Who woulda thunk it?
Not even a year into this "triathlon thing", I 'finally' broke into the top 10 in my division, really, without even trying (or training)-(that hard)...
Here are the stats...
600 m swim: 8:33 (5/31)
T1: 1:37 (3/31)
16.2 bike: 144:31, avg. 21.8 (8/31)
T2: lumped into bike, I think
3 mi run: 29;35, avg. 9:42 (16/31)-not sure about this, read below...
Total time: 1:24:14 (8/31)
How could I not be happy about this? I broke into the Top 10... And although this was my best race to date, I still have complaints (minor ones, but complaints nonetheless...)
Lemme get my gripes outta the way before I give the race report:
#1: my run is still stupid slow compared to the rest of my splits... it'll come with time and more weight loss, but at this point, it is what it is...
#2: not sure what timing I used vs. what timing Team Magic used, but my Garmin said I ran a 9:30 pace... regardless, this was still close to a PR off the bike
#3: I'm sure happy about my time... no doubt about that... but what bums me out, is that if I would have had the same time last year at this race, I would have been 3rd in the clyde division... which leads me to another gripe, one which I'll probably dedicate an entire entry to, but, if you're 201 lbs, or just a tall, but lean guy, fucking race your Age Group and leave us fatties to compete against eachother.... I'll have much more to say about this later....
#4: no time on T2... which either means my bike was way faster (which I think it was) or that accounts for the additional time on my run... who knows...
Ok, on to the race report...
Friday, load up with Alex, J, the Tippey sisters, and a new team member Scott and head to Guntersville... In all honesty, I didn't feel like racing... at all... I had spent the week prior at home in Lafayette, doing a lot of nothing... I swam once, rode once, ran nonce... I was in full decompression mode after the summer semester and couldn't really snap "out of" it, and "back into" training and racing mode... Looking back though, I guess it served me well'ish to be well rested before ML...
Head up to G-ville Friday, and I ride with Alex... this dude is hilarious... reminds me of my college friend Ben waaaay too much... (it's a good thing though)... Alex's Dad had free Mariott points, so after packet pickup and dinner with the B'ham crew, we had to head back to Gadsden, which was about 30 mins from the race site... Considering that a) it was a Mariott and b) it was free, and c) i wasn't driving-i wasn't complaining...
4:00 am wake up call comes early... on the road back to G-ville by 5, setting up Transition by 5:45... I managed to run into my friend Mary Stephens again, which was cool... She and I are friends from college who (literally) ran into eachother during the run at Heart O'Dixie... Didn't get to talk to her much (in fact, not much more than, "Hey, are you ready? Great, see ya later and good luck")... anyway
Kendrick made it to G-ville (his hometown) super late Friday night, so Saturday was the first time we ran into eachother... He asked if I was ready, if I felt strong, and if I was ready to have fun... I lied and told him yes to all three... the truth was, I was tired... just worn down tired... the kind of tired where you ask yourself, "why am I tired, I haven't done anything lately!"... regardless, I was body marked and the bike was racked, so I guess I didn't have much of a choice, I was going to do this race....
Headed to the lake to check out the swim course, and just from eyeing it, it looked short (and clearly was--there was no way I took off over 2 mins from my Sunfish swim time of the same distance.. plus, last year's swim times were 2 and 3 minutes longer... so, whatever)... hop in the lake, swim a bit, and realize that yep, I'm still tired... "Ok", I told myself, "Just get through this race, hour and a half tops, then you can be tired all you want... but let's focus"...
In an interesting twist, Mom told me the week prior that my great Uncle Joe (or someone like that) helped build Lake Guntersville way back in the day... he rode a mule from Albertville everyday... great, thanks Mom... :)
Ok, I'm #215... here we go...
Swim: Like I mentioned, the swim seemed short, and it clearly was... I felt like my sighting was a bit better this race.... I also felt like I was swimming faster, and more comfortably than any other race... who knows, it could have all been in my head... the water was super shallow in the lake, so much so, that you probably could have walked most of the course (and which Kendrick told me he did years ago)... There were a few times where my hands actually hit the bottom of the lake while pulling on the stroke... weird... Overall, managed to swim well and felt good about it... Time: 8:33
T1: T1 was about a 50 yd run (maybe more, maybe less) from the lake, up a minor hill, and down a narrow sidewalk to the bike racks... I had practiced the swim exit to my bike once, so I felt good about where I needed to go... Threw on the helmet and sunglasses and grabbed the bike... All racers, to make it fair I suppose, had to run their bikes allllll the way around Transition to the bike out... I guess that was ok, since everyone's T times were similar...
And then, it happened...
I had told myself that since this was a much bigger race that I was used to (probably 800-900) that I was going to run my bike way past the mount line because normally, people stop right after the mount line and it becomes a complete disaster... So, I do just that... run my bike well past the mount line and hop on the saddle... Succesful flying mount, which was good since I hadn't practiced them or done one since Heart O' Dixie... feel ok, look down to put my feet on top of my shoes...
Hit. The. Shoulder. Of. Gravel.
Over. Correct.
Fall.
How embarassing :(
I couldn't do anything but laugh really... just my luck, I have a great swim, great T1, perfect flying mount, then do something dumb like not pay attention to where my bike is drifting... I actually got up and started laughing and told the like, 9 paramedics that rushed over, "Well it wouldn't be a race if I didn't do something dumb"... Later, after the race, when I told everyone about this, I told them, "I'd almost rather crash than just topple over"... So, for next race, we need to figure out a better method of flying mounts, i.e., not fucking falling over...
Time: 1:37
Bike: Kendrick had told me that the bike was super fast... and it was... but my legs weren't... I am still learning how not to empty the tank on the first 10 miles of the bike... and I'm learning the hard way... 16.2 mile bike and I felt SOLID until mile 12 or 13, where it was real "work" to keep my legs moving... I was tired... I hadn't ridden since Wednesday of that week, and even that wasn't much to brag about (in a funny twist, I had the same experience on that ride as I did at the race--went out too hard)
I felt really good on the bike though, regardless of my mishap coming out of T1... I passed a lot of people, and very few people passed me... the ones that did didnt just "pass" me, they blew by me (and everyone in front of me) so I felt ok about that... my bike computer said my average was 22.6 (checked it after the race), which was a half mile faster than Heart O' Dixie and which I was REALLY happy about... but alas, the results say what the results say and my average was 21.8, .3 slower than HoD... but, considering my lack of training the week prior, I was satisfied with my bike...
Time: 44:31, avg 21.8
T2: who knows about this... I could have sworn I passed over a mat when coming into T2, but Kendrick says he can't remember one... maybe we went across the bike out mat and T2 was lumped into the bike.. no clue... overall, the new K-Swiss shoes I have are a half size bigger than what I had before (not sure why I bought them that big) so I felt clumsy trying to get them on... I also think that my love affair with that model might be coming to an end... I don't feel like it's the best shoe for me right now (or ever again)... I'll finish out this season with them then look into perhaps a more "running" running shoe than a tri specific one...
Run: the bane of my existence at every race... the course was an out and back, totally shaded, and totally flat... but of course, that never means shit to me because I'm not a strong runner... But I tried to run strong this race, and felt like I was doing ok... midway through though, I thought "Man, if I plan to do a 70.3, I've got a loooooong way to go on the run... need a lot of work!"... But, it was cool to see all of my friends coming in as I was going out... Alex, Kendrick, Chad, J, Sara... giving high fives and words of encouragement the whole way was nice, and i really needed them...
I felt pretty much like garbage the entire run... still amazed that I pulled off the time(s) that I did... My Garmin was telling me that I was jumping all over the place, from sub 9 minutes, to over 10... had a malfunction with the race belt that brought me to walking for a few seconds, at which point, the voice in my head said, "Keep fucking running, it's a race belt, who fucking cares if your number falls off, keep moving"... good thing I listened to myself
Time: 29:35, avg. 9:42
Total Time: 1:24:14
Place: 8/31
Who would have ever thought I would be where I am now with this "triathlon thing"... Just to give you a proper perspective, 10 months ago at my first triathlon, my time was 1:45:57... 10 months later, my time on the same distances stands at 1:24:14... although some might argue it's not fair to compare times from different races because of the courses, this just gives you an idea of where I've come from....
This year, at Mighty Magnolia (Eagleman's new name), I want to place...
in the top 3...
Time to get to work...
Thanks for reading
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