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!!!
Showing posts with label race. Show all posts
Showing posts with label race. Show all posts
Monday, June 23, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Mickey 70.3
An Ironman Florida 70.3 Race Report
This had been coming for a long time. I guess all of my big races are like that. There was ING Georgia, followed by West Point Olympic, and Huntsville/Disney, and finally Florida 70.3. I guess having to wait a year to go for Iron will make these pale in comparison.
As per the usual, I started the week off by working 9-10 hour days so I could take Friday off. By the time Thursday evening rolled around, I was so thankful to get the hell out of the office. I love my job and all, but extra long days and an "A" race makes for a very antsy week. Thanks to Dee Dee's stellar support, the boyz were taken care of all week, and I got done what I needed to get done. I thought it would be a good idea to take the kids out for dinner the night before we left. We had a good time. I felt brave and drank a few beers and promptly forgot to do my bike workout. No harm done, except my streak was broken. So sad :-(
Dee Dee and I got up to get the boyz off to school. While Dee Dee drove our youngest, I packed my transition bag and clothes for the trip. When Dee Dee returned, we packed the car and got out the door. It's about a 7 hour drive to Orlando. I figured we'd be in around 4 or 5 PM. About half way to Orlando, Dee Dee and I decided we were hungry. We decided to stop in Valdosta. Dee Dee mentioned that she was hungry for wings. I thought, great! She works in a place that specializes in wings and she wants chicken. Dee Dee mentioned that she would like to eat at Hooters. They have great wings. I laughed and said that there was NO WAY that Valdosta had a Hooters. Well, as soon as we exited the interstate, lo and behold, there was a stinkin Hooters.
Prepare for a rant. I don't know about you other guys, but you have to decide for yourself. I mean, is it worth really good wings to have to look at pretty girls with shorts up their butts and boobs up under their chins? Oh the humanity!! I decided while we were there that I had a new word for Hooter's girls. Tit-chinians :-) In any case, the experience was horrible. Our little waitress, who also happened to be a physicist, failed to put Dee Dee's order in and when she did, she did it wrong. To make a long story short, we ended up spending an hour and a half on lunch, totally unexpected!
The rest of the ride was uneventful. We arrived in Orlando by 5:30 PM. We made it straight to our hotel without too much trouble. We checked in, got sitiated, then called Brian to see what he was doing. Brian had been in Orlando since about 1 PM. He had needed to pick up his friend Eric from the airport at 1 PM. Brian wanted to know if Dee Dee and I were up for Carrabas for dinner, and of course we were! We drove over, only to find about forty people waiting outside. Dee Dee and I thought there was no way would be able to eat there. I called Brian and told him about our problem. While I was on the phone, Dee Dee checked the wait. It was only twenty minutes. We decided that that wasn't too bad. No sooner had we gotten our buzzer and settled down then it went off! We ended up only waiting five minutes. We were seated for a very short time when Brian and Eric showed up. The dinner and service was exceptional. I took advantage of being in Orlando to have some of the best fish I've eaten in a while. This was by far the best experience I have had at a restaurant in a long time. I may be picky now that I am a restaurateur, but who's sayin :-)
After eating, Dee Dee and I returned to the hotel. I remember checking my watch around 9:45 before I passed out. Around 12:30 AM, the hotel fire alarm went off. Dee Dee and I quickly got dressed, descended 7 flights of stairs, and exited the hotel into the parking lot with the rest of the guests. We found out that some jackhole had burned a piece of pie in the microwave on the third floor. LOL! We returned to our room and went back to sleep. I, at least, was grateful that it happened on Friday night instead of Saturday.
We got up fairly early the next day. Katie and I had been conversing via text and cell phone up to that point. We wanted to get together and do our brick. It just so happened that our bricks were exactly the same. How cool was that? We ate a quick breakfast then headed out to find Katie's complex. At first, we went to the wrong place, but eventually, we worked it out and arrived at condos in which she was staying. I was not really supposed to swim, but I couldn't pass up a 10 minute swim with a real studette triathlete like Katie. We hit the lap pool, wrapped up our swim, then headed over to the Disney complex with Katie's husband, Craig, and two of her adorable children.
From the Disney parking lot, Katie and I joined a bunch of other athletes out on the bike for our twenty minute ride. Going out was a blast. I was hitting twenty one, twenty two miles per hour with no effort. When we turned around, the wind hit us slap dab in the face. It made me realize that if I wasn't careful, the race tomorrow wasn't going to be a cake walk, flat or not! Well, it wasn't going to be easy, but when is 56 miles ever easy? We ran into Brian and Eric on the way into Fort Wilderness. After getting registered and tucking our bikes into transition, we spent a little bit of time poking around the expo. I bought a 2Xu white triathlon singlet for the race. I figured it was going to be hot, and I wanted to be as cool as possible. We all had lunch together, then our group split up and everybody went their separate ways.
When Dee Dee and I got back to the hotel, it was 3:30 PM. We debated the propriety of heading to the beach. After a little bit of debate, we decided to go ahead and head out. Cocoa Beach is about 45 miles from where we were staying, even though it took us about 55 minutes to get there due the sheer quantity of toll booths. We went to the public beach and paid our ten bucks to get in. We found out rather quickly that the water was too cold to swim. Damn Atlantic! I was totally bummed. The water is much colder than the Gulf of Mexico. Shortly thereafter, we got dumped on by rain and decided to call our adventure to an end. We drove back to Orlando. During the trip back, we debated dinner. I did not want to do pasta again, and I was a bit tired of hamburgers. We decided to do... Pizza! LOL! Actually, we drove all the way over by Carrabas again and ate at an Italian pizzeria. They had the best stuffed pizza I have ever had.
By 10 PM, we were back at the hotel and in bed. I actually slept pretty good. I woke up at 2:15 AM and got very, very excited, but I managed to calm myself down and went back to sleep. The first alarm went off at 4:15 AM, but I had already been awake for fifteen minutes. Six solid hours of sleep the night before a race is heavenly, and I ain't complainin! Dee Dee and I set a record for getting ready, and we were out the door by 4:35 AM. On our way home the previous night, we had found, of all things, a Krispy Kreme. I had the BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS! Four glazed Krispy Kreme donuts and two pints of milk graced my stomach :-) ROFL!!! Yes, I'm still working on this pre-race nutrition thingee!
I have never seen so many people pouring into a triathlon event at some god awful hour of the morning. The parking lot was crawling. We caught the bus to Fort Wilderness with no problem what so ever. After getting off the bus, I kissed Dee Dee and headed to transition. I spent the next twenty to thirty minutes setting up. I filled up my bottles, laid out my shoes and helmet, hung my race belt, heart rate monitor, and watch from my bike, grabbed my goggles and race cap, and headed for the swim start. Dee Dee and I spent about twenty minutes waiting on the beach. During that time, Brian and Eric came by. I was excited to see them. It's good to be amongst friends before the start of the race.
As race time got closer and closer, we watched the sky turn from black to grey to light blue. It was rather pretty, and the lake was as smooth as glass. At about six minutes before start, the race director sang the national anthem. The pros were already on the beach getting ready to rumble. The RD actually introduced a few of the pros. I was excited to be there amongst them, but that was about as close as I got. With a start, the cannon went off and the pros entered the water. I watched carefully. They were dolphin diving up to about 75 yards into the water. Eventually, they started swimming, following some dude standing on a board with a paddle, leading them out onto the course. After that, the pro women moved onto the beach for their turn. A few of the pro women were introduced, then the cannon went off again, and they too entered the water for the swim. The race now began in earnest for the age groupers. Wave after wave went off to the sound of an air horn, spaced exactly three minutes apart.
Dee Dee and I were watching the swimmers leave the beach. In about the 7th or 8th wave, a life guard left her board and entered the water to help a swimmer. We both wondered what was going on and what had happened. The rest of that swimmers wave had left him/her far behind. I breathed a sigh of relief as the lifeguard headed back to her board and the swimmer took off on the course. All of sudden, I realized I had three minutes until my start time. Dee Dee had been blabbing something about getting into the staging area, but I was hardly paying attention. I quickly kissed her good bye and headed over to the back of the group of folks in my wave.
As the red capped folks moved onto the beach, us silver capped peeps filed onto the beach behind them. I had already scoped out the sitiation, and I had formed my strategy in my mind. Coach had suggested that I count to twenty before entering the water. Pick out a nice quiet spot in the group, she wrote, and enjoy MY swim. I kind of optimized that :-) After the red caps moved off, we stepped down into the water. I reached down and splashed myself on my front and back. The water was 81 degrees. At first it was kind of cold, but I was really glad that I got the chance to get wet before the start. After dousing myself, I headed off to the right through the weeds into thigh deep water. I was practically on the end of my group. There was plenty of room to the right. I had no need to mix it up.
As our time to start approached, our group began clapping. I had never heard such an enthusiastic group before the start of a race. When the horn went off, I patiently walked down into waste deep water, found myself a quiet spot and started my swim.
Let the adventure begin...
When I swim, I basically lose all track of time. All I know is that in the first couple of hundred meters, I went through the usual Wes is going to panic kind of stuff. The water was fine. It was warm, comfortable, dark, and deep. There were plenty, and I mean plenty of support craft out on the water. At the end of that first two to three hundred meters, I went into a coughing fit. I cleared my throat and immediately, the thought "I can't do this" entered my mind. I had allowed the worst possible scenario to cloud my judgment. I decided to flip over on my back and catch my breath. I know I spent no more than twenty to thirty seconds on my back before I realized something. If I stayed like that for long, I would embarrass myself and the folks in the next wave would run me over. I flipped back onto my stomach, and just like that, all was well with the world.
The swim course was a big box with the buoys on the left. We were going counter clockwise. I gradually began to move back to the inside until I was close to the buoys, amongst the throng of swimmers. About the time I neared the first turn, a bunch of peeps from the wave behind me came through, and boy did they ever kick up the water. It was like swimming in a storm. I had water splashed in my face. I sucked in some lake water and had trouble breathing, but I did NOT panic. I swam slower until I regained my composure. I made the turn and began swimming along the top of the box. Swimming to the outside gave me comfort. I was close the boats, yet I never felt the need to stop and rest. I made it to the second turn and kicked it up a notch. About half way to the finish, a throng of dolphins came through. There is no other way to describe them. They wore light blue caps and swam like fishees. I had the sudden urge to keep up with them. I swam harder, but I resisted the urge and let them pass. Somehow, time caught up with me, and I realized that by now, I would be through with an Olympic, but I still had a long way to go. As the beach got nearer and nearer, I was more and more relieved. With a strong sense of satisfaction, I finally reached the beach and climbed from the water, exhilarated and satisfied. You are never really sure until you do the deed. My swim time was 39 minutes and change.
Dee Dee was waiting for me at the swim exit. I could see the excitement and the relief in her face. We ran along a carpet from the swim exit to the transition area. The run was fairly long. Not as long as some of my triathlons, but long enough to make a difference in the transition time. I had no trouble getting ready in T1. I put on my pink "Cancer Sucks" socks, my helmet, shoes, heart rate monitor and such. I decided to keep my glasses off until I mounted my bike. They quickly fog up, and I cannot see! As I exited T1, I was a tad surprised to see my T1 time at 6 minutes and some change, but in truth, I was not even worried about it. I really did not care.
The bike started out in a wonderful kind of way. We were cruising along the Disney property. It was flat and fast. The only hills we experienced was over passes, underpasses, and dips. It was wonderful. I was coasting along at twenty-one to twenty-three miles per hour. I fully realized that I needed to pace myself carefully. My goal was to keep my heart rate below 146. It climbed and stayed at 146 to 147 for the first five to ten miles. Eventually I settled down, just like my coach said I would, and my heart rate drifted in and out of zones two and three. I can't say enough about the bike course. It was a joy. Riding on the Silver Comet Trail is perfect training! Around mile five or so, I heard this scream and here comes Katie. LOL! I guess she was surprised to see me ahead of her. She is such a ROCK-STAR!! She pulled up beside me, told me I was doing great and my swim was awesome. Then, she left me in the dust!! ROFLMAO!! Bye Katie!!!
The bike course is one big blur. I remember Brian telling me there was some rolling hills in the middle part of the course. I thought... Blech! These aren't hills! These are nubs on the triathlon path!!! I mean really. There was like one hill that I got out of breath on. The rest?!?! Blech! I kicked their butts. I played tag with some triathletes, both male and chicas!! I think I got passed by almost every triathlete with disk or 404 Zipp wheels. Near the end of the ride, I realized I wasn't getting passed any more. No more Zipp or disk wheels behind me!!! LOL!! I guess I should mention the weather. On the bike, it was wonderful. The skies were overcast. The temps were cool. We got rained on three times and it was so awesome. A few times, it was just a drizzle to keep us cool. A couple of times, it was hard enough to sting, but it was all good. We had no problems giving our all. The rain was keeping our bodies cool.
Another couple of things of note... Up until this point, we had experienced little to no traffic at all. The race course was headed towards a little town called Winter Garden. The roads got busier, and traffic was starting to stack up. As we wound our way through Winter Garden, we came to an intersection where the traffic was waiting on a single lane highway. The triathletes were crammed over on the right shoulder, trying not to wreck, but trying to keep the pace. There was barely room enough for one cyclist, let alone two. After about six studs came riding through, shouting "On your left!" I finally got tired of it and yelled, "There is no effing left!" You get the idea, and lucky for me, nobody took exception to my frustration. There was one point on the ride where they shunted us off on the side sidewalk because the road was under repair. This was a no passing zone. It was a few hundred meters long, but I thought that was very interesting. At the third aid station, I decided that I needed a bottle of Gatorade. I had taken five gels by this time and drank two bottles of G2. I called out Gatorade as I entered the station. I missed the hand off on the first try, but nailed the second. How exciting!!! I took the top off the bottle and poured the contents into my aero bottle.
I think we finally entered the Disney property on the way back with about three to four miles to go. I was very happy. For some reason, I felt like I was way above my pace. I had forgotten to reset my bike computer, and I was unsure as to my exact pace and time. I had been seeing 20, 21, and 22 mph on my computer a lot. I felt like I was ahead of pace. I did have my race time on my watch, but I failed to put two and two together. We made our way back through the Disney property, back to Fort Wilderness and made our way to transition. I thought I got off the bike with 10 minutes to spare. The truth was, I got off my bike with three minutes to spare.
My transition time for T2 was much, much faster, in theory that is. I was done in about three minutes, but I knew, around mile 2 of the bike, that I needed to hit the port a potty. I patiently waited until it was my turn, got done, and headed out on the run. I stopped before the run exit and asked a volunteer to tie my "Be Strong" bracelet on my wrist. It had become untied on the swim, and I had decided not to fix it until the start of my run. All of these delays added up. I spent another six minutes or so in T2.
Coach was clear, and I'm not sure I knew better. Evidence was against me. I, of course, started the run out too fast. You exited transition, went down the bike path for a short distance, then hit the road. Upon reaching the road, it was quickly apparent that the temperature was terrible. It had rained, then the sun came out. It was hot and humid. My HRM quickly reached 163 and stayed there, no matter what I did. I realized with a start that I did the first mile in 8:35. That was way too fast. We made a little circle then hung a left on grass covered road. There is no better way to describe it. The sun was beating down relentlessly. At about mile 1.5, I reached the first aide station. I decided to walk the aide stations. I was pleased when I reached the second mile in 9:58. At this point, I was confident I would reach my goal of sub-6. I mean, I thought I was ahead on the bike. I was at pace on the run. What was there to worry about? The path out to the turn around, which I here to fore name the Trail from Hell was seriously hot. On the way out, it was like running with a constant over pronation on my left side. Muscles in my ankle I was not even aware of were complaining. I reached the turn around point and crossed over the mat. The third mile came in at 10:15. So far so good. It was hot, but at least I was running on level ground. No shade, but at least level. As I passed through the aide station at mile 3.5, I was excited to see the bike trail in Fort Wilderness. At least there would be some shade!
Ya think! LOL!! There was a little shade, but the sun was not yet at the right angle. There was no breeze. The heat and the humidity in the woods was stifling. I watched my pace drop from 10 minute miles to 11 minute miles, and there was nothing I could do about it. By the time I started my second loop, I realized my sub-6 hour goal was in jeopardy. In the back of mind, I wasn't worried. After all, I thought I had banked ten minutes or so on the bike. I failed to realize my error.
On my second loop, my pace slowed to eleven and a half to twelve minute miles. It was more of the same. Running in the sun was brutal. I stopped at every station. I took two sponges with cold water and wet my head and stuffed the sponges down the back of my shirt. I drank a cup of water and a cup of Gatorade at every aide station. The back part of the run was now covered in shade. It was a God send. A breeze even blew across the course intermittently. It all helped! I finally realized that I was in terrible shape. I fell back to an old stand by. I resorted to a run 3 walk 1 cycle. At the end of the second loop, I was delighted to see Dee Dee there cheering me on and taking pictures. She caught me in the middle of an aide station, taking a Gel. I had not eaten much on the run. I felt cramping begin to develop in my calf and hamstring. I forced myself to eat.
The final lap was miserable. I ran along the road and the heat was intolerable. It hurt to even run for three minutes, but I forced myself to run. If I crossed an aide station station, I walked. My pace dropped to twelve and thirteen minute miles. When I made it to the Trail from Hell, I was taken aback, startled even. There were a couple of hundred athletes going and coming on the trail, but not a single one was running. The sun had done its dirty work. Somewhere, along the back of the Trail from Hell, I came across Brian. He was on his second lap as I was finishing up my third. We talked about how we had done and how things were going to wrap up. I took the opportunity to take a two minute walk break, and then I had to leave. As I took off running, Brian said, "I really wanted to beat you!" I laughed and said, "I really wanted you to beat me too!"
The final two point one miles were tough. I, however, saw the end of the trail, and I knew that I was soon going to be a half Iron finisher. It was becoming very real for me. As I neared the finish, I joined another triathlete and walked along the bicycle trail up to the point where the crowds got thick. One spectator pointed out that we were nearly done, we needed to run. I smiled at my triathlete and responded, "We want to finish strong! That's why we are walking now!"
When I reached the 13 mile sign, I started running. I really wanted to run the last 0.1 miles under my own power, but I was so afraid of cramping. Visions of Huntsville danced in my head. I worked hard to keep correct form and I ran strong through the finisher's chute. The crowds were large. I saw the finisher's sign ahead and I kicked it up a notch. I heard the announcer say my name, and he remarked how strong I was coming to the finish. I crossed the line, raised my arms in triumph, pumped my fists, and bent over exhausted.
I walked up to a volunteer and got my medal. I had to take off my own chip. I worried that I might fall over from the effort. I grabbed the shoulder of another volunteer. I needed her to take my chip from me. I was warbling and having a hard time staying on my feet. I walked out the back of the finish area and stood in the sun, waiting for Dee Dee to find me. After a few minutes, I realized I was getting hot and moved to the shade. I had no idea where she was. I knew she was out there, but we had failed to plan on where to meet after I finished. I finally decided to take the nuclear option and asked for help.
A nice couple was sitting at the fence by the finish. I asked them if they had a cell phone. They said they did. I tried not to cry as I asked them to call Dee Dee and tell her to meet me at the lake by the swim exit. I marginally succeeded. I went down to the beach, stripped to my tri outfit, and went into the lake to cool down. A short time later, I saw Dee Dee standing on the beach. She didn't see me, but I finally caught her attention. She was worried about me. She had no idea why some strange cell phone number had called her and left her a message. All she could think was that I was hurt and in the medical tent :-)
I finally climbed from the cool and comforting water and left in search of food. I decided that the cold hard pizza they were serving the athletes after the race was good enough for me. Dee Dee and I walked down to the run finish while I was eating. We watched some runners come in. I finally got tired and had Dee Dee wait for me while I went to transition and gathered my stuff. Dee Dee was still waiting for Brian to come in when I got back. I had all my gear, and I had changed into my clean clothes. We were fortunate to see Brian come down the finishing chute. That was really special. Brian and I have been training for this through thick and thin. Mostly separate, sometimes together, always with each other in spirit. After Brian crossed the finish line, we were sitting there, watching the triathletes come into the finish, when Katie came riding by on her bike. It was really nice to wrap up our race with Katie. She is such a bubble of enthusiasm. She told me how hard her run was and how good I did to finish my race under such conditions. We took some pics, said our good byes, and began the process of heading home.
The line for the buses was ridiculous. Dee Dee and I decided to walk back to the parking lot. It was a mini torture fest, but we made it. We packed up the car and began the long trip back to Atlanta. For the first couple of hours, I was pumped up enough to drive. Then Dee Dee took over. After dinner, I drove some more, until Dee Dee made me pull over to the side of the road and give up the keys. I don't know how I would have made it home without her.
Here I sit, wondering how best to sum up this race... In reality, I had a fantastic time. I was practically giggling on the bike I enjoyed it so much. The run was indeed a torture fest, but I never doubted my purpose for being there. I knew that the weather was not my choice. The bike was everything the run was not. The swim was another testament to my perseverance. It loomed large!! I will carry this race with me forever. It is far and beyond the toughest thing I have ever done. I am indeed half iron, and I will never, ever forget what it took to get me there...
Wes
This had been coming for a long time. I guess all of my big races are like that. There was ING Georgia, followed by West Point Olympic, and Huntsville/Disney, and finally Florida 70.3. I guess having to wait a year to go for Iron will make these pale in comparison.
As per the usual, I started the week off by working 9-10 hour days so I could take Friday off. By the time Thursday evening rolled around, I was so thankful to get the hell out of the office. I love my job and all, but extra long days and an "A" race makes for a very antsy week. Thanks to Dee Dee's stellar support, the boyz were taken care of all week, and I got done what I needed to get done. I thought it would be a good idea to take the kids out for dinner the night before we left. We had a good time. I felt brave and drank a few beers and promptly forgot to do my bike workout. No harm done, except my streak was broken. So sad :-(
Dee Dee and I got up to get the boyz off to school. While Dee Dee drove our youngest, I packed my transition bag and clothes for the trip. When Dee Dee returned, we packed the car and got out the door. It's about a 7 hour drive to Orlando. I figured we'd be in around 4 or 5 PM. About half way to Orlando, Dee Dee and I decided we were hungry. We decided to stop in Valdosta. Dee Dee mentioned that she was hungry for wings. I thought, great! She works in a place that specializes in wings and she wants chicken. Dee Dee mentioned that she would like to eat at Hooters. They have great wings. I laughed and said that there was NO WAY that Valdosta had a Hooters. Well, as soon as we exited the interstate, lo and behold, there was a stinkin Hooters.
Prepare for a rant. I don't know about you other guys, but you have to decide for yourself. I mean, is it worth really good wings to have to look at pretty girls with shorts up their butts and boobs up under their chins? Oh the humanity!! I decided while we were there that I had a new word for Hooter's girls. Tit-chinians :-) In any case, the experience was horrible. Our little waitress, who also happened to be a physicist, failed to put Dee Dee's order in and when she did, she did it wrong. To make a long story short, we ended up spending an hour and a half on lunch, totally unexpected!
The rest of the ride was uneventful. We arrived in Orlando by 5:30 PM. We made it straight to our hotel without too much trouble. We checked in, got sitiated, then called Brian to see what he was doing. Brian had been in Orlando since about 1 PM. He had needed to pick up his friend Eric from the airport at 1 PM. Brian wanted to know if Dee Dee and I were up for Carrabas for dinner, and of course we were! We drove over, only to find about forty people waiting outside. Dee Dee and I thought there was no way would be able to eat there. I called Brian and told him about our problem. While I was on the phone, Dee Dee checked the wait. It was only twenty minutes. We decided that that wasn't too bad. No sooner had we gotten our buzzer and settled down then it went off! We ended up only waiting five minutes. We were seated for a very short time when Brian and Eric showed up. The dinner and service was exceptional. I took advantage of being in Orlando to have some of the best fish I've eaten in a while. This was by far the best experience I have had at a restaurant in a long time. I may be picky now that I am a restaurateur, but who's sayin :-)
After eating, Dee Dee and I returned to the hotel. I remember checking my watch around 9:45 before I passed out. Around 12:30 AM, the hotel fire alarm went off. Dee Dee and I quickly got dressed, descended 7 flights of stairs, and exited the hotel into the parking lot with the rest of the guests. We found out that some jackhole had burned a piece of pie in the microwave on the third floor. LOL! We returned to our room and went back to sleep. I, at least, was grateful that it happened on Friday night instead of Saturday.
We got up fairly early the next day. Katie and I had been conversing via text and cell phone up to that point. We wanted to get together and do our brick. It just so happened that our bricks were exactly the same. How cool was that? We ate a quick breakfast then headed out to find Katie's complex. At first, we went to the wrong place, but eventually, we worked it out and arrived at condos in which she was staying. I was not really supposed to swim, but I couldn't pass up a 10 minute swim with a real studette triathlete like Katie. We hit the lap pool, wrapped up our swim, then headed over to the Disney complex with Katie's husband, Craig, and two of her adorable children.
From the Disney parking lot, Katie and I joined a bunch of other athletes out on the bike for our twenty minute ride. Going out was a blast. I was hitting twenty one, twenty two miles per hour with no effort. When we turned around, the wind hit us slap dab in the face. It made me realize that if I wasn't careful, the race tomorrow wasn't going to be a cake walk, flat or not! Well, it wasn't going to be easy, but when is 56 miles ever easy? We ran into Brian and Eric on the way into Fort Wilderness. After getting registered and tucking our bikes into transition, we spent a little bit of time poking around the expo. I bought a 2Xu white triathlon singlet for the race. I figured it was going to be hot, and I wanted to be as cool as possible. We all had lunch together, then our group split up and everybody went their separate ways.
When Dee Dee and I got back to the hotel, it was 3:30 PM. We debated the propriety of heading to the beach. After a little bit of debate, we decided to go ahead and head out. Cocoa Beach is about 45 miles from where we were staying, even though it took us about 55 minutes to get there due the sheer quantity of toll booths. We went to the public beach and paid our ten bucks to get in. We found out rather quickly that the water was too cold to swim. Damn Atlantic! I was totally bummed. The water is much colder than the Gulf of Mexico. Shortly thereafter, we got dumped on by rain and decided to call our adventure to an end. We drove back to Orlando. During the trip back, we debated dinner. I did not want to do pasta again, and I was a bit tired of hamburgers. We decided to do... Pizza! LOL! Actually, we drove all the way over by Carrabas again and ate at an Italian pizzeria. They had the best stuffed pizza I have ever had.
By 10 PM, we were back at the hotel and in bed. I actually slept pretty good. I woke up at 2:15 AM and got very, very excited, but I managed to calm myself down and went back to sleep. The first alarm went off at 4:15 AM, but I had already been awake for fifteen minutes. Six solid hours of sleep the night before a race is heavenly, and I ain't complainin! Dee Dee and I set a record for getting ready, and we were out the door by 4:35 AM. On our way home the previous night, we had found, of all things, a Krispy Kreme. I had the BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS! Four glazed Krispy Kreme donuts and two pints of milk graced my stomach :-) ROFL!!! Yes, I'm still working on this pre-race nutrition thingee!
I have never seen so many people pouring into a triathlon event at some god awful hour of the morning. The parking lot was crawling. We caught the bus to Fort Wilderness with no problem what so ever. After getting off the bus, I kissed Dee Dee and headed to transition. I spent the next twenty to thirty minutes setting up. I filled up my bottles, laid out my shoes and helmet, hung my race belt, heart rate monitor, and watch from my bike, grabbed my goggles and race cap, and headed for the swim start. Dee Dee and I spent about twenty minutes waiting on the beach. During that time, Brian and Eric came by. I was excited to see them. It's good to be amongst friends before the start of the race.
As race time got closer and closer, we watched the sky turn from black to grey to light blue. It was rather pretty, and the lake was as smooth as glass. At about six minutes before start, the race director sang the national anthem. The pros were already on the beach getting ready to rumble. The RD actually introduced a few of the pros. I was excited to be there amongst them, but that was about as close as I got. With a start, the cannon went off and the pros entered the water. I watched carefully. They were dolphin diving up to about 75 yards into the water. Eventually, they started swimming, following some dude standing on a board with a paddle, leading them out onto the course. After that, the pro women moved onto the beach for their turn. A few of the pro women were introduced, then the cannon went off again, and they too entered the water for the swim. The race now began in earnest for the age groupers. Wave after wave went off to the sound of an air horn, spaced exactly three minutes apart.
Dee Dee and I were watching the swimmers leave the beach. In about the 7th or 8th wave, a life guard left her board and entered the water to help a swimmer. We both wondered what was going on and what had happened. The rest of that swimmers wave had left him/her far behind. I breathed a sigh of relief as the lifeguard headed back to her board and the swimmer took off on the course. All of sudden, I realized I had three minutes until my start time. Dee Dee had been blabbing something about getting into the staging area, but I was hardly paying attention. I quickly kissed her good bye and headed over to the back of the group of folks in my wave.
As the red capped folks moved onto the beach, us silver capped peeps filed onto the beach behind them. I had already scoped out the sitiation, and I had formed my strategy in my mind. Coach had suggested that I count to twenty before entering the water. Pick out a nice quiet spot in the group, she wrote, and enjoy MY swim. I kind of optimized that :-) After the red caps moved off, we stepped down into the water. I reached down and splashed myself on my front and back. The water was 81 degrees. At first it was kind of cold, but I was really glad that I got the chance to get wet before the start. After dousing myself, I headed off to the right through the weeds into thigh deep water. I was practically on the end of my group. There was plenty of room to the right. I had no need to mix it up.As our time to start approached, our group began clapping. I had never heard such an enthusiastic group before the start of a race. When the horn went off, I patiently walked down into waste deep water, found myself a quiet spot and started my swim.
Let the adventure begin...
When I swim, I basically lose all track of time. All I know is that in the first couple of hundred meters, I went through the usual Wes is going to panic kind of stuff. The water was fine. It was warm, comfortable, dark, and deep. There were plenty, and I mean plenty of support craft out on the water. At the end of that first two to three hundred meters, I went into a coughing fit. I cleared my throat and immediately, the thought "I can't do this" entered my mind. I had allowed the worst possible scenario to cloud my judgment. I decided to flip over on my back and catch my breath. I know I spent no more than twenty to thirty seconds on my back before I realized something. If I stayed like that for long, I would embarrass myself and the folks in the next wave would run me over. I flipped back onto my stomach, and just like that, all was well with the world.
The swim course was a big box with the buoys on the left. We were going counter clockwise. I gradually began to move back to the inside until I was close to the buoys, amongst the throng of swimmers. About the time I neared the first turn, a bunch of peeps from the wave behind me came through, and boy did they ever kick up the water. It was like swimming in a storm. I had water splashed in my face. I sucked in some lake water and had trouble breathing, but I did NOT panic. I swam slower until I regained my composure. I made the turn and began swimming along the top of the box. Swimming to the outside gave me comfort. I was close the boats, yet I never felt the need to stop and rest. I made it to the second turn and kicked it up a notch. About half way to the finish, a throng of dolphins came through. There is no other way to describe them. They wore light blue caps and swam like fishees. I had the sudden urge to keep up with them. I swam harder, but I resisted the urge and let them pass. Somehow, time caught up with me, and I realized that by now, I would be through with an Olympic, but I still had a long way to go. As the beach got nearer and nearer, I was more and more relieved. With a strong sense of satisfaction, I finally reached the beach and climbed from the water, exhilarated and satisfied. You are never really sure until you do the deed. My swim time was 39 minutes and change.
Dee Dee was waiting for me at the swim exit. I could see the excitement and the relief in her face. We ran along a carpet from the swim exit to the transition area. The run was fairly long. Not as long as some of my triathlons, but long enough to make a difference in the transition time. I had no trouble getting ready in T1. I put on my pink "Cancer Sucks" socks, my helmet, shoes, heart rate monitor and such. I decided to keep my glasses off until I mounted my bike. They quickly fog up, and I cannot see! As I exited T1, I was a tad surprised to see my T1 time at 6 minutes and some change, but in truth, I was not even worried about it. I really did not care.
The bike started out in a wonderful kind of way. We were cruising along the Disney property. It was flat and fast. The only hills we experienced was over passes, underpasses, and dips. It was wonderful. I was coasting along at twenty-one to twenty-three miles per hour. I fully realized that I needed to pace myself carefully. My goal was to keep my heart rate below 146. It climbed and stayed at 146 to 147 for the first five to ten miles. Eventually I settled down, just like my coach said I would, and my heart rate drifted in and out of zones two and three. I can't say enough about the bike course. It was a joy. Riding on the Silver Comet Trail is perfect training! Around mile five or so, I heard this scream and here comes Katie. LOL! I guess she was surprised to see me ahead of her. She is such a ROCK-STAR!! She pulled up beside me, told me I was doing great and my swim was awesome. Then, she left me in the dust!! ROFLMAO!! Bye Katie!!!
The bike course is one big blur. I remember Brian telling me there was some rolling hills in the middle part of the course. I thought... Blech! These aren't hills! These are nubs on the triathlon path!!! I mean really. There was like one hill that I got out of breath on. The rest?!?! Blech! I kicked their butts. I played tag with some triathletes, both male and chicas!! I think I got passed by almost every triathlete with disk or 404 Zipp wheels. Near the end of the ride, I realized I wasn't getting passed any more. No more Zipp or disk wheels behind me!!! LOL!! I guess I should mention the weather. On the bike, it was wonderful. The skies were overcast. The temps were cool. We got rained on three times and it was so awesome. A few times, it was just a drizzle to keep us cool. A couple of times, it was hard enough to sting, but it was all good. We had no problems giving our all. The rain was keeping our bodies cool.
Another couple of things of note... Up until this point, we had experienced little to no traffic at all. The race course was headed towards a little town called Winter Garden. The roads got busier, and traffic was starting to stack up. As we wound our way through Winter Garden, we came to an intersection where the traffic was waiting on a single lane highway. The triathletes were crammed over on the right shoulder, trying not to wreck, but trying to keep the pace. There was barely room enough for one cyclist, let alone two. After about six studs came riding through, shouting "On your left!" I finally got tired of it and yelled, "There is no effing left!" You get the idea, and lucky for me, nobody took exception to my frustration. There was one point on the ride where they shunted us off on the side sidewalk because the road was under repair. This was a no passing zone. It was a few hundred meters long, but I thought that was very interesting. At the third aid station, I decided that I needed a bottle of Gatorade. I had taken five gels by this time and drank two bottles of G2. I called out Gatorade as I entered the station. I missed the hand off on the first try, but nailed the second. How exciting!!! I took the top off the bottle and poured the contents into my aero bottle.
I think we finally entered the Disney property on the way back with about three to four miles to go. I was very happy. For some reason, I felt like I was way above my pace. I had forgotten to reset my bike computer, and I was unsure as to my exact pace and time. I had been seeing 20, 21, and 22 mph on my computer a lot. I felt like I was ahead of pace. I did have my race time on my watch, but I failed to put two and two together. We made our way back through the Disney property, back to Fort Wilderness and made our way to transition. I thought I got off the bike with 10 minutes to spare. The truth was, I got off my bike with three minutes to spare.
My transition time for T2 was much, much faster, in theory that is. I was done in about three minutes, but I knew, around mile 2 of the bike, that I needed to hit the port a potty. I patiently waited until it was my turn, got done, and headed out on the run. I stopped before the run exit and asked a volunteer to tie my "Be Strong" bracelet on my wrist. It had become untied on the swim, and I had decided not to fix it until the start of my run. All of these delays added up. I spent another six minutes or so in T2.
Coach was clear, and I'm not sure I knew better. Evidence was against me. I, of course, started the run out too fast. You exited transition, went down the bike path for a short distance, then hit the road. Upon reaching the road, it was quickly apparent that the temperature was terrible. It had rained, then the sun came out. It was hot and humid. My HRM quickly reached 163 and stayed there, no matter what I did. I realized with a start that I did the first mile in 8:35. That was way too fast. We made a little circle then hung a left on grass covered road. There is no better way to describe it. The sun was beating down relentlessly. At about mile 1.5, I reached the first aide station. I decided to walk the aide stations. I was pleased when I reached the second mile in 9:58. At this point, I was confident I would reach my goal of sub-6. I mean, I thought I was ahead on the bike. I was at pace on the run. What was there to worry about? The path out to the turn around, which I here to fore name the Trail from Hell was seriously hot. On the way out, it was like running with a constant over pronation on my left side. Muscles in my ankle I was not even aware of were complaining. I reached the turn around point and crossed over the mat. The third mile came in at 10:15. So far so good. It was hot, but at least I was running on level ground. No shade, but at least level. As I passed through the aide station at mile 3.5, I was excited to see the bike trail in Fort Wilderness. At least there would be some shade!
Ya think! LOL!! There was a little shade, but the sun was not yet at the right angle. There was no breeze. The heat and the humidity in the woods was stifling. I watched my pace drop from 10 minute miles to 11 minute miles, and there was nothing I could do about it. By the time I started my second loop, I realized my sub-6 hour goal was in jeopardy. In the back of mind, I wasn't worried. After all, I thought I had banked ten minutes or so on the bike. I failed to realize my error.
On my second loop, my pace slowed to eleven and a half to twelve minute miles. It was more of the same. Running in the sun was brutal. I stopped at every station. I took two sponges with cold water and wet my head and stuffed the sponges down the back of my shirt. I drank a cup of water and a cup of Gatorade at every aide station. The back part of the run was now covered in shade. It was a God send. A breeze even blew across the course intermittently. It all helped! I finally realized that I was in terrible shape. I fell back to an old stand by. I resorted to a run 3 walk 1 cycle. At the end of the second loop, I was delighted to see Dee Dee there cheering me on and taking pictures. She caught me in the middle of an aide station, taking a Gel. I had not eaten much on the run. I felt cramping begin to develop in my calf and hamstring. I forced myself to eat.
The final lap was miserable. I ran along the road and the heat was intolerable. It hurt to even run for three minutes, but I forced myself to run. If I crossed an aide station station, I walked. My pace dropped to twelve and thirteen minute miles. When I made it to the Trail from Hell, I was taken aback, startled even. There were a couple of hundred athletes going and coming on the trail, but not a single one was running. The sun had done its dirty work. Somewhere, along the back of the Trail from Hell, I came across Brian. He was on his second lap as I was finishing up my third. We talked about how we had done and how things were going to wrap up. I took the opportunity to take a two minute walk break, and then I had to leave. As I took off running, Brian said, "I really wanted to beat you!" I laughed and said, "I really wanted you to beat me too!"
The final two point one miles were tough. I, however, saw the end of the trail, and I knew that I was soon going to be a half Iron finisher. It was becoming very real for me. As I neared the finish, I joined another triathlete and walked along the bicycle trail up to the point where the crowds got thick. One spectator pointed out that we were nearly done, we needed to run. I smiled at my triathlete and responded, "We want to finish strong! That's why we are walking now!"
When I reached the 13 mile sign, I started running. I really wanted to run the last 0.1 miles under my own power, but I was so afraid of cramping. Visions of Huntsville danced in my head. I worked hard to keep correct form and I ran strong through the finisher's chute. The crowds were large. I saw the finisher's sign ahead and I kicked it up a notch. I heard the announcer say my name, and he remarked how strong I was coming to the finish. I crossed the line, raised my arms in triumph, pumped my fists, and bent over exhausted.
I walked up to a volunteer and got my medal. I had to take off my own chip. I worried that I might fall over from the effort. I grabbed the shoulder of another volunteer. I needed her to take my chip from me. I was warbling and having a hard time staying on my feet. I walked out the back of the finish area and stood in the sun, waiting for Dee Dee to find me. After a few minutes, I realized I was getting hot and moved to the shade. I had no idea where she was. I knew she was out there, but we had failed to plan on where to meet after I finished. I finally decided to take the nuclear option and asked for help.
A nice couple was sitting at the fence by the finish. I asked them if they had a cell phone. They said they did. I tried not to cry as I asked them to call Dee Dee and tell her to meet me at the lake by the swim exit. I marginally succeeded. I went down to the beach, stripped to my tri outfit, and went into the lake to cool down. A short time later, I saw Dee Dee standing on the beach. She didn't see me, but I finally caught her attention. She was worried about me. She had no idea why some strange cell phone number had called her and left her a message. All she could think was that I was hurt and in the medical tent :-)
I finally climbed from the cool and comforting water and left in search of food. I decided that the cold hard pizza they were serving the athletes after the race was good enough for me. Dee Dee and I walked down to the run finish while I was eating. We watched some runners come in. I finally got tired and had Dee Dee wait for me while I went to transition and gathered my stuff. Dee Dee was still waiting for Brian to come in when I got back. I had all my gear, and I had changed into my clean clothes. We were fortunate to see Brian come down the finishing chute. That was really special. Brian and I have been training for this through thick and thin. Mostly separate, sometimes together, always with each other in spirit. After Brian crossed the finish line, we were sitting there, watching the triathletes come into the finish, when Katie came riding by on her bike. It was really nice to wrap up our race with Katie. She is such a bubble of enthusiasm. She told me how hard her run was and how good I did to finish my race under such conditions. We took some pics, said our good byes, and began the process of heading home.
The line for the buses was ridiculous. Dee Dee and I decided to walk back to the parking lot. It was a mini torture fest, but we made it. We packed up the car and began the long trip back to Atlanta. For the first couple of hours, I was pumped up enough to drive. Then Dee Dee took over. After dinner, I drove some more, until Dee Dee made me pull over to the side of the road and give up the keys. I don't know how I would have made it home without her.
Here I sit, wondering how best to sum up this race... In reality, I had a fantastic time. I was practically giggling on the bike I enjoyed it so much. The run was indeed a torture fest, but I never doubted my purpose for being there. I knew that the weather was not my choice. The bike was everything the run was not. The swim was another testament to my perseverance. It loomed large!! I will carry this race with me forever. It is far and beyond the toughest thing I have ever done. I am indeed half iron, and I will never, ever forget what it took to get me there...
Wes
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Inaugural All Female Indian Springs Triathlon
Please welcome guest blogger, Dee Dee "The Bug" McK, Athena Masters Champion!
So you all know what its like to get absolutely zero sleep the night before a race right?
Well consider this, attending your oldest son's State High School Soccer Championship game the night before on top of it! That's right! Emotions are already high, and now you have such an adrenalin rush. Your son just won the State Championship, and you have to leave him to travel an hour and a half away. Thats right! You have your first race of the tri season to do.
This is how it went down. We arrived at the luxurious Best Western Plantation Inn at 11:00 pm. No wait! I forgot. We made a quick stop for some late night snacks and breakfast food at a stupid Walgreens drug store. Yea, we got hot fries, coke, g2, and powdered sugar dough nuts and a muffin. Needless to say, the hotel was, lets just say, a “nonsmoking” room that smelt like chimney. Gross! I could not sleep but finally managed to close my eyes around 1 AM. You know the movie, My Cousin Vinny? Let's just say, you might know what I'm about to say. I woke to the sound of a loud roaring engine around 5:15 AM!! Thats right! Our hotel was right by a railroad track. Toot Toot!!! Screech!! Okay, so much for sleeping till 5:30. I got up, showered and then ate our crap we bought from the drugstore. Lets just say that I did not eat a lot.
We packed up the car and headed to the race . It was only four miles from the hotel. We arrived to see it was going to be small, but I was looking forward to a small race for my first race of the season. I checked in, picked up my timing chip and got body marked. We headed over to the transition area and set up my stuff. I decided to head down and look at the swim start. I found out the water temp was 77 degrees and decided to wear the wet suit. We ran into Lauren, said our hello's and introduced our respective spouses.
It was time to put the wet suit on and warm up. I was very nervous to see how far the swim really was. It was 600 meters. I had never done more than 400 meters. I said damn! At least if I wear my wet suit, I won't drown. Just a few minutes later, we started. I was off with the second wave. I went off too fast and about 3 minutes in I got kicked in the freakin throat. I gasped , choked, and swallowed something from the lake into my mouth. At this point, I was trying not to throw up and drown while trying to make forward progress at the same time. Needless to say, 25 minutes later I was on the beach.
I did not prepare my self properly for this length of a swim, not enough swimming and not doing enough laps to get ready for it, but I did not quit! I was pleased to see that I was in and out of my wet suit and out of transition in 2:30.
I jumped on my bike and was off and out of the park. I knew I could make up time for my sucky swim on my bike. It was up and down hill on the way out, more up hill and then whack! Holy crap! My ankle is on fire. I just got stung by a freakin bee! You gotta be joking! I am only 4 miles out and I have 8 left to go. I am allergic!!! What to do? I just calmly tried to settle down, and I figured I had enough adrenaline in my system that as long as I didn't get to short of breath I could finish. I was at the 6 mile turn around, and I knew that it would be a lot of down hill on my way back. I hit 34 mph on the long down hills. I was flying. I arrived back to the park was in and out of transition and saw Wes. I told him I got stung by a bee and t2 was only 48 seconds!!!
I took off on my woggle in and out of the woods to the road and off the road. The run was up and down hill! “Okay, you guys are cruel”, I thought. I started up my first long hill and over came a Tri Chica. She introduced herself as Carole. I said, “Holy crap!”, said my name to her, and she asked if she could run with me up the hill. I told her sure, but I am going to woggle if you don't mind. She smiled and said if I made it to the finish line, she would buy us a margarita. I told her deal! I would see her at the finish! I ran slower than I thought I would but was encouraged that others around me were trying to catch my fat ass!!! Some girls just laughed, and others decided to catch up. I continued and made the final down hill turn to the wooded path leading to the finish.
This young girl was struggling with her breathing. I said, “Hey! We are almost done! I'll run in with you if you want?” She said, “Really?” I said, “Sure!”. I told her how to slow her breathing down and she thanked me. This was her first triathlon. I told her how awesome that was and that when she crossed that line she would be a triathlete!
SHE JUST SMILED.
Dee Dee running with Carole Sharpless
We turned the corner and there was my new BFF, Carole waiting for every girl. She ran me half way in. I thought, “Man is she ever an inspiration!” Carole Sharpless finished last. That was her goal!
Later, I found out I placed first in my division. I said, “No way!”, but I did. The best part of this was the fact that the girl I ran in with me came over later and thanked me for running in with her.
Our Champion!!
So you all know what its like to get absolutely zero sleep the night before a race right?
Well consider this, attending your oldest son's State High School Soccer Championship game the night before on top of it! That's right! Emotions are already high, and now you have such an adrenalin rush. Your son just won the State Championship, and you have to leave him to travel an hour and a half away. Thats right! You have your first race of the tri season to do.
This is how it went down. We arrived at the luxurious Best Western Plantation Inn at 11:00 pm. No wait! I forgot. We made a quick stop for some late night snacks and breakfast food at a stupid Walgreens drug store. Yea, we got hot fries, coke, g2, and powdered sugar dough nuts and a muffin. Needless to say, the hotel was, lets just say, a “nonsmoking” room that smelt like chimney. Gross! I could not sleep but finally managed to close my eyes around 1 AM. You know the movie, My Cousin Vinny? Let's just say, you might know what I'm about to say. I woke to the sound of a loud roaring engine around 5:15 AM!! Thats right! Our hotel was right by a railroad track. Toot Toot!!! Screech!! Okay, so much for sleeping till 5:30. I got up, showered and then ate our crap we bought from the drugstore. Lets just say that I did not eat a lot.
We packed up the car and headed to the race . It was only four miles from the hotel. We arrived to see it was going to be small, but I was looking forward to a small race for my first race of the season. I checked in, picked up my timing chip and got body marked. We headed over to the transition area and set up my stuff. I decided to head down and look at the swim start. I found out the water temp was 77 degrees and decided to wear the wet suit. We ran into Lauren, said our hello's and introduced our respective spouses.
It was time to put the wet suit on and warm up. I was very nervous to see how far the swim really was. It was 600 meters. I had never done more than 400 meters. I said damn! At least if I wear my wet suit, I won't drown. Just a few minutes later, we started. I was off with the second wave. I went off too fast and about 3 minutes in I got kicked in the freakin throat. I gasped , choked, and swallowed something from the lake into my mouth. At this point, I was trying not to throw up and drown while trying to make forward progress at the same time. Needless to say, 25 minutes later I was on the beach.
I did not prepare my self properly for this length of a swim, not enough swimming and not doing enough laps to get ready for it, but I did not quit! I was pleased to see that I was in and out of my wet suit and out of transition in 2:30.
I jumped on my bike and was off and out of the park. I knew I could make up time for my sucky swim on my bike. It was up and down hill on the way out, more up hill and then whack! Holy crap! My ankle is on fire. I just got stung by a freakin bee! You gotta be joking! I am only 4 miles out and I have 8 left to go. I am allergic!!! What to do? I just calmly tried to settle down, and I figured I had enough adrenaline in my system that as long as I didn't get to short of breath I could finish. I was at the 6 mile turn around, and I knew that it would be a lot of down hill on my way back. I hit 34 mph on the long down hills. I was flying. I arrived back to the park was in and out of transition and saw Wes. I told him I got stung by a bee and t2 was only 48 seconds!!!
I took off on my woggle in and out of the woods to the road and off the road. The run was up and down hill! “Okay, you guys are cruel”, I thought. I started up my first long hill and over came a Tri Chica. She introduced herself as Carole. I said, “Holy crap!”, said my name to her, and she asked if she could run with me up the hill. I told her sure, but I am going to woggle if you don't mind. She smiled and said if I made it to the finish line, she would buy us a margarita. I told her deal! I would see her at the finish! I ran slower than I thought I would but was encouraged that others around me were trying to catch my fat ass!!! Some girls just laughed, and others decided to catch up. I continued and made the final down hill turn to the wooded path leading to the finish.
This young girl was struggling with her breathing. I said, “Hey! We are almost done! I'll run in with you if you want?” She said, “Really?” I said, “Sure!”. I told her how to slow her breathing down and she thanked me. This was her first triathlon. I told her how awesome that was and that when she crossed that line she would be a triathlete!
SHE JUST SMILED.
Dee Dee running with Carole SharplessWe turned the corner and there was my new BFF, Carole waiting for every girl. She ran me half way in. I thought, “Man is she ever an inspiration!” Carole Sharpless finished last. That was her goal!
Later, I found out I placed first in my division. I said, “No way!”, but I did. The best part of this was the fact that the girl I ran in with me came over later and thanked me for running in with her.
Our Champion!!Sunday, April 27, 2008
Does A Bear Crap in the Woods?
A Langley Pond International Triathlon Race Report
Evidently, and so does Wes, but that's the rest of the story...
After I wrote my last post prior to race day, it began to hit me that the race was coming up fast :-) I know. It was only two days away. I could feel the dread of the swim building in my mind like the tightness of a rubber band. I took some small comfort in the fact that this swim would be wet suit legal, yet I couldn't shake those feelings that resurfaced unbidden from past races.
I had managed to bank three extra hours of work before Friday, and I got up before the butt crack of dawn to get in early. I'm quite surprised at the morning person I am becoming. I still hem and haw about dragging my carcass out of bed in the morning, but once I do, I'm full of energy for the entire day. I left work around 11:30 AM and got home around noon, another benefit of leaving work early. No traffic. I took Bags out for a twenty minute ride and followed this up with a ten minute brick. I was starting to feel pretty good, but my thighs were still tender from all bike mileage I had been putting in the past three weeks.
The sun was shining as we left Atlanta. We hit a little traffic in downtown Atlanta, but for the most part, the ride was very pleasant. We arrived in Aiken, South Carolina between four and four-thirty. We went directly to the hotel and checked into our room. Did we score a doozy of a room too! We basically got a suite for the price of a room with a king sized bed. We had a den, a kitchen, a separate bed room two baths, all for little ole us. We decided to give Aerowyn her own room :-)
After settling in, we were off to Langley Pond to pick up our race packets. I was pleasantly surprised at the number of triathletes already at the park. While picking up my packet, I made sure the race officials knew I had put my chip number in my profile incorrectly. I would be racing with the ChampionChip I had acquired for the Disney Marathon.
We knew we had a couple of hours before Dave and Mendy would arrive in town. Dee Dee and I decided to take a tour of downtown Aiken. We both loved the small town atmosphere. Downtown basically consisted of two to three streets of little shops, cafes and restaurants. We made it back to the hotel around 5:30-ish or so, and settled down to watch the TV.
Around 7 PM, I texted David to ask them if they had left Greenville yet :-) He immediately called me back to let me know they were at packet pick up and would meet us for dinner. I asked David if they wanted to mosy over to downtown Aiken, and he and Mendy were up for it. I was excited when David, Mendy, and Grace pulled into the parking lot!! I went downstairs to meet them and gave Mendy the big ole Georgia bear hug that I am, evidently, becoming famous for :-) Then I got to meet that l'il angel, Grace. She is just as cute in person as she is in all those great pics. Mendy, is of course, a sweetheart! When she says that she is a "Girl raised in the South!" You can believe it!!
David and Mendy decided they would just check into our hotel, and they scored the last available room. Evidently, there was a college baseball team staying in our hotel. We then drove to downtown Aiken and scored a few parking spots on the street. We managed to park pretty close to the local brew pub, and that's where we ended up eating. The idea of sampling the local brew was too much for David to pass up :-) I, personally, decided to abstain from alcohol, but it didn't, as will soon become apparent, help my GI system at all.
While we were waiting for dinner, we managed to snap a few pictures...
David decided he would literally rub his beer in my face! Telling me how awful it was an all :-) He tried the same mental torture with his second beer too, but I was so over it by then! LOL!! All four of us decided on salads for dinner. David had salmon, and the rest of us had steak salads. Grace decided a grill cheese sandwich with fries was the bomb, and I think she got the best meal of the day!
We really weren't in a hurry to leave. We sat around chatting a bit after dinner and enjoying each other's company. We managed to get the technically challenged waiter to snap a couple of pics of us before heading out.
David and Mendy needed to stop off at the store on the way home. We said our good byes outside the restaurant and headed back to the hotel.
I am definitely getting better at this triathlon stuff. When I went to West Point for my second Oly, I had too much stuff, almost, to carry into the transition area. This time, I fit everything into one workout bag. It took me all of fifteen minutes to setup my race belt, recheck to make sure everything was there, then settle down to watch some more TV. Before we finally settled down to bed, there was a few things I needed to get done.
First, I had to tuck Aerowyn in:
Then, Dee Dee and I wanted to send Marcy a small gift :-)
Finally, we settled into bed. Dee Dee decided to watch basketball for a bit, while I dozed off. I slept rather fitfully, off and on all night, but over all, I felt rather rested when the alarm clock went off at 5:30 AM.
After Dee Dee took her customary shower, we went downstairs, ate breakfast and headed for the pond. We ran into David in the parking lot on the way out. Grace was still sleeping. He and Mendy would be coming along shortly. The parking lot at the pond was about half full. I quickly grabbed my stuff and headed over to transition. Evidently, there was no need to hurry. Most people were either at registration or packet pickup. I was the second bike to setup in my rack. I didn't score the end spot, but I was happy with my placement. I spent about 10-15 minutes getting everything setup, including my two bottles of G2.
I grabbed my wet suit and goggles and headed down to the beach to look at the swim course. They decided to change it this year. Rather than doing two laps of the 750 meter course, the decided to convert it into a big "L". The benefit of this is that the Oly participants did not have to merge with the sprint participants until the end.
Promise me you'll move on with your life, but never forget me!!
Ever since I read these words for the first time, I have stepped up my efforts to support the fight against cancer. I still brings tears to my eyes when I think about my wife ever having to say those words to me. The hurt (would be) is profound. I can only imagine what my friends are going through.
Dee Dee and I paused on the way back at the wall to snap the picture in the post below. If you want to buy your own pair, Google "Cancer Sucks socks" and you too can have a fancy pair of these wonderful running socks. I could have opted for the black ones, but who would have noticed?
With about thirty minutes before race time, I suited up and headed down to the beach for a swim. The water felt good, much warmer than my OW swims at home. I swam out the first buoy and practiced floating a bit, both straight up and on my back like an otter.
I felt all the nervous tension leave my body. I was ready. I swam back to beach, climbed from the water, and walked back up to the pavilion with Dee Dee to wait for the race to start.
About ten minutes before race time, the first crack of lightning flashed across the sky. Then the skies opened up and the rain came pouring down. Every time the RD announced when the race would start, a new flash of lightning would ruin our plans. We waited, and waited, and waited.
The RD finally announced the 9 AM was the cutoff time. If we didn't start the swim by then, they would have to change the race to a duathlon. Lucky for us, the rogue cloud hanging over the lake had moved off down the lake and was no longer causing a problem. The sheriff's department notified the RD that part of the bike route was flooded. The bike route would be shortend by four miles for each loop (it ended up being three). I was relieved when they called the elites down to the water and "Lose Yourself" by eminem began to play over the loud speakers. The air horn went off with a blast and the dozen or so elites entered the water and began the race.
David and I donned our goggles and moved into the starting area.
The RD shortened the pause between waves to two minutes. Before you knew it, he blew the horn, and our wave entered the water for the swim.
The swim course was basically an inverted L. We were swimming along the dam to our right, then we would make a left turn to the top of the L. I had decided that I would take it easy out to the first turn, then I would kick it up a notch. It was pretty crowded from the start. I was careful not to pound anyone, nor did I get pounded. I drafted off a few feet for a little bit, but I wasn't really comfortable, and I didn't like accidentally touching the feet of the guy in front of me. By the time we hit the first left turn, I had kicked it up to race pace.
I was actually pleasantly surprised when I reached the first yellow buoy. I thought I would be like half way. Instead, the turn around was right there in front of me. I sighted on a group of swimmers in front of me and swung wide around the turn. The turn wasn't an exact right angle. I ended up taking the turn to wide and headed for a point to the right of the next yellow buoy. Next time, I sight for myself :-) When I realized my mistake, I took a sharper angle towards the second yellow buoy and joined the rest of the swimmers on a straighter line. I had plenty of open water to swim in, and plenty of athletes to keep me company. The second turn around took longer to reach. I made the left turn and headed for the third yellow buoy, about fifty yards away. An abandoned house stood on the shore behind the buoy. It was a definite Kodak moment.
I began to swim harder. I wanted to turn it on for the last section of the swim leg. I passed the final yellow buoy to my right and made the right turn towards shore. I gave it everything I had.
Another athlete and I were swimming body to body, stoke for stoke. Every time I came up for a breath, I was staring right into his goggles. Towards the end of the swim, we broke off and finished on our on. For some strange reason, the swim ended at pier in waist deep water. Talk about retarded. Tired and sore swimmers had to lift themselves out of the water with their arms on the pier, then get up and run to transition. I had no problem getting on the pier, but some athletes did. Dee Dee was waiting for me on the beach.
Dee Dee hollered at me that David came out of the water like thirty seconds before me. I could see him running ahead of me. Well, I was in no mood to run. I stripped off half my wet suit, allowed the blood in my body to redistribute itself, then began running to transition. As I reached my bike, I saw David heading out of transition. That dude is FAST!!!
My wet suite was not cooperating. I got one leg off just fine, but I got my first and only cramp in my left calve getting the left leg out. To be honest, I really wasn't in a hurry. By the time I got out of my wet suit, put on all my bike gear, and exited transition, like five minutes had passed. Oh yea, my swim time was 29 minutes and some change. I'm not really happy with that, but I'll ponder it with you at the end of this report.
My glasses were so foggy as I exited transition, I could barely see. It took almost three miles for them to dry out completely. The race route was a big circle. The sprint was doing one lap, the internationals two. Picture an inverted plate if you will, with the bottom part of the plate lower than the top. That's how the route was. The left side up the plate was mostly up hill with a few down hills, then the opposite side was the reverse. I took the first half of the first lap pretty hard, and hammered the reverse side. I reached thirty-seven miles per hour on one long downhill stretch and was just flying. Near the end of the first lap, I felt my GI "issues" begin to manifest itself. I either went harder than I should have, or my legs were really shot. Either way, I tired significantly on the second lap. I only managed 7-8 mph on the uphills, then I decided to for go pedaling on the downhills and just coast. I was very grateful when I completed the second lap and turned back to the pond.
At the end of the race, I checked my mileage. The distance was 19 miles and I averaged 17.1 mph. That was not what I wanted. Again, I was disappointed.
My transition from bike to run was a lot faster. I geared up and was out the door in two minutes and some change. I was wondering what to do about my GI issues when, lucky for me, the run route went right by the port-a-pots. I made a quick detour to take care of business, then headed out on the run again.
When I reached the first mile marker, I hit the lap button and was surprised to see a 10:45 pace. I was really running fast cause I knew I musta spent at least a couple of minutes in the bathroom. The run route was nice and flat. We were doing an out and back with two water stops. I turned in a 8:49 pace for my second mile, and then a 9:24 for my third mile, which included walking both ways through the water stations. Some nice couple was out on the race course hosing down the runners. I was very thankful for that, despite the shock of the cold water.
During mile 4, the GI issues return and quickly reached unbearable. It was so bad I had to resort to walking some portions of it to keep myself under control. Despite this, I still managed a 9:48 mile. At this, all I wanted to do was run by the port-a-potties again. The road back to the park is lined with forests and uphill. About half way up the hill, we had a code ocher with a breach. Once you have a breach, all humbleness and modesty goes by the way side. For those of you who are sensitive to this kind of stuff, skip the next paragraph.
I quickly dove off the road into the woods and struggled about 8 yards into the forest. I quickly realized that crapping in the woods presents some new challenges. The first and most obvious is not to crap on yo self. I managed that part just fine. Once that was finished, the second challenge was how to get cleaned up. Just for all you new people who have never done this before, here's some sage advice. Do NOT wipe your butt with live or green leaves. If you happen to accidentally pick something poisonous, well, you get the idea. You will pay for an uncomfortably long time! Lucky for me, the leaves were wet, and there was plenty. For a few minutes, I had a oh crap (LOL!) moment trying to figure out which ones I had already used. I know. That's just gross. I haven't wiped my ass with leaves since I went turkey hunting in eigth grade :-)
I quickly pulled up my pants, exited out of the forest, and kicked it in. I turned in a 10:53 fifth mile.
For the final mile, we ran through the transition area, past the finish, then out onto the dam. They evidently shortened the run too, cause the turn around was supposed to be further out. I guess they ended up cutting off the final 0.2 miles of the 10K, cause I measured :-) I was very, very happy to turn in a sub-8 minute mile for my final mile. My pace on the final mile was 7:42. That just totally blew me away. As a matter of fact, I thought the last mile was short until I measured it on g-maps :-)
As I turned into the finisher's chute, I couldn't see Dee Dee, but I knew that she would be there waiting on me to snap my picture.
I raised my arms in victory and crossed the line in 2:41:41 (official).
David, Mendy, Grace, and Dee Dee were waiting for me at the finish line. David kicked some serious ass on the bike and run, finishing about thirty minutes before I did. High fives all around. I was a bit wobbly after my run, which made David chuckle, but hey, I ran hard :-)
We opted not to hang around for the entire awards ceremony. We had chilluns at home that needed t aking care of. Jimmy did a fantastic job of caring for Matthew while were gone. He is such a fine young man. Both Dee Dee and I were very tired on the trip home, but we made it home safely, getting into Atlanta around 4:30 or 5 PM.
Now, I'm trying real hard to keep this race in perspective as a "B" race. First, I swam hard. I know I was hitting close to my T-pace for part of that swim AND I was in a wet suit. There's no way I should have come in that close to 2 minutes per 100 meters. I did swing out to wide on the first turn, so maybe that's the reason. I don't know, but I'm not going to dwell on it. Just accept it and move on. I am also disappointed in my bike performance. The route wasn't that hilly. I just totally sucked wind on the second lap and couldn't give it everything I had. This has me rethinking my strategy at Florida 70.3. The run was my silver lining. Despite the GI issues, I believe, had I not stopped twice, I could of PRed my 10K distance at this race, despite having to stop 2 times. I am very excited about that. In addition, I had zero cramping during the race, with the exception of the cramp I got taking off my wet suit. I'll definitely have to work on my race week nutrition before Florida 70.3. Overall, I'm very happy with the fitness of my body.
Dave, Mendy, and Grace, we had a great time seeing you guys in Aiken! I hope our paths cross again sometime soon. Maybe you guys can come for a destination race in Atlanta some time :-)
It's time to get serious, now. Just a hop skip and a jump until my first half ironman!
Wes
Evidently, and so does Wes, but that's the rest of the story...
After I wrote my last post prior to race day, it began to hit me that the race was coming up fast :-) I know. It was only two days away. I could feel the dread of the swim building in my mind like the tightness of a rubber band. I took some small comfort in the fact that this swim would be wet suit legal, yet I couldn't shake those feelings that resurfaced unbidden from past races.
I had managed to bank three extra hours of work before Friday, and I got up before the butt crack of dawn to get in early. I'm quite surprised at the morning person I am becoming. I still hem and haw about dragging my carcass out of bed in the morning, but once I do, I'm full of energy for the entire day. I left work around 11:30 AM and got home around noon, another benefit of leaving work early. No traffic. I took Bags out for a twenty minute ride and followed this up with a ten minute brick. I was starting to feel pretty good, but my thighs were still tender from all bike mileage I had been putting in the past three weeks.
The sun was shining as we left Atlanta. We hit a little traffic in downtown Atlanta, but for the most part, the ride was very pleasant. We arrived in Aiken, South Carolina between four and four-thirty. We went directly to the hotel and checked into our room. Did we score a doozy of a room too! We basically got a suite for the price of a room with a king sized bed. We had a den, a kitchen, a separate bed room two baths, all for little ole us. We decided to give Aerowyn her own room :-)
After settling in, we were off to Langley Pond to pick up our race packets. I was pleasantly surprised at the number of triathletes already at the park. While picking up my packet, I made sure the race officials knew I had put my chip number in my profile incorrectly. I would be racing with the ChampionChip I had acquired for the Disney Marathon.
We knew we had a couple of hours before Dave and Mendy would arrive in town. Dee Dee and I decided to take a tour of downtown Aiken. We both loved the small town atmosphere. Downtown basically consisted of two to three streets of little shops, cafes and restaurants. We made it back to the hotel around 5:30-ish or so, and settled down to watch the TV.
Around 7 PM, I texted David to ask them if they had left Greenville yet :-) He immediately called me back to let me know they were at packet pick up and would meet us for dinner. I asked David if they wanted to mosy over to downtown Aiken, and he and Mendy were up for it. I was excited when David, Mendy, and Grace pulled into the parking lot!! I went downstairs to meet them and gave Mendy the big ole Georgia bear hug that I am, evidently, becoming famous for :-) Then I got to meet that l'il angel, Grace. She is just as cute in person as she is in all those great pics. Mendy, is of course, a sweetheart! When she says that she is a "Girl raised in the South!" You can believe it!!
David and Mendy decided they would just check into our hotel, and they scored the last available room. Evidently, there was a college baseball team staying in our hotel. We then drove to downtown Aiken and scored a few parking spots on the street. We managed to park pretty close to the local brew pub, and that's where we ended up eating. The idea of sampling the local brew was too much for David to pass up :-) I, personally, decided to abstain from alcohol, but it didn't, as will soon become apparent, help my GI system at all.
While we were waiting for dinner, we managed to snap a few pictures...
David decided he would literally rub his beer in my face! Telling me how awful it was an all :-) He tried the same mental torture with his second beer too, but I was so over it by then! LOL!! All four of us decided on salads for dinner. David had salmon, and the rest of us had steak salads. Grace decided a grill cheese sandwich with fries was the bomb, and I think she got the best meal of the day!
We really weren't in a hurry to leave. We sat around chatting a bit after dinner and enjoying each other's company. We managed to get the technically challenged waiter to snap a couple of pics of us before heading out.
David and Mendy needed to stop off at the store on the way home. We said our good byes outside the restaurant and headed back to the hotel.
I am definitely getting better at this triathlon stuff. When I went to West Point for my second Oly, I had too much stuff, almost, to carry into the transition area. This time, I fit everything into one workout bag. It took me all of fifteen minutes to setup my race belt, recheck to make sure everything was there, then settle down to watch some more TV. Before we finally settled down to bed, there was a few things I needed to get done.
First, I had to tuck Aerowyn in:
Then, Dee Dee and I wanted to send Marcy a small gift :-)
Finally, we settled into bed. Dee Dee decided to watch basketball for a bit, while I dozed off. I slept rather fitfully, off and on all night, but over all, I felt rather rested when the alarm clock went off at 5:30 AM.
After Dee Dee took her customary shower, we went downstairs, ate breakfast and headed for the pond. We ran into David in the parking lot on the way out. Grace was still sleeping. He and Mendy would be coming along shortly. The parking lot at the pond was about half full. I quickly grabbed my stuff and headed over to transition. Evidently, there was no need to hurry. Most people were either at registration or packet pickup. I was the second bike to setup in my rack. I didn't score the end spot, but I was happy with my placement. I spent about 10-15 minutes getting everything setup, including my two bottles of G2.
I grabbed my wet suit and goggles and headed down to the beach to look at the swim course. They decided to change it this year. Rather than doing two laps of the 750 meter course, the decided to convert it into a big "L". The benefit of this is that the Oly participants did not have to merge with the sprint participants until the end.
Promise me you'll move on with your life, but never forget me!!
Ever since I read these words for the first time, I have stepped up my efforts to support the fight against cancer. I still brings tears to my eyes when I think about my wife ever having to say those words to me. The hurt (would be) is profound. I can only imagine what my friends are going through.
Dee Dee and I paused on the way back at the wall to snap the picture in the post below. If you want to buy your own pair, Google "Cancer Sucks socks" and you too can have a fancy pair of these wonderful running socks. I could have opted for the black ones, but who would have noticed?
With about thirty minutes before race time, I suited up and headed down to the beach for a swim. The water felt good, much warmer than my OW swims at home. I swam out the first buoy and practiced floating a bit, both straight up and on my back like an otter.
I felt all the nervous tension leave my body. I was ready. I swam back to beach, climbed from the water, and walked back up to the pavilion with Dee Dee to wait for the race to start.
About ten minutes before race time, the first crack of lightning flashed across the sky. Then the skies opened up and the rain came pouring down. Every time the RD announced when the race would start, a new flash of lightning would ruin our plans. We waited, and waited, and waited.
The RD finally announced the 9 AM was the cutoff time. If we didn't start the swim by then, they would have to change the race to a duathlon. Lucky for us, the rogue cloud hanging over the lake had moved off down the lake and was no longer causing a problem. The sheriff's department notified the RD that part of the bike route was flooded. The bike route would be shortend by four miles for each loop (it ended up being three). I was relieved when they called the elites down to the water and "Lose Yourself" by eminem began to play over the loud speakers. The air horn went off with a blast and the dozen or so elites entered the water and began the race.
David and I donned our goggles and moved into the starting area.
The RD shortened the pause between waves to two minutes. Before you knew it, he blew the horn, and our wave entered the water for the swim.
The swim course was basically an inverted L. We were swimming along the dam to our right, then we would make a left turn to the top of the L. I had decided that I would take it easy out to the first turn, then I would kick it up a notch. It was pretty crowded from the start. I was careful not to pound anyone, nor did I get pounded. I drafted off a few feet for a little bit, but I wasn't really comfortable, and I didn't like accidentally touching the feet of the guy in front of me. By the time we hit the first left turn, I had kicked it up to race pace.
I was actually pleasantly surprised when I reached the first yellow buoy. I thought I would be like half way. Instead, the turn around was right there in front of me. I sighted on a group of swimmers in front of me and swung wide around the turn. The turn wasn't an exact right angle. I ended up taking the turn to wide and headed for a point to the right of the next yellow buoy. Next time, I sight for myself :-) When I realized my mistake, I took a sharper angle towards the second yellow buoy and joined the rest of the swimmers on a straighter line. I had plenty of open water to swim in, and plenty of athletes to keep me company. The second turn around took longer to reach. I made the left turn and headed for the third yellow buoy, about fifty yards away. An abandoned house stood on the shore behind the buoy. It was a definite Kodak moment.
I began to swim harder. I wanted to turn it on for the last section of the swim leg. I passed the final yellow buoy to my right and made the right turn towards shore. I gave it everything I had.
Another athlete and I were swimming body to body, stoke for stoke. Every time I came up for a breath, I was staring right into his goggles. Towards the end of the swim, we broke off and finished on our on. For some strange reason, the swim ended at pier in waist deep water. Talk about retarded. Tired and sore swimmers had to lift themselves out of the water with their arms on the pier, then get up and run to transition. I had no problem getting on the pier, but some athletes did. Dee Dee was waiting for me on the beach.
Dee Dee hollered at me that David came out of the water like thirty seconds before me. I could see him running ahead of me. Well, I was in no mood to run. I stripped off half my wet suit, allowed the blood in my body to redistribute itself, then began running to transition. As I reached my bike, I saw David heading out of transition. That dude is FAST!!!
My wet suite was not cooperating. I got one leg off just fine, but I got my first and only cramp in my left calve getting the left leg out. To be honest, I really wasn't in a hurry. By the time I got out of my wet suit, put on all my bike gear, and exited transition, like five minutes had passed. Oh yea, my swim time was 29 minutes and some change. I'm not really happy with that, but I'll ponder it with you at the end of this report.
My glasses were so foggy as I exited transition, I could barely see. It took almost three miles for them to dry out completely. The race route was a big circle. The sprint was doing one lap, the internationals two. Picture an inverted plate if you will, with the bottom part of the plate lower than the top. That's how the route was. The left side up the plate was mostly up hill with a few down hills, then the opposite side was the reverse. I took the first half of the first lap pretty hard, and hammered the reverse side. I reached thirty-seven miles per hour on one long downhill stretch and was just flying. Near the end of the first lap, I felt my GI "issues" begin to manifest itself. I either went harder than I should have, or my legs were really shot. Either way, I tired significantly on the second lap. I only managed 7-8 mph on the uphills, then I decided to for go pedaling on the downhills and just coast. I was very grateful when I completed the second lap and turned back to the pond.
At the end of the race, I checked my mileage. The distance was 19 miles and I averaged 17.1 mph. That was not what I wanted. Again, I was disappointed.
My transition from bike to run was a lot faster. I geared up and was out the door in two minutes and some change. I was wondering what to do about my GI issues when, lucky for me, the run route went right by the port-a-pots. I made a quick detour to take care of business, then headed out on the run again.
When I reached the first mile marker, I hit the lap button and was surprised to see a 10:45 pace. I was really running fast cause I knew I musta spent at least a couple of minutes in the bathroom. The run route was nice and flat. We were doing an out and back with two water stops. I turned in a 8:49 pace for my second mile, and then a 9:24 for my third mile, which included walking both ways through the water stations. Some nice couple was out on the race course hosing down the runners. I was very thankful for that, despite the shock of the cold water.
During mile 4, the GI issues return and quickly reached unbearable. It was so bad I had to resort to walking some portions of it to keep myself under control. Despite this, I still managed a 9:48 mile. At this, all I wanted to do was run by the port-a-potties again. The road back to the park is lined with forests and uphill. About half way up the hill, we had a code ocher with a breach. Once you have a breach, all humbleness and modesty goes by the way side. For those of you who are sensitive to this kind of stuff, skip the next paragraph.
I quickly dove off the road into the woods and struggled about 8 yards into the forest. I quickly realized that crapping in the woods presents some new challenges. The first and most obvious is not to crap on yo self. I managed that part just fine. Once that was finished, the second challenge was how to get cleaned up. Just for all you new people who have never done this before, here's some sage advice. Do NOT wipe your butt with live or green leaves. If you happen to accidentally pick something poisonous, well, you get the idea. You will pay for an uncomfortably long time! Lucky for me, the leaves were wet, and there was plenty. For a few minutes, I had a oh crap (LOL!) moment trying to figure out which ones I had already used. I know. That's just gross. I haven't wiped my ass with leaves since I went turkey hunting in eigth grade :-)
I quickly pulled up my pants, exited out of the forest, and kicked it in. I turned in a 10:53 fifth mile.
For the final mile, we ran through the transition area, past the finish, then out onto the dam. They evidently shortened the run too, cause the turn around was supposed to be further out. I guess they ended up cutting off the final 0.2 miles of the 10K, cause I measured :-) I was very, very happy to turn in a sub-8 minute mile for my final mile. My pace on the final mile was 7:42. That just totally blew me away. As a matter of fact, I thought the last mile was short until I measured it on g-maps :-)
As I turned into the finisher's chute, I couldn't see Dee Dee, but I knew that she would be there waiting on me to snap my picture.
I raised my arms in victory and crossed the line in 2:41:41 (official).
David, Mendy, Grace, and Dee Dee were waiting for me at the finish line. David kicked some serious ass on the bike and run, finishing about thirty minutes before I did. High fives all around. I was a bit wobbly after my run, which made David chuckle, but hey, I ran hard :-)
We opted not to hang around for the entire awards ceremony. We had chilluns at home that needed t aking care of. Jimmy did a fantastic job of caring for Matthew while were gone. He is such a fine young man. Both Dee Dee and I were very tired on the trip home, but we made it home safely, getting into Atlanta around 4:30 or 5 PM.
Now, I'm trying real hard to keep this race in perspective as a "B" race. First, I swam hard. I know I was hitting close to my T-pace for part of that swim AND I was in a wet suit. There's no way I should have come in that close to 2 minutes per 100 meters. I did swing out to wide on the first turn, so maybe that's the reason. I don't know, but I'm not going to dwell on it. Just accept it and move on. I am also disappointed in my bike performance. The route wasn't that hilly. I just totally sucked wind on the second lap and couldn't give it everything I had. This has me rethinking my strategy at Florida 70.3. The run was my silver lining. Despite the GI issues, I believe, had I not stopped twice, I could of PRed my 10K distance at this race, despite having to stop 2 times. I am very excited about that. In addition, I had zero cramping during the race, with the exception of the cramp I got taking off my wet suit. I'll definitely have to work on my race week nutrition before Florida 70.3. Overall, I'm very happy with the fitness of my body.
Dave, Mendy, and Grace, we had a great time seeing you guys in Aiken! I hope our paths cross again sometime soon. Maybe you guys can come for a destination race in Atlanta some time :-)
It's time to get serious, now. Just a hop skip and a jump until my first half ironman!
Wes
Saturday, April 26, 2008
For Chells and Vic
I tried to upload this from my camera phone this morning, but obviously I failed miserably. This is the pic of me sporting my new Cancer Sucks! socks right before the rains came in and threatened to turn our triathlon into a duathlon.
Fortunately, we were able to get off about an hour late, but due to flooding, they had to shorten the bike course by six miles.
I finished in around 2:40. More on that later! ;-)
Wes
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Ceviche, Storms, Rodents, and Shamrocks
Karnak: What is a Shamrock n Roll 10K Race Report?
Friday night, I stopped off at the pool on the way home to get my swim workout completed. I thought rather than kicking my arse first thing in the morning and being tired all day, I would kick it on the way home and only be tired for a quarter of the day.
I picked out Endurance Workout 4, set A, which called for 3100 meters. The first 300 meters was swim, the second 300 meters was kick. God, I hate kick. Then it was on to the main set. The main set consisted of 8x150, 8x100, and 8x50. Now, the instructions were 2-2-2-2 descending. For those of you who don't know, this means every 2 intervals gets faster. For future reference, when you see this on your own plan. Be afraid. Be very afraid. By the time I got done, I was grateful I was only doing 50s. I was toast. I threw in another 300 meter straight interval to get my swim up to 3400 meters, along with my 100 meter cool down. When Dee Dee got home from work Friday night, she asked me why I was so red. LOL!! The only thing I could think of was that the chlorine in the pool cooked me like cerviche for an hour and fifteen minutes.
After setting the alarm clock for a 6:30 AM wake up call, it was off to bed. Around 5 AM, the crack of thunder and lighting woke me from my sleep. I listened carefully to the approaching storm. I didn't hear the tornado sirens going off, so I killed the alarm and went back to sleep. When I woke at 8:30 AM, I hurried downstairs to check the radar. I saw the storms in Alabama, and I figured I had three to four hours to get my workout in. I hurriedly ate breakfast, packed the car and drove out to the Silver Comet. I heard on the radio about the devastation from the tornado that hit downtown, and I worried for my friends, Sarah and Akshaye.
The brick on the Silver Comet went well. The plan called for 90 minutes, 30 at race pace, followed by a 30 minute run off. I was very sore and intentionally took it easy in the first and last thirty minutes of the ride. The thirty minutes at race pace went fine, but hard. You could tell that I worked hard this week. I usually do my entire ride on the SCT at twenty miles per hour. This time, I could only muster a 17.5 mph average over the whole ride. On the way back to the car, I unfortunately ran over a squirrel. Poor fellow. There were lots of squirrels and even chipmunks out because the trail was nearly deserted. He was sitting right in my path, and I waited for him to scamper away. By the time he decided to move, he dashed directly into the path of my bike, and I got him with both wheels. I turned to look behind me, expecting to see the poor critter in convulsions, but he scampered off the trail. I was sick to my stomach and hoped that he would be alright.
As I drove home to the house, the north Georgia skies were filled with ominous black clouds. The tornado sirens went off when I pulled in the drive way. I hurried into the house and flipped on the news. A line of thunderstorms, one with a tornado in it, was moving in a bee-line across Cartersville and on to Canton. The edge of the storm barely brushed my house. We were not in the danger area. We did call the store, however, and instruct the kids to take evasive maneuvers. Fortunately for us all, no damage or injuries occurred in our part of town. My heart goes out to those unfortunate people killed and their families in North Georgia.
After the drama Saturday, including the brick, I hit the bed early Saturday. Dee Dee got us up at 5:15 AM. We got this pre-race stuff down now. We were in the car and on the way to Atlantic Station by 6:15 AM, Sunday. We got there a little early. The temperature gauge on the car said it was 49, but the wind was blowing strong. I had dressed in tights and my Mizuno shell. The weather channel said it FELT LIKE 39 degrees out. This figured strongly in my decision on how to dress, but I would regret it later.
We picked up our race packets and then went back to the car for twenty minutes or so. Dee Dee wanted to use the restroom. We managed to get in before the crowds. We picked around in the athletic store for a while and when we came out, the line stretched into the park. Dee Dee and I did a warm up lap then moved to the middle of the pack at the starting line. Neither Dee Dee nor I heard the start, but the crowd up front yelled, and the mass of people started moving forward. It took us around thirty seconds or so to cross the starting line. I hit start on my Garmin and tried to find room to run.
The race wasn't a huge race, but the narrow streets of Atlantic Station made the initial going hectic at best. Since I was running the first mile in zones 2 and 3, the pace suited me. I usually start out too fast. We ran clock-wise around the square. I had a little trouble keeping my heart rate at or below 153. I think it crept up to 155 a couple of times. I saw Sarah cheering on the runners at the first music station. I crossed the first mile marker at around 9:30, which I thought was OK for zones 2 and 3 (my Garmin appears to be non-functioning now, for some reason).
The group of runners made a left turn and then a right and took seventeenth street down towards Northside. There was a very nice downhill section here and one moderate up hill. I allowed my heart rate to creep to the stop of zone 3 and I held it there (157-160). When we made the right turn onto Northside, a huge steep hill stared us right in the face. I refused to walk it this first time, and my heart rate crept up to 170 and 171 before I finally crested. There was one more little hill (a bridge) to get over before we started heading back downhill to Atlantic station. I passed mile marker two with a 9:16 for the second mile. I was starting to sweat profusely.
The middle part of the race was definitely nice. Some long gentle downhills and flat out and backs along Atlantic Station. We ran past Sarah again as we headed to the square. I didn't get too excited about the nice downhill there. I knew I needed to do another lap, and that meant going back uphill again. The finish is actually beneath Atlantic Station. The 5Kers peeled off to the right, and the 10Kers went straight ahead for another lap.
Sure enough, as we made a right turn, back onto the previous loop, we had a challenging little uphill to climb. I had passed mile marker three in 9:15, but now, I was free to let my HR roam wherever it wanted. As it turned out, my heart rate climbed into the 170s going up the hills, but settled into 168-169 range on the flats and downhills.
Miles 4 and 5 were more of the same. I ended up having to walk the monster hill halfway up, and I jettisoned the Mizuno shell after mile 4. We got to see a live band around mile 4.5. Then it was on past Sarah again. She was all smiles cheering me on. About a half mile from the finish, I really picked up the pace. I knew I was in the PR range, but not by much, and I definitely wanted to take advantage of that nice downhill to make up some time. I crossed mile 6 with a time of 8:35, my fastest mile yet.
When I made the right turn into the finish chute, I had about a tenth of a mile to go. I kicked it in and began the final sprint. I wasn't racing anybody. That's just the way I roll. I saw 56 on the finish line clock and was a little disappointed, but I crossed the finish line in 56:24, a one minute PR over my last 10K.
Dee Dee and I meandered around the finish line for a while. We watched the Irish dancers and listened to the band. The sun was out and it was glorious morning. After checking out all the attractions, we packed up the car and headed home. Matthew was still sleeping when we got home. He never even knew we were gone. Funny thing, when he came down for breakfast, he asked us when we were doing our race :-)
How best to summarize? I think I did pretty damn good :-) I've been busting my chops all week with this training plan, and Friday's swim and Saturday's brick was especially tough. I executed my race plan perfectly. I didn't start out too fast. I PRed. With an overall pace of 9:04, what's not to love?
Dee Dee had a good time at the 5K as well. She finished in 35:15. It wasn't a PR for her, but then again, she hasn't run AT ALL since the marathon. She did real good too :-)
Wes
ORN: 6.2 miles, 56:24, 9:04 mmp
Friday night, I stopped off at the pool on the way home to get my swim workout completed. I thought rather than kicking my arse first thing in the morning and being tired all day, I would kick it on the way home and only be tired for a quarter of the day.
I picked out Endurance Workout 4, set A, which called for 3100 meters. The first 300 meters was swim, the second 300 meters was kick. God, I hate kick. Then it was on to the main set. The main set consisted of 8x150, 8x100, and 8x50. Now, the instructions were 2-2-2-2 descending. For those of you who don't know, this means every 2 intervals gets faster. For future reference, when you see this on your own plan. Be afraid. Be very afraid. By the time I got done, I was grateful I was only doing 50s. I was toast. I threw in another 300 meter straight interval to get my swim up to 3400 meters, along with my 100 meter cool down. When Dee Dee got home from work Friday night, she asked me why I was so red. LOL!! The only thing I could think of was that the chlorine in the pool cooked me like cerviche for an hour and fifteen minutes.
After setting the alarm clock for a 6:30 AM wake up call, it was off to bed. Around 5 AM, the crack of thunder and lighting woke me from my sleep. I listened carefully to the approaching storm. I didn't hear the tornado sirens going off, so I killed the alarm and went back to sleep. When I woke at 8:30 AM, I hurried downstairs to check the radar. I saw the storms in Alabama, and I figured I had three to four hours to get my workout in. I hurriedly ate breakfast, packed the car and drove out to the Silver Comet. I heard on the radio about the devastation from the tornado that hit downtown, and I worried for my friends, Sarah and Akshaye.
The brick on the Silver Comet went well. The plan called for 90 minutes, 30 at race pace, followed by a 30 minute run off. I was very sore and intentionally took it easy in the first and last thirty minutes of the ride. The thirty minutes at race pace went fine, but hard. You could tell that I worked hard this week. I usually do my entire ride on the SCT at twenty miles per hour. This time, I could only muster a 17.5 mph average over the whole ride. On the way back to the car, I unfortunately ran over a squirrel. Poor fellow. There were lots of squirrels and even chipmunks out because the trail was nearly deserted. He was sitting right in my path, and I waited for him to scamper away. By the time he decided to move, he dashed directly into the path of my bike, and I got him with both wheels. I turned to look behind me, expecting to see the poor critter in convulsions, but he scampered off the trail. I was sick to my stomach and hoped that he would be alright.
As I drove home to the house, the north Georgia skies were filled with ominous black clouds. The tornado sirens went off when I pulled in the drive way. I hurried into the house and flipped on the news. A line of thunderstorms, one with a tornado in it, was moving in a bee-line across Cartersville and on to Canton. The edge of the storm barely brushed my house. We were not in the danger area. We did call the store, however, and instruct the kids to take evasive maneuvers. Fortunately for us all, no damage or injuries occurred in our part of town. My heart goes out to those unfortunate people killed and their families in North Georgia.
After the drama Saturday, including the brick, I hit the bed early Saturday. Dee Dee got us up at 5:15 AM. We got this pre-race stuff down now. We were in the car and on the way to Atlantic Station by 6:15 AM, Sunday. We got there a little early. The temperature gauge on the car said it was 49, but the wind was blowing strong. I had dressed in tights and my Mizuno shell. The weather channel said it FELT LIKE 39 degrees out. This figured strongly in my decision on how to dress, but I would regret it later.
We picked up our race packets and then went back to the car for twenty minutes or so. Dee Dee wanted to use the restroom. We managed to get in before the crowds. We picked around in the athletic store for a while and when we came out, the line stretched into the park. Dee Dee and I did a warm up lap then moved to the middle of the pack at the starting line. Neither Dee Dee nor I heard the start, but the crowd up front yelled, and the mass of people started moving forward. It took us around thirty seconds or so to cross the starting line. I hit start on my Garmin and tried to find room to run.
The race wasn't a huge race, but the narrow streets of Atlantic Station made the initial going hectic at best. Since I was running the first mile in zones 2 and 3, the pace suited me. I usually start out too fast. We ran clock-wise around the square. I had a little trouble keeping my heart rate at or below 153. I think it crept up to 155 a couple of times. I saw Sarah cheering on the runners at the first music station. I crossed the first mile marker at around 9:30, which I thought was OK for zones 2 and 3 (my Garmin appears to be non-functioning now, for some reason).
The group of runners made a left turn and then a right and took seventeenth street down towards Northside. There was a very nice downhill section here and one moderate up hill. I allowed my heart rate to creep to the stop of zone 3 and I held it there (157-160). When we made the right turn onto Northside, a huge steep hill stared us right in the face. I refused to walk it this first time, and my heart rate crept up to 170 and 171 before I finally crested. There was one more little hill (a bridge) to get over before we started heading back downhill to Atlantic station. I passed mile marker two with a 9:16 for the second mile. I was starting to sweat profusely.
The middle part of the race was definitely nice. Some long gentle downhills and flat out and backs along Atlantic Station. We ran past Sarah again as we headed to the square. I didn't get too excited about the nice downhill there. I knew I needed to do another lap, and that meant going back uphill again. The finish is actually beneath Atlantic Station. The 5Kers peeled off to the right, and the 10Kers went straight ahead for another lap.
Sure enough, as we made a right turn, back onto the previous loop, we had a challenging little uphill to climb. I had passed mile marker three in 9:15, but now, I was free to let my HR roam wherever it wanted. As it turned out, my heart rate climbed into the 170s going up the hills, but settled into 168-169 range on the flats and downhills.
Miles 4 and 5 were more of the same. I ended up having to walk the monster hill halfway up, and I jettisoned the Mizuno shell after mile 4. We got to see a live band around mile 4.5. Then it was on past Sarah again. She was all smiles cheering me on. About a half mile from the finish, I really picked up the pace. I knew I was in the PR range, but not by much, and I definitely wanted to take advantage of that nice downhill to make up some time. I crossed mile 6 with a time of 8:35, my fastest mile yet.
When I made the right turn into the finish chute, I had about a tenth of a mile to go. I kicked it in and began the final sprint. I wasn't racing anybody. That's just the way I roll. I saw 56 on the finish line clock and was a little disappointed, but I crossed the finish line in 56:24, a one minute PR over my last 10K.
Dee Dee and I meandered around the finish line for a while. We watched the Irish dancers and listened to the band. The sun was out and it was glorious morning. After checking out all the attractions, we packed up the car and headed home. Matthew was still sleeping when we got home. He never even knew we were gone. Funny thing, when he came down for breakfast, he asked us when we were doing our race :-)
How best to summarize? I think I did pretty damn good :-) I've been busting my chops all week with this training plan, and Friday's swim and Saturday's brick was especially tough. I executed my race plan perfectly. I didn't start out too fast. I PRed. With an overall pace of 9:04, what's not to love?
Dee Dee had a good time at the 5K as well. She finished in 35:15. It wasn't a PR for her, but then again, she hasn't run AT ALL since the marathon. She did real good too :-)
Wes
ORN: 6.2 miles, 56:24, 9:04 mmp
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
That Day
Yea, I've been holding this one in for a while, and honestly, I wanted to write something about it a long time ago, but I been bizzy :-) A wise friend reminded me that we learn more by our defeats than by our victories. This is part of that process.
The race director signaled the start and the twenty to thirty or so middle aged triathletes moved into the water. The first and most noticeable surprise was that the water was cold. I learned at West Point and Cohutta Springs the importance of warming up IN THE WATER with a practice swim. I can't stress this enough. Not only does it prepare the body physically, but it prepares the mind for the shock of hitting the water. Knowing what to expect is half the battle. Having gotten there late, I was not prepared.
The other surprise was the very muddy bottom and steep drop off from the shore. The drought had pushed the shore line out quite a bit. It went from ankle deep to no standing deep in like five feet. Later, I learned that where we were swimming was the deepest part of Lake Lanier.
The group of triathletes swam at a 30 degree angle or so for the first buoy. I put my face in the water and began swimming. I found myself in the middle of the pack, something for which I was not prepared. I spent as much time trying not to beat the crap out of somebody as I did breathing and stroking. Swimming to the right exacerbated the current, and we steadily found ourselves being pushed out further and further past the buoy. The upside to this was it all happened very fast.
As I made the turn past the buoy, my world turned green and came to a screeching halt.
I picked up my head to try to sight, but the sun blinded me. I put my head back into the water and tried to swim, but I FELT like I wasn't making any progress. By the time I got my bearings, I realized that I was 10 feet inside the buoys, stuck half way between buoy one and buoy two. Every time I picked my head up, one of two things happened. I either got blinded by the sun, or a big wave smacked me right in the face.
After several minutes of making little to no progress, I got frustrated. I was trapped inside the buoys. The Weakness manifested itself. Almost of its own accord, my body turned towards shore, flipped over on its back, and kicked and back stroked. About half way to shore, I realized that I was fine. I shouldn't have let this happen.
Climbing out of the water, I was grateful to see that the last wave had already hit the lake. Grateful not to be embarrassed, and grateful not to scare any of the triathletes before the took a shot at the lake.
I watched the swimmers from the last wave round the first buoy, and I decided to give the swim another go. Before I even got to the first buoy, I decided that this day pretty much sucked, and I quit. I left the water mentally defeated. Not physically defeated. Not even close. But still, defeated.
You can read the full, angry race report, here.
Wes
Strength: 30 minutes
Cycle: TBD (45 minutes, trainer)
The race director signaled the start and the twenty to thirty or so middle aged triathletes moved into the water. The first and most noticeable surprise was that the water was cold. I learned at West Point and Cohutta Springs the importance of warming up IN THE WATER with a practice swim. I can't stress this enough. Not only does it prepare the body physically, but it prepares the mind for the shock of hitting the water. Knowing what to expect is half the battle. Having gotten there late, I was not prepared.
The other surprise was the very muddy bottom and steep drop off from the shore. The drought had pushed the shore line out quite a bit. It went from ankle deep to no standing deep in like five feet. Later, I learned that where we were swimming was the deepest part of Lake Lanier.
The group of triathletes swam at a 30 degree angle or so for the first buoy. I put my face in the water and began swimming. I found myself in the middle of the pack, something for which I was not prepared. I spent as much time trying not to beat the crap out of somebody as I did breathing and stroking. Swimming to the right exacerbated the current, and we steadily found ourselves being pushed out further and further past the buoy. The upside to this was it all happened very fast.
As I made the turn past the buoy, my world turned green and came to a screeching halt.
I picked up my head to try to sight, but the sun blinded me. I put my head back into the water and tried to swim, but I FELT like I wasn't making any progress. By the time I got my bearings, I realized that I was 10 feet inside the buoys, stuck half way between buoy one and buoy two. Every time I picked my head up, one of two things happened. I either got blinded by the sun, or a big wave smacked me right in the face.
After several minutes of making little to no progress, I got frustrated. I was trapped inside the buoys. The Weakness manifested itself. Almost of its own accord, my body turned towards shore, flipped over on its back, and kicked and back stroked. About half way to shore, I realized that I was fine. I shouldn't have let this happen.
Climbing out of the water, I was grateful to see that the last wave had already hit the lake. Grateful not to be embarrassed, and grateful not to scare any of the triathletes before the took a shot at the lake.
I watched the swimmers from the last wave round the first buoy, and I decided to give the swim another go. Before I even got to the first buoy, I decided that this day pretty much sucked, and I quit. I left the water mentally defeated. Not physically defeated. Not even close. But still, defeated.
You can read the full, angry race report, here.
Wes
Strength: 30 minutes
Cycle: TBD (45 minutes, trainer)
Monday, February 11, 2008
Nine on the Ninth
A Valentine's Virtual Race Report
The story behind the story...
Every year, my son's club holds an Icebreaker tournament for the Academy. The Academy is made up of younger kids who want to be more competitive than normal recreational soccer. Sometimes, the weather is brutal. Two years ago, we had rain, sleet, and freezing temps. This year, it was much nicer. The temps were in the very low sixties, but we had some pretty strong winds coming through Georgia.
I had wanted to get up and go for a bike ride before my son's first game at 11 AM, but I just couldn't drag myself out of the warm bed and out into the cold. I told myself I could ride after Matthew's last game of the day. We made it to the fields and Matthew had a great game, winning 1-0. After the game, I reffed a couple of games. The first game was a line, and the second game was a center. It was good getting these games under my belt as I am woefully out of practice.
Matthew's second game was another barn buster. He lost 1-0 in the final minutes of the game. By that time it was really getting cold and windy. We had invited David to come over for dinner on Friday, as he was in town for training again. We hurried home, then ran to the grocery store for food. When we got back, David was sitting outside the house. Matthew, evidently, hasn't learned the proper way to treat guests :-)
We had a really nice dinner and enjoyed having David over. As Dee Dee and I were tearing up the kitchen, David asked if our dinner time always involved a production of this magnitude. I laughed. Evidently, he hasn't gotten the word that I am the world's messiest cook!! In truth, we added one extra pan to the stove to cook the extra food we bought, but Dee Dee was making a separate side for herself. After dinner, we hung out for a while, chatting and watching ESPN. Dee Dee MADE us eat dessert. As the night progressed, it became evident that I had gotten sun and wind burned at the fields. I was feeling the affects of the weather on my face and the rest of me too for that matter.
After Dave left, Dee Dee and I went right to bed. I was wondering how and when I was going to get my race in. It kind of depended on how Matthew did in the tournament on Sunday. After he won his third game 5-1, his team managed to squeak into the finals by winning his division. I was tempted to run to the soccer fields for Matthew's final game, but I was afraid that I would take too long and miss part of his game. In retrospect, I should have brought my gear and run home after his game, but I didn't do that either.
Matthew's team won their final! We were so excited for him. The team went down 2-0 early in the first half. Matthew scored the tying goal with like five minutes left to go in the game. The team went on to win in over time. We got home about 5:15 or so, and I decided at that point, that I had better get out and get my run in.
My body has basically been in a state of shock all week. I'm not sure what I did, but I did a number on it fer sure. With that in mind, at first, I didn't want to do the run at all. Then, I thought I would stop at six miles, but in the end, I did the entire run. Due to the fact that I wasn't feeling 100% and that I had reffed two soccer games the day before, I decided to keep my HR in zone 2 for as much of the run as I could. No small task given the hills in my neighborhood. The run test paid off though, and I managed to keep my heart rate in the zone for 45 minutes of the 1:30 or so, unlike like last time, where I kept a measly twenty something minutes in the zone.
As I passed The Test on my way home, my knees began to ache and my shins hurt. I knew I was pushing my luck. My shins have NEVER hurt since I started on this journey. I coasted downhill to the house and came in with a time of 1:40:12 for an 11:08 average pace. I ran the whole way, walking a couple of times to slow my heart rate.
This week begins my training for the Ironman Florida 70.3. It is a 12 week plan with two extra weeks thrown in so I can taper and recover for Langely Pond. Mondays are my official recovery days. In order to keep the streak alive, I'll either walk or do a recovery ride on the trainer. I think the latter is more appealing today. We'll see how it goes!
Have a great week, y'all!!
Wes
ORN: 9 miles, 1:40:12, 11:08 mmp
The story behind the story...
Every year, my son's club holds an Icebreaker tournament for the Academy. The Academy is made up of younger kids who want to be more competitive than normal recreational soccer. Sometimes, the weather is brutal. Two years ago, we had rain, sleet, and freezing temps. This year, it was much nicer. The temps were in the very low sixties, but we had some pretty strong winds coming through Georgia.
I had wanted to get up and go for a bike ride before my son's first game at 11 AM, but I just couldn't drag myself out of the warm bed and out into the cold. I told myself I could ride after Matthew's last game of the day. We made it to the fields and Matthew had a great game, winning 1-0. After the game, I reffed a couple of games. The first game was a line, and the second game was a center. It was good getting these games under my belt as I am woefully out of practice.
Matthew's second game was another barn buster. He lost 1-0 in the final minutes of the game. By that time it was really getting cold and windy. We had invited David to come over for dinner on Friday, as he was in town for training again. We hurried home, then ran to the grocery store for food. When we got back, David was sitting outside the house. Matthew, evidently, hasn't learned the proper way to treat guests :-)
We had a really nice dinner and enjoyed having David over. As Dee Dee and I were tearing up the kitchen, David asked if our dinner time always involved a production of this magnitude. I laughed. Evidently, he hasn't gotten the word that I am the world's messiest cook!! In truth, we added one extra pan to the stove to cook the extra food we bought, but Dee Dee was making a separate side for herself. After dinner, we hung out for a while, chatting and watching ESPN. Dee Dee MADE us eat dessert. As the night progressed, it became evident that I had gotten sun and wind burned at the fields. I was feeling the affects of the weather on my face and the rest of me too for that matter.
After Dave left, Dee Dee and I went right to bed. I was wondering how and when I was going to get my race in. It kind of depended on how Matthew did in the tournament on Sunday. After he won his third game 5-1, his team managed to squeak into the finals by winning his division. I was tempted to run to the soccer fields for Matthew's final game, but I was afraid that I would take too long and miss part of his game. In retrospect, I should have brought my gear and run home after his game, but I didn't do that either.
Matthew's team won their final! We were so excited for him. The team went down 2-0 early in the first half. Matthew scored the tying goal with like five minutes left to go in the game. The team went on to win in over time. We got home about 5:15 or so, and I decided at that point, that I had better get out and get my run in.
My body has basically been in a state of shock all week. I'm not sure what I did, but I did a number on it fer sure. With that in mind, at first, I didn't want to do the run at all. Then, I thought I would stop at six miles, but in the end, I did the entire run. Due to the fact that I wasn't feeling 100% and that I had reffed two soccer games the day before, I decided to keep my HR in zone 2 for as much of the run as I could. No small task given the hills in my neighborhood. The run test paid off though, and I managed to keep my heart rate in the zone for 45 minutes of the 1:30 or so, unlike like last time, where I kept a measly twenty something minutes in the zone.
As I passed The Test on my way home, my knees began to ache and my shins hurt. I knew I was pushing my luck. My shins have NEVER hurt since I started on this journey. I coasted downhill to the house and came in with a time of 1:40:12 for an 11:08 average pace. I ran the whole way, walking a couple of times to slow my heart rate.
This week begins my training for the Ironman Florida 70.3. It is a 12 week plan with two extra weeks thrown in so I can taper and recover for Langely Pond. Mondays are my official recovery days. In order to keep the streak alive, I'll either walk or do a recovery ride on the trainer. I think the latter is more appealing today. We'll see how it goes!
Have a great week, y'all!!
Wes
ORN: 9 miles, 1:40:12, 11:08 mmp
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
A Magical Day!!
A Walt Disney World Marathon Race Report
Dee Dee's watch went off at 3:00 AM in the morning. She got up and got in the shower. It's her thing. I prefer to be "un-bathed" for my races. Don't stand down wind from me in the morning of a race. This, of course, was followed by my watch alarm, then the hotel clock, and finally the wake up call. No way we were going to sleep through this race start!
After Dee Dee got out of the shower, I crawled out of bed and got dressed. Everything had been laid out in different places. My clothes, shoes, Garmin, and race belt were on the closet shelf. My hotel keys, nutrition, and "Be Strong" band were on the night stand. With forty minutes until it was time to leave, we sat down and ate our carefully planned breakfast. The night before, we had bought two banana muffins at the pastry shop, milk and sugar donuts at the store. I had no trouble eating, but Dee Dee was too nervous to eat. This did not make me happy and I told her so.
Once breakfast was over, we gave ourselves a good checking over and headed out the door. It was a short, quarter mile or so walk to the lobby to meet the bus. As we walked along the dark misty side walks, other ghost like runners moved down the walk ways and paths towards the lobby. Our fellow runners we up and active. We were one of the first ones at the bus stop, but it didn't take long for twenty or thirty people to join us at 4 AM. We waited, maybe, fifteen minutes before the bus arrived.
The ride over to Epcot was rather uneventful. We could see the bright lights and sky lights from our hotel, and as we got closer, traffic picked up. We made our way into the parking lot and there was a line of near twenty buses dropping off runners. It was amazing to see. Dee Dee and I disembarked and made our way into the staging area. It was really cool. They had a live band and big screen TVs. We realized once we got there that our legs were going to get tired if we stood there for two hours. Unfortunately, we didn't bring anything to sit on. We borrowed a catalog from Champion and immediately broke it up into pieces and used that to sit on the concrete. Thanks Champion! We loved your singlets by the way :-)
Sometime around 5 AM, some dude who was green from head to toe started barking out orders about moving to the assembly area. I guess he was the sergeant from Toy Story. I think like ten people moved at the first try. Dee Dee and I decided to head over to the information tent where we had agreed to meet Kelly. We hadn't been there long when Dee Dee decided she need to use the bathroom. I told her that if Kelly came while she was gone, I would meet her at the exit door of our bag drop off. She agreed and headed out. Well, a few minutes later she came back because she was scared she would lose me in the crowd. We gave Kelly fifteen minutes past the time we agreed to meet and then headed out without her. We stopped at the port-a-potties for Dee Dee and waited for what seemed like an eternity.
Runners, its time!! It's time to move to the assembly area and on to the starting line...
Over and over the sergeant blared out his commands. Dee Dee was taking forever, and I got tired of watching for little sis to come by, to no avail. I noticed there were very short lines closer to the exit. I grabbed Dee Dee and we headed over to exit and got right in.
The starting line was about a quarter mile away. We joined the long queue of people and made the trek through the darkness to the starting line. The anticipation and excitement was palpable. They did something interesting at Disney. They had two starting lines, one for faster runners, and one for everybody else. We would run seperate routes for 3.4 miles, then the routes would converge. I thought that was neat.
Dee Dee and I made our way to corral F and climbed over the flimsy fencing at the head of the corral. We didn't know it at the time, but little sis was at the back of the corral, looking for us. We only had six minutes until the race started. Mickey, Minnie, and Donald were on the starters platform to count down the race start. With two minutes until start time, the crowd counted down the start for the wheel chair racers. It was awesome, the enthusiasm for the wheel chair athletes. In honor of the fifteenth anniversary, Mickey and crew counted down from the fifteen seconds. With a boom, the fireworks went off in front and in back of us, and the race started.
I'm going to pat myself on the back for this one. What I can't do for myself, evidently I CAN do for others. My pace was almost perfect for the first 16 miles. We started out along the highway between Epcot and our hotel. The first two to three miles was a big loop. We spent a lot of time trying to find some space and dodging the walkers. Of course, we were doing the run walk thing too. We weren't complaining. Just trying to find space when we wanted to run.
Starting out, we ran around the front of Epcot and entered the park by the big Silver Ball. As we headed around the lake, Dee Dee and I decided to take advantage of one of the bathrooms about a hundred yards off the route and stopped for our first bathroom break. I think we were at mile 3 at this point, because I noticed on my Garmin that our average pace had climbed to 14:28 by the time we started running again. I told Dee Dee not to worry about it. We would make up the time gradually, and not all in one mile. We exited out at the back of the park and found ourselves running down the same road we walked to the starting line. Sure enough, we were back on the highway again, following the same route.
This time, instead of getting off at the underpass, we headed down the road past mile 5 and began the portion of the run that took us to the Magic Kingdom. I really enjoyed this part of the run. By now, the sun had come up, and I got to see a lot more of Disney than I did riding the monorail as a child.
Dee Dee and I were making good time. We still had to struggle some to find room to run, our average pace began to decline and dip. When we ran past the contemporary resort and into the Magic Kingdom, it settled in at 14:08 per mile, the lowest point that it would get. I thoroughly enjoyed running through the Magic Kingdom. It was my favorite part of the race. There were plenty of characters out and about. Dee Dee and I ran through Cinderella's castle together, and we even paused to have our picture taken by the race photog. Running through Wilderness area where they have the Country Bear jamboree brought back such great memories of why I loved the place. We exited the park out through the back lot area. They had one more set of characters there, sitting on a ship. It was the Pirates of the Caribbean. That was cool too.
Once we exited the back lot of Disney at mile 11, things kind of got stale. We ran along a wooded road, without much to see or do. They had put up motivational signs by Sharpie, and there was music along the way. My favorite quote was, "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you!" We danced and pranced a bit and got funky with it. At long last, we hit mile 13.1. Half the marathon was over.
I can't say enough about how well Dee Dee had been holding up. The difference between this race, Atlanta, and ING was amazing. She wasn't complaining about anything. She was having fun. You could see she was zoning in on what she had to do. I explained to her at this point that we would have to repeat the same level of effort to come in around 6:30:00. We had basically banked about twenty minutes ahead of the bus. She acknowledged me, and we kept on trucking.
Miles 14, 15, and 16 were dull and boring until we hit the Animal Kingdom. They had characters and live animals out to greet us there too, and that was just awesome. The public had started to visit the park now, and we found ourselves running through the park along with the paying customers. After running through the Animal Kingdom, the sun came out and it started to get warm real fast. At this point, I still felt really good. I had been drinking two cups of something at every water stop, and I had already had to stop and pee like four times (TMI!!). Dee Dee had eaten all of her Cliff Shot blocks, and I was right there along with her with my C
Dee Dee's watch went off at 3:00 AM in the morning. She got up and got in the shower. It's her thing. I prefer to be "un-bathed" for my races. Don't stand down wind from me in the morning of a race. This, of course, was followed by my watch alarm, then the hotel clock, and finally the wake up call. No way we were going to sleep through this race start!
After Dee Dee got out of the shower, I crawled out of bed and got dressed. Everything had been laid out in different places. My clothes, shoes, Garmin, and race belt were on the closet shelf. My hotel keys, nutrition, and "Be Strong" band were on the night stand. With forty minutes until it was time to leave, we sat down and ate our carefully planned breakfast. The night before, we had bought two banana muffins at the pastry shop, milk and sugar donuts at the store. I had no trouble eating, but Dee Dee was too nervous to eat. This did not make me happy and I told her so.
Once breakfast was over, we gave ourselves a good checking over and headed out the door. It was a short, quarter mile or so walk to the lobby to meet the bus. As we walked along the dark misty side walks, other ghost like runners moved down the walk ways and paths towards the lobby. Our fellow runners we up and active. We were one of the first ones at the bus stop, but it didn't take long for twenty or thirty people to join us at 4 AM. We waited, maybe, fifteen minutes before the bus arrived.
The ride over to Epcot was rather uneventful. We could see the bright lights and sky lights from our hotel, and as we got closer, traffic picked up. We made our way into the parking lot and there was a line of near twenty buses dropping off runners. It was amazing to see. Dee Dee and I disembarked and made our way into the staging area. It was really cool. They had a live band and big screen TVs. We realized once we got there that our legs were going to get tired if we stood there for two hours. Unfortunately, we didn't bring anything to sit on. We borrowed a catalog from Champion and immediately broke it up into pieces and used that to sit on the concrete. Thanks Champion! We loved your singlets by the way :-)
Sometime around 5 AM, some dude who was green from head to toe started barking out orders about moving to the assembly area. I guess he was the sergeant from Toy Story. I think like ten people moved at the first try. Dee Dee and I decided to head over to the information tent where we had agreed to meet Kelly. We hadn't been there long when Dee Dee decided she need to use the bathroom. I told her that if Kelly came while she was gone, I would meet her at the exit door of our bag drop off. She agreed and headed out. Well, a few minutes later she came back because she was scared she would lose me in the crowd. We gave Kelly fifteen minutes past the time we agreed to meet and then headed out without her. We stopped at the port-a-potties for Dee Dee and waited for what seemed like an eternity.
Runners, its time!! It's time to move to the assembly area and on to the starting line...
Over and over the sergeant blared out his commands. Dee Dee was taking forever, and I got tired of watching for little sis to come by, to no avail. I noticed there were very short lines closer to the exit. I grabbed Dee Dee and we headed over to exit and got right in.
The starting line was about a quarter mile away. We joined the long queue of people and made the trek through the darkness to the starting line. The anticipation and excitement was palpable. They did something interesting at Disney. They had two starting lines, one for faster runners, and one for everybody else. We would run seperate routes for 3.4 miles, then the routes would converge. I thought that was neat.
Dee Dee and I made our way to corral F and climbed over the flimsy fencing at the head of the corral. We didn't know it at the time, but little sis was at the back of the corral, looking for us. We only had six minutes until the race started. Mickey, Minnie, and Donald were on the starters platform to count down the race start. With two minutes until start time, the crowd counted down the start for the wheel chair racers. It was awesome, the enthusiasm for the wheel chair athletes. In honor of the fifteenth anniversary, Mickey and crew counted down from the fifteen seconds. With a boom, the fireworks went off in front and in back of us, and the race started.
I'm going to pat myself on the back for this one. What I can't do for myself, evidently I CAN do for others. My pace was almost perfect for the first 16 miles. We started out along the highway between Epcot and our hotel. The first two to three miles was a big loop. We spent a lot of time trying to find some space and dodging the walkers. Of course, we were doing the run walk thing too. We weren't complaining. Just trying to find space when we wanted to run.
Starting out, we ran around the front of Epcot and entered the park by the big Silver Ball. As we headed around the lake, Dee Dee and I decided to take advantage of one of the bathrooms about a hundred yards off the route and stopped for our first bathroom break. I think we were at mile 3 at this point, because I noticed on my Garmin that our average pace had climbed to 14:28 by the time we started running again. I told Dee Dee not to worry about it. We would make up the time gradually, and not all in one mile. We exited out at the back of the park and found ourselves running down the same road we walked to the starting line. Sure enough, we were back on the highway again, following the same route.
This time, instead of getting off at the underpass, we headed down the road past mile 5 and began the portion of the run that took us to the Magic Kingdom. I really enjoyed this part of the run. By now, the sun had come up, and I got to see a lot more of Disney than I did riding the monorail as a child.
Dee Dee and I were making good time. We still had to struggle some to find room to run, our average pace began to decline and dip. When we ran past the contemporary resort and into the Magic Kingdom, it settled in at 14:08 per mile, the lowest point that it would get. I thoroughly enjoyed running through the Magic Kingdom. It was my favorite part of the race. There were plenty of characters out and about. Dee Dee and I ran through Cinderella's castle together, and we even paused to have our picture taken by the race photog. Running through Wilderness area where they have the Country Bear jamboree brought back such great memories of why I loved the place. We exited the park out through the back lot area. They had one more set of characters there, sitting on a ship. It was the Pirates of the Caribbean. That was cool too.
Once we exited the back lot of Disney at mile 11, things kind of got stale. We ran along a wooded road, without much to see or do. They had put up motivational signs by Sharpie, and there was music along the way. My favorite quote was, "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you!" We danced and pranced a bit and got funky with it. At long last, we hit mile 13.1. Half the marathon was over.
I can't say enough about how well Dee Dee had been holding up. The difference between this race, Atlanta, and ING was amazing. She wasn't complaining about anything. She was having fun. You could see she was zoning in on what she had to do. I explained to her at this point that we would have to repeat the same level of effort to come in around 6:30:00. We had basically banked about twenty minutes ahead of the bus. She acknowledged me, and we kept on trucking.
Miles 14, 15, and 16 were dull and boring until we hit the Animal Kingdom. They had characters and live animals out to greet us there too, and that was just awesome. The public had started to visit the park now, and we found ourselves running through the park along with the paying customers. After running through the Animal Kingdom, the sun came out and it started to get warm real fast. At this point, I still felt really good. I had been drinking two cups of something at every water stop, and I had already had to stop and pee like four times (TMI!!). Dee Dee had eaten all of her Cliff Shot blocks, and I was right there along with her with my C