or so.  However, in training I had found a few times that gu while running, after getting off the bike bothered me.  The cola seemed to be working, so I stuck with it.  I had ½ cup of cola at every stop, and 3 times I stopped for 2 orange slices.  It somehow worked.  I’m sure I couold’ve very easily plummeted over a clif and bonked but I didn’t.  I kept on this was until mile 5.  Miles 5-6 were, for me, the best (except for when it was over).

I hear the French Foreign Legion look is in this year

At mile 5, I decided to call Jo, just to tell her where I was, while running.  We had a brief conversation which brightened my spirits.  Almost immediately after hanging up I ran into Brian again.  He had started before me and was coming back the other way.  I could tell immediately that he wasn’t doing that great as his shirt had blood on it from chafing.  We stopped for a few seconds to talk and I asked him how he was doing.  He told me he felt like poop and had already thrown up once.  I told him he was almost done, and to keep going.  And he was off.  At this point, I was looking for Tony.  Tony is a much faster runner than me, and I was expecting to have passed him already.  I figured I missed him.  But then around mile 6 there he was going in the opposite direction.  He seemed concerned about how I was doing.  I actually had a smile on my face and was joking around about how I wanted to strangle him for this, so I’d imagine he realized I was good.  And I was.  I actually knew at this point, that I would finish in one way or another.  After leaving him, I hit the turnaround, where they were handing out bracelets that indicated that you had gone through the turnaround point and not cheated.  Strangely, the bracelets say “finisher” on them, which was a pretty big assumption considering the temps were still climbing and there was another 6.5 miles to go! Most of the run back was a blur.  Things I remember; a lot of people down on the side of the road, a woman staggering towards me in obvious distress, telling the next aid station people to go help her, getting high fives from the ECU folks at mile 8, calling jo at 11 to tell her I’d be there soon, and the last mile which, to add insult to injury, was uphill.  Throughout all of this I kept running between rest stops.  I had told myself I could walk after 6.5, but then I told myself 1 more mile, then another, until it was at the end, and I wasn’t walking that last mile.  Next thing I knew I was coming up the hill towards the finish line.  Tony was walking his bike back to the car, and gave me a “great job” and “see you in a few”.  As I got towards the finish line I though about taking my towel off my head before crossing for a pic, but then figured the towel on the head perfectly reflected the race, so I left it on.  Next thing I knew, I was across the line.  I got my medal and some water, and Jo and Julia were there to greet me.  I had done it.  It felt awesome.

Coming into the finish line

Finishing it up

done.......and done

But not as awesome as changing into a bathing suit and jumping into the lake with Jo and Julia to cool off.  THAT was great.  After swimming for a bit, we got cleaned up, changed, Jo and Julia ate some hotdogs, and we headed back to the car.  On the way out which was a good hour after I finished, there were still people coming in.  My car temperature said 96 at that point.  It was amazing.

I spoke to Tony later and he asked how I liked it.  I said “I’ll be back next year”.

Makes it all worthwhile

The Rock N Roll New Orleans Marathons

They say the marathon is the type of race that can change in the blink of an eye. Your months of training and preparation can disappear because of a twist of an ankle or even a slight change in the weather. Weather can change just like that and derail all of your preparations. Which explains why Jo and I were in a Walmart in new Orleans at 9:30pm the night before the marathon.

First a little background.  After running the Disney Marathon in January 2011, I came up with the crazy idea of doing the Goofy (1/2 marathon on Saturday, full marathon on Sunday) at Disney in 2012, despite completely messing up my IT band at the 2011 race.

As Jo and I started gearing up for Disney, we heard about the inaugural Rock n Roll Savannah Race, and thinking it would be fun signed up for that too.  And then Jo saw the New Orleans race.  We’ve both wanted to go to New Orleans, and this seemed like fun, though I was a bit concerned about 3 marathons so close together.  My previous best had been 2 years between marathons, and now we were talking 3 in 5 months and 4 in a year’s time.  The topper was that there was a promotion that every time the New Orleans Saints won a game, you got the margin of victory off the price of the marathon.  I looked at the Saints schedule and saw they were going to be playing the Colts, who were terrible this year.  I circled that date as the day I’d probably sign up.  The Saints won 62-7 which meant we got a $55 dollar discount each off the race.  So Jo and I got in for $40 each.  You can’t beat that price for a marathon.

My IT was in bad shape after Disney, and it took me 2 months to start running again.  But over the summer, things started to look better, and our long training runs seemed to go well.  It all came crashing down at Savannah where my IT started acting up at mile 8.  Since I knew I had Disney and New Orleans coming up, I bailed at the halfway point, even though it killed me to do it.

Disney was an interesting experience.  The half went fine, but my knee flared up again at 14.5.  I was able to finish it in pain, but took a week off and was able to start running again.  We had our next long run 2 weeks after Disney, on a very cold, rainy day.  My knee felt like the cold settled into it and it ached the entire way, not a good run.  The next training run was 3 weeks later and 3 weeks before New Orleans.  The first 16.5 miles were pretty good, but then the knee started up again and I limped through 3 more miles with quite a few walk breaks.  So I wasn’t exactly heading to NOLA brimming with confidence.

We took an early flight so we could head over to the expo on Friday and then take it easy  Saturday to be well rested for Sunday.  The expo was nice, though a little small by Rock N Roll standards.  We didn’t walk around too much since I felt that walking around the expo at Savannah helped bother my knee, plus we didn’t really need anything.  I did manage to score some more KT Pro tape cheap, plus I won a cool hat from my friends at Brooks.  And we got our marathon shirts.  Nice design even though I wasn't a fan of the white color.

Nice shirt, except for the white color

I like my new hat

After the expo it was back to the hotel for a nap for Jo, and my daily mile run for me.  I unwisely decided to check out Bourbon Street on my run, not realizing that; a) at 3 in the afternoon,  it would already be packed with drunk people, b) the road surface was awful, and c) it smelled horrible!  So I ducked off bourbon and finished my mile elsewhere.

Bourbon Street - the world's most foul smelling street

Saturday we decided to take a bus tour to eliminate too much walking.  Since it had turned chilly and rainy this worked out.  We went to dinner at John Besh’s Domenica, a modern Italian place for pasta and bread.  Excellent by the way.  While there we looked at the weather forecast again.  While we had been checking from home the temps in NOLA were all in the 65 low, 75 high range, so we had only packed shorts, a dart short sleeve shirt for me, and a dart tank for Jo.  Now the weather forecast said lows of 45!  We were realizing that we were going to be freezing at the start, so figured out we better find the Walmart and get some throw away sweats.  We headed out to Walmart where we discovered that apparently everyone in NOLA is either a 2x, 3x, or 4x since those were the only sizes they had.  We bought 2x stuff and were laughing hysterically when we tried it on.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of 112 pound Jo in her 2x Tinkerbell sweatpants.  Classic.

Ready to go

Anyway, race day came and we got up at what seemed, after Disney, a fairly reasonable 5am,  grabbed our Mardi Gras beads and headed to the start at Lafayette Square.  After the usual ½ hour wait for the bathroom, we headed for our start corral.  Unlike the corral nazi’s at Disney, this was pretty loose and you could move about a bit if you wanted.  

Getting ready to go

We pulled up right as our corral was starting and we jumped in.  One of the big issues my massage therapist has is my not warming up properly before a race, so she’s got me walking the first half mile of the marathon if I don’t have time to warm up before (which I never do).  So we walked the first ½ mile so that my knee was loose.  I might’ve walked further except Jo was a bit, um, “disgruntled”  at the walking so we started running.  The course runs through a little of the central business district before heading out through the Garden District on St Charles for about 3 miles and then back for 4.  St Charles was a great place to run.  

Heading down St Charles

Look at me!

Still heading down St Charles

Usually I hate out and back, but I really liked this.  Both sides of the street were wide and there was a wide grass median in the middle where the trolley’s normally run.  Many folks took advantage of the non running trolleys and ran on the dirt.  There was amazing crowd support through these miles and a lot of nice scenery.  Plenty of nice houses to look at.  We were sticking to our plan of 4/10 run 1/10 walk.  We had done Galloway for Disney and I thought there hadn’t been enough time between the two to switch back, so here we were.  Even though the first miles were pretty I had my usual thoughts of how far there was to go and nervousness and fears of “I’m never going to make it”.  I seemed so far to go.  At mile 6 I had my first gu and the energy/sugar made my spirits lift a little.

After we left the Garden Distract we headed past the museum section including the World War II museum, a really interesting part of town.  After a brief lull, the crowds were back in full force, which was great.

Still running

After the museum area we headed through the French Quarter.  Thankfully, it wasn't on Bourbon Street but on Decatur, which had a better road.  At this point we were pretty familiar with this part of town, so it was cool to see the areas we had visited already.  We even spotted the waiter who had server us lunch before as we passed the French Market Cafe.

Hey, didn't we have lunch there yesterday?  Why yes, we did

After this quick trip through the French Quarter, we headed up Esplanade for about 3 miles to the halfway point where the marathoners and half marathoners split up.  The esplanade was another nice area, with tons of crowd support, and interesting houses to see.  There were also tons of people giving out beads and Jo and I augmented our supply.  The only downside was that the Esplanade was apparently a VERY old road, so I had to spend almost 3 miles watching the road to make sure I didn't step in a ditch.  I couldn't afford a mis-step at this point.

Carefully watching every step

As we hit mile 12 it was decision time.  When I had originally signed us up, Jo wanted to do the 1/2 marathon and I wanted to do the full.  As we got closer to the race, our opinions switched.  I knew if I was feeling lousy I could bail at the halfway point.  We had a brief conversation and decided to press on since we both felt pretty good at that point.  

Of course, we had gone only about a mile, when my knee started to hurt.  I had a brief moment of panic and then stopped and tightened my cho-pat strap, not thinking that would change anything.  Miraculously, it did!  My pain went away for quite some time.  Around mile 14.5 we hit the alcohol/refreshment stop.  Amazingly, they were serving martini's, bloody mary's and beer.  Since it was only mile 14 and I knew we'd come back at mile 24, I skipped the drinks and went for the 4 or 5 peanut m&m's.  It was like heaven.  And kept rolling. 

After the full and half split the full course goes out to Lake Pontchartrain where you make a left turn and go about a mile down the road then about 3 miles in the other direction then 2 more to go back down the way you came.  I had heard this part was a bit boring and could be hot, but we really got lucky with the weather.  The temps were quite cool and there was even a bit of a breeze.  The lake looked so nice we even stopped for a quick picture.

Jo on the waterfront

Really a beautiful day!

After the turn around we kept running along the water.  Around mile 19 I did get a little hot, but once I took my hat off and tied it to my waist, I felt a little better.  At this point I felt like I was carrying pounds of extra stuff.  I was carrying my own water belt (so I could control my water/gu brew, plus carry gu packets), I still had my sweatshirt tied around my waist, plus now my hat, plus the mardi gras beads.  We wound up running for a couple of miles with some folks from California and chatting with them passed the time.

Around this time we hit the first of the "uphills" a series of 4 little bridges over the waterways.  After the previous 19 miles of flat it was a little jarring, but a bit nice for a change in the routine.

After passing through the University of New Orleans around mile 20, there were a bunch of female students in tie-dye shirts giving out flowers.  They gave one to Jo, which I though was a quite nice touch.

On the way to mile 21, I started getting really hungry, so I broke out my honey stinger waffle that I started carrying on my long runs, after a suggestion from Kara Vincent.  I find it's really something to look forward to as a little treat.

Around this time I started thinking that I was still running pretty good.  But didn't want to think about it.  Just as I was thinking "please don't let Jo say anything about it", she said "so how are you feeling, you seem to be going pretty good, better than Disney".  I had to give her the "I don't want to talk about it, let's just keep going" (and an explanation later.  She always forgets how superstitious I am!).

We kept rolling to mile 24.  At that point the beer sounded pretty good, so I had a beer shot, but Jo went all out and hit the martini.  It was probably the best beer I've ever had. And it kept me going.

Right after that, Jo wanted to just run the whole rest in to finish up, but I knew that my knee was aching, and I was just barely making it to each walk segment.  Each walk was like a reset button on the knee pain.  It stopped while we walked, and then gradually built on each run segment until the next walk.

Ready for it to be over

Eventually we got to the sprawling city park complex, and headed into the park.  The park was really nice and felt pretty large.  There were again some nice sights to see, as we headed for mile 26.  Right before mile 26 you passed the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), a neat looking builing, so we took a quick pic and kept going.

26 is around the corner!

Around the corner was the 26 mile mark and I was still running. 

Interestingly, the finish line was past where the finish pictures were being taken.  Surprisingly, I was able to throw on a little kick at the end and we passed some other people.

And then we were across the line.

We did it!

Cool finishers medal with a mardi gras bead ribbon

In another amazing move, my new favorite recovery drink, chocolate milk was waiting just over the finish line. I got to have some chocolate milk, got our picture taken, got a finisher shirt and headed for the long bus line back to the city.

Finisher shirt

Overall, I thought this was a great marathon, and redeemed the rock n roll series in my mind.  It was a fun, beautiful course, the support was great, and I really had a good time.

While it wasn't my fastest marathon, it was my most consistant.  Every mile was within 45 seconds of each other.  The last 3 were the fastest.  I ran every mile start to finish.  I was pleased.

On a slightly ominous note, Jo has always talked about running an ultra, even a 50K.  She always says that it's only 5 more miles past a marathon.  I've always said that I never have felt like running 5 more feet let alone 5 more miles after a marathon.  After this one I siad "you know, I think I could go a little farther"  uh oh

Jo celebrating on Bourbon Street

Now I know what a salmon feels like

Way back in January when I convinced my friend Scott tondo antriathlon, the one that inwas aiming for was lake Norman YMCA. I'd seen the signs around the last 2 years and had been too late to sign up. Little did I know that tri fever would strike and this would wind up being the third triathlon of the summer.

The good parts for me about this tri were the following:
1) local race-so I'd get to go on roads I was familiar with in the town of Davidson, which I love
2) people I know - in addition to Scott, my own personal Yoda, Tony Read would be there, as well as fellow dart-er (and blue ridge relay teammate) Chris Brown (yes Mark Ippolito you can insert your Rihanna joke here).
3). Family - since the race is right around the corner Johane and Julia would be able to come by without having to get up at the crack of dawn.


Scott stayed over the night before and we were up at 4:45 and out the door by 5:30. In my Apparently misguided) mind I figurednwencould park at the y since we'd be there early. No way. Totally packed by the time we showed up. Luckily we parked on a side street right around the corner and packed up our 2 tons of stuff and made our way to the transition area.

After setting up our gear we headed for the lake to check out the swim. On the way down we passed the medical tent and I saw dr Duffy from Greenapple sports & wellness and got to chat a little bit. The water was actually colder than I expected which was good nits been so hot recently, I was figuring very hot water, but thankfully that wasn't the case.

After checking out the water, I still had plenty of time and plenty of nerves. So after checking on my gear again, I made my way to look for Tony. I knew what number he was and found hisbike, but no Tony.

At that point the race was about to start and I was full of nerves. Part of the problem is that the swim portion makes Scott nervous. So his panic attacks make me nervous too.

Luckily, he hit the water 3 waves ahead of me and I ran into to Tony. Tony is probably one of the most upbeat people I know. He's always able to lighten the mood. Plus he's been a great help to me training wise, even having me over to his house to swim in the lake for practice.

After Tony reminding me that at the last tri I wasn't even in the water when the race started, I headed into the water and made my way towardsnthe front of the pack. After waiting anxiously for a few seconds the horn sounded and we were off. I was almost immediately kicked in the chest and then shortly thereafter in the left shoulder. About a minute later I got kicked in the hand. At that point I decided to back off a little since I could ill afford a broken hand. I tried to swim away a little from everyone else. That worked for a little while when cardinal rule # 1 was broken. I felt a hand on my ankle and was suddenly yanked backwards as some guy (cheater) tried to use me to launch himself ahead. Unfortunately, this wasnt the only cardinal rule of racing that was broken that day. At that point I started to pick up the pace and started passing people. It worked pretty well for a while, until the end when it was a bit crowded getting out of the water.

After the beating I took in the water, I was already a little tired, but I headed for my bike. The bike route took us up into davidson, and out on davidson-concord road. The route took us past Dave Mungers house. I had given Dave a conservative estimate of what time I'd be passing by. When I looked down at my time I was a good 5 minutes ahead of schedule. Not bad. Hading out on the road I was averaging a nice 20 miles an hour. Unfortunately, once we made the left onto shearer road that was all over. Shearer has some rolling hills and it was the day of hurrican Irene. While there was no rain, there were still some winds and they were dead on into my face heading up shearer. That definitely slowed things up. Once we turned onto faith road I was glad not to have the wind in my face. Faith road was much more uphill and I struggled a bit up the pretty large hill. But after the hill it was back on 115, which I knew was a nice downhill back into davidson. I started picking it up at this point. I was rocking down 115, slowing down to look to see if Chad Randolph was out around his neighborhood. Then into davidson and back to the y. A quick transition and then the run. The run after the rest of the tri had been tough this year, so I told myself I'd do Galloway. I hit my first section and was doing my brief walk when Tony pulled up. He gave me his traditional "what a burger" chant, told me to keep it up, and moved on. The ru. Wnt better than I expected. My pace while running was faster than I thought it would be, so i was happy. The run was pretty uneventful, except when running through the neighborhood, when I looked over and saw a guy I work with. After shouting out a greeting and him shouting out a "looking good" it was onto the finish. Where cardinal rule # 2 was broken. I got to the finish and crossed the chip mat. After the chip mat there's about a dozen feet until they write down your number for finishing order. But the race is over at that point and etiquette says you stay in the order you finished in. However, some guy decided to elbow past me and give in his number first. I was steaming. But there was nothing to be done for it.

I met up with Scott, Tony, Johane, and Julia and sat around talking. Tony made me realize that for a 5k I shouldn't have gone Galloway and should've just gone for it. And he was right. Thats my only regret. Aside from that, it was a fun time.

After we all showered and changed we all headed for what a burger, which is becoming a post-tri tradition. Yes, they have fish, so I was ok. Overall, a fun race, and one that's furthered the tri-fever I've been having. Maybe 2 more coming up this year!

Gold Rush Triathlon - 6/18/2011

“It’s been a long time since I rock n’ rolled” – Led Zeppelin

There was a time in my past that I did 2 triathlon’s a year.  From the late 90’s to early 2000’s I did a tri in upstate NY in May (a lake swim in freezing water) and in August I trecked to Greenwich, Connecticut to do a tri that featured a Ocean swim (the first year that Jo and I were dating it was in the midst of a storm featuring 4-6 foot swells, and people were bailing left and right.  I thought about it but didn’t want to look wimpy in front of the woman I was dating for 3 weeks).  But by the early 2000’s it just became too much effort.  With all that was going on in our lives at that point (very young daughter, new house, a job that took tons of hours a week), it became too much to train (in fact between 2000 and 2007 I even stopped marathon training).  Also, Tri’s seem to start at crazy early hours (6am) and it just became too much to wake up my family at 2am, pack up all the things I needed in a car, and making the drive upstate or to Connecticut. 

When we move to NC, I saw that there was a tri at the Y near me in Davidson.  The first year, I wasn’t ready, and the second year I didn’t realize how fast it would fill up and I was out.  Well, this year, I did some planning, and decided to sign up.  I was talking to a friend of mine at work, and convinced him to join me, even though he lives down in south Charlotte.  He apparently got the bug, and found out there was the Gold Rush Triathalon, which literally ran right by his house.  Since I was making him come all the way up to my place for the August tri, I felt like I should head down his way for this one.

My training was ok at best.  I’m coming off a IT band issue that I suffered at Disney in January, and every run has been an adventure.  During the 2 months I couldn’t run, I was hitting the pool a bit harder than usual, and was making some nice progress.  My biking picked up as well, and luckily a friend of mine that actually lives near me, had picked up biking recently, so that’s picked up as well.  I’ve been able to start going back out with the Davidson area running team again, though I was still slow and struggling a bit.  Honestly, I was running better until I got sick about 3 weeks ago, and since then every run has been a struggle.  My 5K time has slipped 2 full minutes, so I was a bit worried about that portion.  I had done 1 day with a 45 minute ride on my bike trainer at home followed by 15 minutes on the treadmill and that’s about all I had done to train.  So I was a bit nervous to see how it was going to shake out.

Transition Area

The day of the race came and I woke up at 4am, already tired.  Got my stuff together and headed out in the car for the hour drive to South Charlotte.  I tend to prefer to arrive early to get set up so I was there by 5:30 for a 7 AM start.  A bit early.  Since I had some time I got to go inside and check out the pool.  Every other tri I’ve ever done has been in a lake or an ocean, so this would be my first pool tri.  The pool was 50 meters long and has 10 lanes.  The idea is that you would swim down the first lane, then go under the rope and come back in lane #2, continuing until the end of the pool. 

How to do a triathlon swim in a pool

The pools I usually swim in at 25 meters, so when I got to the pool and looked in it looked really long.  

That's a long pool

And that’s when the first stirrings of nervousness really set in.  Luckily, I occupied myself by getting my packet, setting up my bike, getting my arms and legs marked, and attacheing my chip to my leg.  And then Scott showed up so I at least had someone to talk to until the start.

Panicked on the inside

Scott getting ready to crush me

I may not be ready but at least my bike was

Since it was a pool start, they couldn’t let everyone start at the same time like I was used to.  To solve this problem, they took everyone’s estimated 100 meter time, and put us in order to start.  Scott was 89 and I was 90.  At first it  seemed like it was taking forever to get into the pool.  Once we got to 80 though, it flew along.  Next thing I knew Scott was jumping in.  He took off, and I had just jumped in and was fumbling with my goggles and then I heard “5-4-3-2-1”.  Crap.  I shoved my goggles and nose plug on and took off.  Which went well for about the first length.  Then I noticed that I was having a hard time breathing.  Then I realized this was because my nose plug wasn’t on right and I was slowly drowning as the water rushed in my nose.  I took a second to fix it, and then was heading back down.  On the second lap I caught up to scott.  I thought about passing him, but we were getting to the end of the lap, and he was kicking hard.  After almost getting kicked in the face, I backed off a little until the length finished.  At the kick off the wall, I went under him and passed him from below.  After Scott, I passed 5 other people and was cruising until lap 8.  At that point I guess a bunch of people got tired and decided the end of the pool would be a great place to hang out.  So there was a traffic jam.  I had to wind my way around these 6 people and lost a couple of seconds there.  Then on the last lap, there was a, how shall I put it, “large” woman in the middle of the lane, so I couldn’t get by.  Finally I squeezed by her, though I’m sure I hit her are least once.  Not intentional! Really!

So out of the pool, with my only feel good moment of the day.  I passed Scott.

Out to the transition, and as usual my first transition was terrible!  I can never seem to master the pool to bike transition.  It felt like it took forever to dry off and get dressed.  My personal problem is always getting my feet dry and getting socks on.  Today was no exception.  After a painful 2:36 transition it was off on the bike, which began immediately uphill.  The bike course was 2 6.5 loops.  As the course went by Scott’s house he had been practicing for 2 months.  I, on the other hand was seeing the course for the first time.  And as usual, I tend to be conservative and not push too hard to try to save something for later.  So of course, that was the last I saw of Scott as he took off.  The course could charitably be called “scenic”, but I’d go with “hilly”.  I never felt like I could really get a good downhill burst going without a uphill coming shortly after.  The one highlight was passing Scott’s house where his wife and son were there to cheer us on, even with a nice sign his son had drawn.  

The sign that Scott's son made for us

After the first loop, I had a little better idea of what to expect the second loop (Look out! There’s a huge hill on Providence road!), so the second lap was slightly faster than the first.  As I was pulling in, I saw Scott a couple of minutes into the run.  I was a bit behind him.  Anyways, the second transition was much quicker.  Off with the bike shoes, on with the running shoes.  And out.

And……what the @*&!&@?   The run starts UPHILL!  For a half mile.  Oh boy.  A quarter mile into the run, I was thinking that maybe I’d be ok walking the whole way.  At 4/10 of a mile I convinced myself that Galloway was the way to go.  And for the most part, I did get it going.  .4 run followed by .1 walk.  Rinse and repeat.  Of course in the middle of a couple of those .4 were some brutal hills, and I admit that I did a little sneak walking in there.  But I was going.  It was definitely not my fastest 5K ever.  But I wrapped it up.  I even got a sprint going the last quarter mile to pass a women who had cut the course and moved ahead of me.  Scott had beaten me by 10 minutes.

The finish line

Overall, it was a tough, hilly course, but I finished quite a bit under the time limit.  I need to train more going forward, especially trying to do more biking/running outdoors to work on the feeling my legs get after biking.  Hopefully I can get it all together before August.  I know Scott is hiring a trainer so that will be tough. 

My goal for 2012 is a half ironman, so I obviously have a lot of work to do.