Testing Boundaries

A Callaway Gardens Sprint Triathlon Race Report

Dee Dee and I managed to make it to Pine Mountain around 1:45 PM. I wanted to hurry a bit, pick up our race packets, and make it to a TV by 2 PM to watch the soccer match. Unfortunately, or fortunately as the case may be, we got tied up a bit doing a bit of browsing in the expo. For such a not so little race, they had quite a few good things at the expo. We managed to get outta there with out any damage to the pocket book, but it was already after two when we left.

We made our way back to LaGrange, which in and of itself was a ten to fifteen minute ride. I was resigned to missing the first half of the game. We drove through downtown LaGrange, looking for a sports bar when we noticed they had a section of the roads blocked off. Out of curiosity, we circled downtown and discovered they were having Criterium (sp?) race in LaGrange of all places!!! What a coincidence that after we passed the race site, right there on a side street was a bar with TVs. Perfect!! LOL!!!!

For lack of a better term, the place was a dive. They had a tikki bar set up, linoleum flooring, and bunches of dirty tables. When we first went in, it appeared they only had one TV, but we asked the bartender, and he set us up with our own TV. When we tuned it to the game, it had only started two minutes ago. What an awesome coincidence! Dee Dee and I then proceeded to eat the best hamburgers I've ever had and enjoy the game. I am not kidding. I think they ground their own cows in the back. It was THAT good. We finished up right around half time and walked down to the race site to check it out. When we arrived, we got to watch the final 10-12 laps of the over-35 state championship. It was really cool. I'm not sure how big the loop was, but the riders came by every couple of minutes. There were tons of cool bikes and wheels out there. It was awesome watching the sprint to the finish. Very cool.

After the race, Dee Dee and I made it back to the hotel in time to watch the second half of the soccer match. I can't believe how exciting it was. The Netherlands tied the game up in the final three minutes to send it into overtime, only for Russia to put it away in the final minutes of overtime by scoring two goals. After the match, we lounged around trying not to get too tired and watching television. At about 6 PM, we decided to drive into Pine Mountain and try to eat at our fav little Italian restaurant. This was the place last year were I discovered that delish beer :-)

When we got there, we were third in line for a table. The place was busy and didn't even know there was a triathlon in town. The staff was seriously ruffled. They didn't have reservations, a list or nothing. I wasn't really hungry and would have been happy with a table when ever, but boss Dee Dee made sure nobody that showed up afterwards got in front of us for table. LOL!! This is where she compliments me nicely! We had some really good crustini as an appetizer. We both ordered spaghetti with meatballs for dinner. I thought mine was really good, but Dee Dee didn't really seem happy with hers.

We got back to the hotel at a decent hour. I found myself not nearly as nervous about this race as I have been in the past. I guess being on familiar ground has it pluses. I managed to drift off to sleep by 10 PM, and while I woke up many times during the night, I slept pretty good. I guess I was doing nocturnal intervals or something :-) I actually woke up thirty minutes before the alarm, feeling well rested and ready to go.

It didn't take us long to get ready. My goal was to be in transition by about 6:45 AM for an 8 AM start. Breakfast was pretty blah. They didn't have any donuts. I had to settle for a danish and a couple of muffins. I laid off the coffee, hoping that it would help with any GI issues (it did). I was actually surprised by the number of people eating breakfast. The lady at the front desk had mentioned the hotel was full, and I didn't remember this happening last year.

We arrived at the race site right on schedule. We elected to park the car two rows over from transition. Since we didn't arrive extremely early, much of transition had already been claimed. Dee Dee and I picked out a good spot and set up our stuff. Kevin and his wonderful wife, Cathy, stopped by to say "Hi!". They drove down from North Georgia the morning of the race. This was Cathy's first triathlon. She mentioned not being nervous, but you could tell she wanted to enjoy herself. Evidently, a lot of the peeps in transition did not know how to set up their stuff. Many athletes were taking up rack space by putting their gear next to their bikes, under the racks. I laughed about this, but it wasn't funny for a lot of people who had to create a transition area in the raised median areas of the parking lot.

Once we were all set up, Dee Dee and I headed down to the beach for our warm up swim. Last year, I swam the race route backwards to warm up and decided to do the same thing this year. I was surprised when Dee Dee joined me. We swam about three hundred meters easy, and I did a few pick ups to get my arms and lungs ready for the race. We climbed from the water and joined the waiting throng at the race start. I went looking for Kevin and a friend from work amongst the crowd. I didn't find my work friend, but Kevin and Cathy joined us on the beach after their warm up swim. We stood around talking and listening to the pre-race instructions. The RD told us that the race had grown from 700 to over 1000 peeps this year, and over 60% of them were female. I was very impressed with this. Next year, the RD said that they were going to split the race in two, with females and males having different race times.

Shortly before 8 AM, the young bucks in the first wave moved to the starting line. I saw the athletes in my wave get into the water behind them. I decided that I had better get ready to claim my spot. I gave Dee Dee a kiss and moved down into the water. At 8 AM, the first wave went off, right on schedule. I quickly moved to the front of the line as deep as I could get and still stand. I ended up being on the outside of the starting line buoy, sharing a little space with some other guy. About the time the RD announced thirty seconds for our wave, he asked me if I was a fast swimmer and offered to let me in front of him. I laughed and told him I was going to start to the outside, and he could keep his space.

In an almost anti-climactic atmoshpere, the RD yelled "Go!", and my wave started their swim. I had been practicing "over zealous" race starts in my training. I elected to go all out on the swim start. I really wanted to come in close to six minutes on the swim or drown in the attempt, and I just about got my wish!

The race course was along Robin Lake in a clock-wise direction. This year, they had more buoys out. It basically forced you to follow the shore line, unlike in the past. Once you got to the turn buoy, you could make a right angle directly towards the swim exit. This, of course, meant the entire route was shallow, and thus we had walkers the entire way :-) Even though they had been instructed to stay to the shallower water.

By the time I reached the first turn buoy, it was apparent that my expectations were in error!! LOL!! I was out of breath. I flipped over onto my back and looked behind me to see if I was about to get run over. I was not. After sucking a few full lungs of sweet sweet air, I turned back over and tried to swim again. Evidently, once you get extremely out of breath on the swim, its hard to adjust. One would think I would know this by now! The rest of my swim was a mix of gasping for air and trying to get into some kind of rhythm. I'm happy to report I failed miserably! I climbed from the water and hit the lap button on my watch in the same exact spot as last year. I had improved only 8 seconds. Just damn.

Due to the increase in the size of the race, this year they actually had timing chips and mats. It took me more than thirty seconds to cross the mat into T1. My official swim time was thusly 7:33. I guess its a wash, because it shortened my transition time from 2:30 to 2 minutes!! This was much faster than last year. I basically threw on my helmet. Latched on the race belt. Grabbed my bike and left. Most of my transition time consisted of getting to and from my bike.

I exited the transition area and crossed over the timing mats again. When I went to mount my bike, it slipped out of my hands and racked the back of my right calf. The chain created four inch claw marks down the length of my lower leg. I swore but sucked up the pain. I had wisely put my bike into lower gears before the race. Once I got mounted, I managed to spin my way out onto the race route.

Did I mention last year how much I love this bike route? It has some small gradients and some nice downhill stretches, but it is definitely not 9 miles, and certainly not 10. My bike computer said 8.3, and gmaps has confirmed this. Much like last year, I immediately started picking off cyclists. What I enjoyed so much about this years race was the men in my age group were in the second wave instead of the third. This meant fewer cyclists in front of me. I took it pretty easy for the first three to four minutes, but then it was on!! I geared up into the big ring and kept my cadence above 90 RPMs. Every once in a while, I peeked at my heart rate monitor and saw 165 flashing there. I thought to myself, "Coach is going to kill me for this." But, you know... I felt comfortable at that heart rate. I got passed by two to three athletes near the half way point, one in particular played see-saw with me for a while. Most of the time, when I got passed, it was on the uphill, and I quickly returned the favor on the flats and downhill sections. By the end of the bike course, I had passed everyone who had passed me, for the second year in a row. I ended up doing the 8.3 mile bike course in 23:20, almost exactly in line as last year, with an average speed of 21 mph.

At the dismount line, I tried to take my shoes off on the bike and leave them clipped in. I managed to get one foot out before it became time to stop. I quickly unclipped the other foot and used that one to stand on. I ended up taking the shoe off and ran to my transition spot holding it in my hand. I thought my T2 time was quicker, but evidently I used it for a little breather, as my second transition was slightly longer. All I had to do was replace my bike helmet with my hat, put on my Garmin and shoes, and turn my race belt around and head out. I ended up stopping at the water station on the way out, maybe that was the difference.

Heeding my coaches instructions, I tried to take it easy for the first 5 minutes of the run. Since I did so many bricks during my half IM training, my legs quickly adjust to the run. Three minutes in, I found myself hitting an eight minute pace. I tried to hold a little back as my instructions for the run was to negative split the sucker. I felt pretty good the first half of the run. I was pushing 170 on the heart rate monitor, but with my recent lactate threshold test fresh in my memory, I felt like I could take it. I mean, I held an average of 174 for twenty minutes then, and pushed 178. I should be able to take this.

I crossed the one mile marker at 8:06 and stopped to grab a cup of Gatorade. I had been passed by a few peeps on the run, but I had been managing to hold my own. About halfway through the second mile, a group of about six people came blowing past me. One of them was the young girl who ended up being the female over all winner. She passed me on the run and started three minutes behind me. I was very inspired by this. About that time, I started hurting. I remembered the words of coach and decided that today, I was wearing my big boy pants, and this was supposed to hurt. I picked up the pace and dug deep. When I saw the second to the last turn, I picked up the pace again and began my final push. It ended up being a bit early as I had to slow down a tad bit as I crested the final small hill. The finish line was downhill, around the corner and to the right. I sprinted down the hill, desperately suppressing the urge to hurl, and crossed the finish line in 50:32. My run time was 16:07, a 1:08 improvement over last year.

The girls at the finish line wouldn't help me take my chip off. They requested that I do it. Somehow, I managed. Then, I wandered down to the pavilion for some more liquids and food. After grabbing a few things, I headed back up the race route to the far side of the final hill. I spent a good ten to fifteen minutes there, encouraging the other athletes to finish strong and bring it home. Kevin came by looking strong, and I got to see my friend from work. As Dee Dee came down the path, I joined her on her jog to the finish. I split off before the final turn so she could cross the finish line by herself. Dee Dee raised her arms in triumph and crossed the finish line in 1:07 and some change, a two minute PR from last year.

After the race, Dee Dee and I spent some time with my friend from work and his family. It was his first triathlon, and I very much enjoyed sharing his and my experiences. We went back to the finish line to check our results. We found out that neither Dee Dee nor I had placed in our age groups. We took a shower and decided to head out. We had furry critters at home that needed attending to.

Overall, I would like to repeat how much I love this race. The venue is awesome. The race itself is just plain fun. I can see why it has grown so rapidly over the years. Coach has assured me that I will get better at my swimming. Despite my repeat bike performance, she said that my faster run time PROVES that I'm a better cyclist and to give my performance improvements more time. I finished ninth in my age group, up from fifteenth last year. I was forty-ninth overall, up from ninety-eight last year. I have nothing to complain about there. I'll take a fifty percentile improvement in placement any day!

Next year? I'll be back to try and do even better.

Thanks for reading!!!

Wes

BTW: Sorry about the lack of pics :-) We had no race photogs this year!!!