Lake Norman Y Sprint Tri 9/26/2017 -- Race Report

This was my second year racing in this event, although the course this the is totally new with the race having moved from the Lake Norman Y to the Ingersoll Rand business park. This was my “A” racethis year as it was my only race this year.  Recovery from IRONMAN70.3NC took quite a bit longer than I anticipated, so training this year has been somewhat erratic.  That said, the 7 weeks or so before this race has been very consistent and my new nutrition regime has been on track so I was curious to see what would happen on race day. 

Pre-race:

I got up at 4 am and had some Kind granola and whole milk.  I took a banana in the car but did not feel hungry enough to eat it. Erika’s husband Michael Ferraco wanted to do this race with me.  He had done one other triathlon a few years back and now does Spartan races and running events so he is a pretty capable athlete.  This meant the Erika and their 16 year-old son Zach were a built-in cheering section.  I picked up the Ferracos and we got to the race site at 6 am and waited in a fairly long line for packet and timing chip pick-up and then set up transition.  Porta-potty lines, like the other lines on race morning were way too long so we didn't have time for that.  Jones Racing needs a lot more volunteers at check in and more porte-potties for the size of the race (over 400 through online registration plus whoever registered race day).  

Racing makes me thirsty.

Swim — 750m — 23:55 (2:38/100yd)

The lake water was a lot cooler than feared, so the swim was actually quite comfortable. I felt strong on the swim at my pace but I was unable to go faster and I got passed by swimmers in the next two waves.  I am hoping that as I continue to lose weight I will become more hydrodynamic. 

T1 — 5:23

T1 involved a quarter-mile run from swim exit to transition, hence the time.  Lucy passed me on the run up from the lake.  She said hi on her way to first overall female.

Bike — 12.5 miles — 58:02 (13.13 mph)

Although 5 miles shorter than last year’s course, the new course seems to have kept all the hills (653 ft climbing in 12.5 miles).  The only race nutrition I used was 200 calories of Tailwind caffeinated in my water bottle on the bike.  This felt more than sufficient for the distance.  

Lots of climbs, some with fairly steep grades, so there were lots of battles against gravity with the climbing.  Avg cadence was only 64.  First 5 miles were slow going at 12.7 mph and 276 ft climbing.  Speeded up in second 5 mile split at 14.3 mph with 230 ft climbing. The last 2.5 miles was derailed with a random crash at the end.  My chain come off the big ring so all of the sudden I went down hard on my left side.  I remember the side of my helmet hitting the pavement and my left hip.  Erika was there as it was very close to the bike finish so they helped me up and helped me get my chain back on.  Gravity strikes again, and this time it’s playing hardball.  I soft pedaled the 30 seconds or so back to the dismount line and took stock in T2.  

T2 — 3:57

After I changed into running shoes, I took the bottle of water I keep in transition and rinsed off the road rash from the crash.  All things considered, it could have been worse, as my left hip took most of the impact and my tri shorts protected it and did not rip.  Thanks Zoot!

Run — 5km — 40:35 (13:02 pace but since run was actually 3.24 miles, 12:32 pace)

The run was tough.  The road rash on my elbow and knee didn’t hurt all that much but my left hip felt pretty sore from the crash at the end of the bike.  It was one additional issue that I really didn’t need.  The first mile of the run was tough but in mile 2, the pain seemed to subside a bit but there were then some steep little climbs to get to the turn-around.  I walked the hills and walked the water station, making the second mile the slowest. My heart rate was pretty steady around 150 bpm so I think the walking was more for the soreness than my hr. After the turn-around, I picked it up a bit but got misdirected and missed a path, which seemed to add about a tenth of a mile.  Splits were 12:08, 13:24 and 12:19 with an 11:38 pace for the last quarter-mile. 

Total time was 2:11:52

Overall, it felt good to race again and I am glad I did a race this year.  I was a bit slower on the bike and the run than last year but I weigh about 5-8 pounds more than at this time last year and am not nearly as trained. Also the crash at the end of the bike probably affected my run somewhat so I think it was a good effort and good experience.

IRONMAN 70.3 North Carolina 10/22/2016-- Race Report

Here is the race report for my first 70.3.  Ten months of training and, according to Training Peaks more than 1700 miles biking, 400 miles running and 65 miles swimming since January 1, and 18 months since that day in May 2015 that I finally decided not to die of "lifestyle" choices.  Now I had one long race to cap it off and prove to myself that I could do what I had never considered possible for me.

PRE-RACE

Since I was going to be doing this race with Jeff (or, more accurately, considerably behind Jeff), I thought we would be better off renting a house for the weekend instead of getting hotel rooms.  So I got a house on vrbo.com that was right near the swim start, for pretty close to the price of multiple hotel rooms.  Turns out the house was literally right behind the swim start for the 70.3 course!  I got up Thursday and went through athlete check-in at the Wilmington Convention Center.  Check-in was intimidating.  This was no local sprint or international distance race.  There were many stages to check-in, gear bags for the bike and the run and a morning clothes bag, and a huge expo and race briefing, which I attended.  I went home after blowing quite a bit of money on IRONMAN branded gear and I set up my gear bags and morning clothes bag.  

Jeff arrived late Thursday night, so on Friday morning, we got up around 8 a.m. and did a quick 20 minute swim in the channel, across the current and a 20 minute bike.  The current was so strong that it pushed us right into the pier.  That would be interesting on race morning.  Someone told us the current at 9 a.m. moves at 6 mph!  

We then changed and went back to the Convention Center so Jeff could do his check-in and I could spend more money on IRONMAN branded gear while Jeff went through the athlete check in process.  In the interest of full disclosure, I initially shoplifted the IRONMAN branded gear, as I got distracted by all the booths and forgot to pay.  But after we checked in our run gear bags in T2 behind the Convention Center, I went back and paid.  It's poor form for lawyers to shoplift.  Then we swung by T1 at the Wrightsville Beach park and checked in our bike gear bags.  I set up nutrition on my bike.   I was now ready to race!

Friday night we went to a nice steakhouse and had a high protein and carb dinner.  Later that night, my family and my friend Amy arrived and, after we calmed down my 8-year old, it was off to bed.

RACE MORNING

I got up around 6 am and had a breakfast of Kind Granola, milk and a banana. Tania tried to drive us to T1 to put our water bottles on our bike but due to the roads already being closed, we had to walk 7/10 of a mile and then walk back to the swim start, where we had planned to change out of our morning clothes and into our wetsuits.  But when we got the swim start, we realized it was right behind the rental house.  In fact, the guy with the bullhorn making announcements woke up Amy, whose room was in the back!   We realized that instead of changing in the parking lot and using the porta-potties, we could just walk 30 seconds to the house and change there and use the bathrooms.  It was the most relaxed race morning you could imagine.  We went back to the house, used the bathrooms like civilized people and changed into our wetsuits.  Verrah nice.

Tania, the kids and Amy joined us in the swim start parking lot and we had time for pictures and chatting before it was time to go into the starting corrals for our 9:02 a.m. swim wave start.  I had a stinger waffle about 20 minutes before the swim start.  They moved us through the corrals and into the water about waist-deep and then it was just a short wait for the air horn.

SWIM (1.2 MILES): 41:40 (2:09/100m)

The current was indeed strong and I finished the 1900m swim in less time than my last 1500m lake swim in an international.  Still, I felt it was a challenging swim.  I had not done any swim training in the ocean and the salt water environment definitely felt a lot different than lakes.  The swim was in a protected channel so there were no big breakers but it doesn't take much of a wave to slap you in the face repeatedly.  I remembered what a friend told me about ocean swimming: don't fight the waves, body surf the waves.  So I did, and I was able to breathe smoothly in the hollow of my arm and I did NOT end up swallowing a lot of salt water (as feared).  I am not a fast swimmer but I did feel well-trained for the swim from the hours in the pool and in Lake Norman and I swam over plenty of people who were doing recovery breast-stroke or treading water to rest.  I even saw one guy clinging to a buoy.  I just tried to stay smooth in the water, hug the buoys to my left and follow them to the finish.  Finally, I was able to see the volunteers waving frantically on the pier at the swim exit and I swam to the nearest ladder and got out. I really liked having wetsuit strippers at a race!  A volunteer asked me if I wanted to sit, so I sat on a mat and she ripped that wetsuit right off of me: another nice feature about an IRONMAN 70.3 distance race.  I was pretty happy with a sub 42-minute swim, and started the long run to transition.

T1: 11:26

This was a long and complicated transition.  It was at least a quarter mile run across and down the street to the transition entrance.  Once there I had to find my bike gear bag, which was actually easy to find as the bags were all in order of bib number and surprisingly did not get mixed up in the chaos of transition.  I ran with my bag to the change tent and enjoyed the first seated clothing change in my short triathlon career.  I have never had a change tent before.  I put my swim stuff on the chair to my right, my bike gear bag on the chair to my left and put on my socks, shoes (with toe covers already installed) and bike jersey.  It didn't feel cold enough for arm-warmers, leg-warmers or full-fingered gloves, so I left those in the bag.  I put on my regular cycling gloves, sunglasses and helmet and put my wetsuit, goggles and swim cap in the gear bag and tossed it to a volunteer in the tent and ran to get my bike.  My bike was all the way at the end of the last row, which made it easy to find.  then another run, with my bike, down transition and out onto the road by the mount line.  It was a long transition with a lot to do and a long way to run!

BIKE (56 MILES):  4:01:22 (13.92 mph)

If I could use only one word to describe the bike course, I would say "windy".  If I could use two words to describe the bike course, I would say "very windy".  If I could use three words to describe the bike course, I would still say "very windy" but add an expletive in the middle.  And it was easily more than 65% headwind.  The ride out of town was tough. The ride on Hwy 17 and I-140 was tough.  I got yelled at by a few motorists who were stuck in traffic at a dead stop while the police let the cyclists through onto the turn off.  That was fun.  Also, despite the billing as a pancake flat course, there was about 1,200 feet of climbing, which was not awful but I didn't see anyone making pancakes out there either.  There was one bridge that was a pretty steep climb.  One guy who passed me on the bridge said "flat course, eh?"

But then when we turned on to Hwy 421 eastbound, we had a delightful tailwind.  For 4 miles.  Then I saw the turn-around cone and thought "uh-oh".  The ride westbound on 421 was not delightful.  I saw speeds so slow, I though I was back in June 2015 when I could only bike 20 miles with copious breaks.  And I was pedaling my butt off.  I finally remembered what my friend Steve told me on one long ride in hilly Union County ... keep a high cadence and a low gear and spare your legs.  So I did, but I was getting nervous about how slow I was going.  My goal of finishing the bike in 3:40 was quickly disappearing into the (head)-wind but there was nothing I could do.  I was still pretty sure I could hit a 4 hour time for the bike if I could really boot it with the tail-wind but I had no idea how fast that tailwind could take me.  I saw Jeff somewhere around mile 25 and he was already on the other side of the highway heading back in. Good for him, I knew he was crushing the bike and would have a great time!

One thing that went perfectly on the bike was nutrition.  I had 500 calories of Tailwind in my bottles, all of which I finished and 3 stinger waffles and 4 Huma gels, which I alternated every 7-8 miles.  Right after the half-way point, I stopped at the first water stop and took 30 seconds to refill my water bottles.  I had more Tailwind in my pockets but felt I had enough calories with the stingers and gels for the last 20 miles of the bike.  Once again, the volunteers were amazing and both my bottles were filled in no time.  The volunteer said the turn-around is only 3-4 miles down the road and then I would get the tailwind.  Well, the turn around was about another 7-8 miles down the road and I was getting really annoyed.  Where is that turn-around?  I demand it NOW!  Well, demanding that the race gods produce a turn cone didn't seem to work so it was a tough slog through the next miles until FINALLY I saw the cones funneling us into the turn.  I have never been more happy and relieved to do a 180 in my life.
As frustrating as all the headwinds were, the tailwind was just as ridiculous, but now in my favor.  I skipped the next bottle stop and I had 14 miles of straight cycling with a heavy wind at my back and I was hitting speeds on the bike that I do not possess in these legs.  At one point I was on a false flat downhill in my biggest gear going 24 mph at MAYBE a 50% effort.  I was climbing at 18 mph and hitting 20-22 mph on flats.  I felt that the 5-mile splits per my Garmin were good enough to get me in at pretty close to 4 hours.  When I came to the turn off from hwy 17 to 74 and across the Cape Fear River I knew it would be close.  I rolled in to T2 behind the Convention Center in just over 4 hours, which was well within the cutoff time and would give me 3.5 hours to complete the run.  I was relieved.  The bike cutoff was 2:36 p.m. and I rolled into T2 at 1:56 p.m. The tailwind did its job.

As frustrating as the headwind was, I was happy with how I managed it once I remembered to just treat the wind like a hill and use small gears and high cadence to spin through them.  I was grateful for all the rollers in western Union County, where I did most of my long rides, as the hill training definitely helped with riding into the wind.  But all the same, I had to burn a lot of matches on the bike and that would cost me a lot on the run.

Now THAT'S a transition area.

T2: 8:08

A huge race means yet another huge transition area.  The start of transition was great.  I didn't even have to rack my bike.  A volunteer grabbed it from me and ran off, while another volunteer shouted out my bib number from my helmet sticker, while yet another volunteer grabbed my run gear back and tossed it to me as I ran into the change tent.  I stripped off my bike jersey and shoes and put on my t-shirt, visor, running shoes and race belt.  I had a handheld water bottle that I had filled with 200 calories of Tailwind powder and I filled it with water at the exit to the change tent.  Then it was another long run through transition just to get to the official race course start.  The official start was not well marked so I ended up starting my Garmin on run about 0.2 miles too soon, an issue that would psychologically plague me for the entire run.

RUN (13.1 MILES): 3:12:01 (14:39 mins/mile)

The run was tough.  I knew that the run would be tough.  My longest run in training was 10.1 miles and it didn't come at the end of a 56 mile bike.  So it was not a surprise that the run would be tough.  But I was, indeed, surprised by how tough the run was.  A half-marathon is no joke and the wind on the bike course took it out of my legs before I even started mile 1 of the run.  Fortunately, after 4 hours on the bike. I was so relieved to be standing up again, I was in a good frame of mind to start the run and was hoping for a solid 2:45 - 3 hour half marathon.

My lower back was pretty sore for the first two miles, but after that it calmed down a bit so I was able to focus more on the soreness in my legs.  Then, the soreness in my feet grabbed most of the attention and the run turned into a contest about which part of my body would whine the most.  (Spoiler alert: my legs won!)

The first 2 miles were on the boardwalk to Front St. and then up Front St. in downtown Wilmington.  The crowds were great, I was off my bike and I was running... slowly, but still running.  The aid stations were spaced about a mile apart and the plan was to run from aid station to aid station and take time to fuel and hydrate.  I did stick to that plan but my running was much slower than I had anticipated and hoped for.  So I settled in for a long half-marathon.

The good news is that the aid stations were amazing.  They were all organized the same way: water/ice, gatorade endurance, coke, snacks (chips, pretzels, bananas, oranges, grapes), coke, gatorade endurance, water/ice.  At first, I stuck with water, Tailwind from my handheld bottle and the 4 huma gels that I had with me.  

Mile 3 was a stretch through an industrial area to the park around Greenfield Lake and then miles 4 through 6.5 were in the park around the lake, and then miles 6.5 to 10 were back around the lake and out.  Jeff saw me around mile 3, when he was on the other side of the cones heading back in.  By the time it registered though, we had already run away from each other, going in our opposite directions. The park was flat, warm (but not hot) and long.  the miles were slow here and I started to take in solid food and coke at the aid stations.  The coke was great, went straight to my head (as hoped), and the pretzels and chips were easy carbs and also good and salty to replace the salt I was sweating out.  When I passed the 6-hour mark for the race I started to feel the overall fatigue but still had just over 2 hours left on the run.  I had to just stay in the moment, and concentrate on getting to each aid station, and that got me through the toughest middle miles (5-10) of the run.  My feet really started to hurt as I had foolishly decided to run in my racing shoes instead of my ultra-cushioned Hokas.  Lesson learned.  Half marathons are no joke.  

By mile 9, I thought if I can only get out of the park and back to the crowds on Front St. I will be okay.  So one mile at a time, one aid station at a time, I made it back out of the park, down the lonely stretch of the industrial area and back to Front Street.  When I passed mile 11, I knew I was going to finish and lost it for a bit.  I skipped the mile 12 aid station and ran down Front St and back to the boardwalk.  Then I saw the finish line but I had to run away from it for a very short stretch to a turn around into the finish chute.  Tania and Amelia saw me and shouted out, and after the turn around I stayed right for the finish line, while people doing the full iron distance would stay left for their second loop of the course.  The runners who could see the finish line but had to head out for loop 2 were some of the most unhappy people I have ever seen.

The finish chute was a bit of a blur.  I high-fived Josh and Tania as I ran by.  Mike Reilly announced my name and said "way to hang in there Aaron and get it done!"  And then I was done.  70.3 miles in 8:14:37 and not dead last in any category.  I was quickly surrounded by volunteers who took my timing chip strap and gave me my finisher's medal and, a trademark of the race since it was Beach 2 Battleship run by SetUp Events, my finisher pajamas!

It was a very long journey to 70.3 and I was happy to be finished and very happy to finally be off the course.

So, so glad to be at the finish!

Couch to 70.3 in 10 months.

White Lake Fall International Tri 9/10/2016 -- Race Report

4:11:53

It was a good race.   The run course was incredibly hot. It must have been almost 90 degrees by 11 am and‎ it just kept getting hotter.    My hr went up to 165 somewhere in mile 2 so I had to walk/run for the rest of the race, keeping. My hr under 160 as much as possible til I passed mile 4. Ran all of mile 4-5 and half of mile 5-6. Bike was good, I had 17-18 mph avg for the first 10 miles but then the wind picked up and that slowed me down from miles 10-20 and then it was a bit of a struggle from miles 20-28.  Ended. Up right at 15 mph average and 1:51. After the first 10 miles I was on pace for 1:38 on the bike. Darn. 

That lake looks pretty empty now.  Once again, just missed first out of the water award.  

Swim was slow, smooth and steady for the 1500m.   Swim "felt" pretty long but I didn't feel tired, just like it was taking forever but I was. Out of the water in 47 minutes.  

Transitions were slow. I took some time to eat a honey stinger waffle and drink a bunch of water in T1 and then in T2 my race belt buckle broke.   Also needed water in T2.  

On the run, I stopped and walked through every aid station and did the Jan Frodeno move of drinking a cup, pouring a cup of ice down my front, a cup down my back and a cup on my head and then drinking again. That helped me run again for a bit but, with no shade, my hr kept escalating quickly. At mile 4 there was an aid station right before the turn-around so I hit that twice and basically took an ice shower and put a cold towel on my neck and under my visor. That helped me run more of the last 2 miles and I averaged 13:17.   Did I mention that the run was hot?

A hot day in White Lake, NC

Lake Norman Y Sprint Tri 8/28/2016 -- Race Report

This was the race that was supposed to be my first ever triathlon in August 2013.  But I pulled my hamstrings three weeks before the race, so missed the race and then took a few rest years before diabetes mandated that I get my butt off the couch for good in May 2015.  Ironically, instead of being my first tri, Lake Norman Y Sprint in 2016 was instead just a training race for IRONMAN 70.3 North Carolina.

This race came in the middle of my last training block for my half-Ironman and I felt pretty sore and tired.  Kelly didn't have a whole lot of rest in this training block as her goal was to progressively overload me until taper in October.  I didn't even do a race report for this one contemporaneously with the race.  I just went, did the race, ate all the food at The Egg in Davidson and then went home to nap.

This race had a super-early start at 6:30 as the increasing traffic on Main Street in Davidson almost killed this even.  Traditionally run by SetUp Events, the Lake Norman Y switched the race to Jones Racing Company for 2016.  Due to the early start, I stayed over at my fried Amy's house, as she lived only a 5 minute drive from the Lake Norman Y.  Although the air mattress accommodations were quire comfortable, the two roaming, nocturnal cats were a little disruptive so I didn't get the best night's sleep.  Sometime in the middle of the night, one of the cats knocked over my bike, which also caused some sleep disruption.  I mention all this because every triathlete needs to have  reliable stock for excuses as to why they didn't perform as well as they thought they should so, for those keeping count,  have two excuses: (1) coach overloaded me, and (2) cats.

The 6:30 start was somewhat poorly conceived.  With such an early start, I arrived around 5:45 a.m. and set up in the dark.  While pre-dawn setups are par for the course in an IRONMAN, they are not always quite as appreciated for a sprint.  Promptly at 6:30 a.m., everyone was ushered to the water to..... wait.  They couldn't dispatch the swim waves until sunrise and sunrise was not until 6:45-ish so me all waited until around 6:50 or so before it was light enough to start the swim in Lake Norman.  It was a wade-out-into-the-water start, and there was a lot of waiting around for a small sprint race.  I had practiced open-water swim in that lake a lot throughout the summer as the Lake Norman Y hosts many supervised open-water swim events from May to August in preparation for this race.  But the light was way different at the break of sunrise than it is at 8 a.m. when the practice OWS starts so everyone's strategy of following the trail of sunlight back into the dock didn't quite work as well as usual.  All the same, it was a good, although warm, non-wetsuit legal 750m swim.

The bike course is a well-known course and I had biked it many times over the past year.  It was a pretty long course for a sprint, at 17.5 miles, with lots of rollers and some pretty steep hills on Faith Road before the turn back to the Y.  Regardless of the early start time, by the time we were heading back on Hwy 115/Main Street into Davidson, the traffic was getting pretty heavy.  I saw Amy at one of the turns into the last mile or so before transition and it was good to see her out on the course.

The run was hot, through the unshaded neighborhood streets behind the Y and I was feeling a weird combination of aerobically fit, hot and really sore from my lower back down to calves.  But the pace I held was pretty good for at that stage of my training, all things considered, and I was happy to have another race done and in the books before my final tune-up race in September at White Lake Fall International.

Not too bad for a slow triathlete 16 months off the couch whose coach was torturing him :)

That sprint tri at the Lake Norman Y was a nice race with a substantial bike course.  It is sad to see it go, but with no ability to mitigate the traffic situation around the Y, there was no choice but to move it a couple of miles north to the Ingersoll Rand business park for 2017.

Downtown Anaheim Marketplace 5k 6/11/2016 -- Race Report

29:53

I started out way too fast (around 7:30 pace) but caught myself quickly and gradually slowed down to a 10 minute pace and then felt that I was able to speed up to about 9:30-9:45 while still staying in the 160 bpm range for an average pace of 9:34 in mile 1.  In mile 2, my hr had gone up to about 165-170 so I slowed a bit to 10 min pace for about 30 seconds to let my hr come down a bit – I had to do this twice but maintained a 9:47 pace for mile 2 and an avg hr of 168.  In mile 3, my avg hr had gone up to 174 and peaked at 184 so I was pretty close to my max towards the end of the race.  With about 0.4 miles left I wasn’t sure whether I could hold on but did with a 9:38 pace in mile 3 and a 7:51 pace for the last tenth-mile, finishing at my max hr at 189.  It was a hard race to be at threshold for the whole 5k but was happy to be able to really race it!  Turns out the endurance training did translate to a faster speed potential over a shorter distance and all the training with a hr monitor taught me how to manage my hr during a short and intense race!

The determined face of a man going sub-30 for the first time in a 5k.

Pinehurst International Triathlon 5/20/2016 -- Race Report

Last in division, last in age group. 

Today was my first international distance triathlon and my second tri (since the Belews Lake International turned into a duathlon). It was another gutsy performance -- in that I finished.  And it was another dead last finish.  The way I look at it, I'm actually getting pretty good at triathlon but only if you measure something other than "speed".  Whenever I get frustrated with how slow I am, I try to remember where I was almost exactly a year ago -- newly diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes and could barely climb a flight of stairs.  A year later, here I am.

Pre-race I had a granola bar, a banana and a handful of raisins. There were two rain showers before the swim start, but no rain at all on the course, which was lucky considering the forecast.

Swim (40:43, 2:15/100 yds).  My biggest improvement was in the swim -- 40 minutes for 1500m and it was a steady and calm, consistent effort.  Good sighting throughout and got to draft off people here and there. 

Another cold, gloomy day.

T1 (5:00). uneventful except for getting the wetsuit off, which I haven't really practiced, and putting on socks, which I don't usually do but have some lingering blisters on my heels.  

Bike (2:19:44, 12.7 mph) The bike course was hard -- lots of hills, much like Charlotte, and until I lose the weight built up in my sedentary years, gravity will not be my friend.   Just as I was thinking how uneventful the bike was, my wheel got stuck in a rut in the side of the road and I went down.  Fortunately, as I was climbing, I was barely moving so I didn't get hurt but my chain slipped down and got stuck badly between the bottom bracket and the cranks, which cost a few minutes and clean fingers.  And then when I got back to transition I forgot to dismount before the line so in a panic I rushed to get off my bike and forgot to unclip.  Helpful tip: always unclip before trying to dismount.  You heard it here first.  To sum up, hills don't like me. Nutrition on the bike was efficient and effective. In my water bottles I had 250 cals of reg Tailwind and 250 cals of caffeinated Tailwind. I had a stinger waffle at the start of the bike and 3 Huma gels and 1 stinger waffle every 7-8 miles of the bike. About 1100 cals. 

Everything but the kitchen sink.

T2 (1:57). Uneventful. Bike to run is pretty quick. 

Run (1:23:13, 13:11 pace).  The run course was, not to put too fine a point on it, ridiculous.  Hill after hill after hill.  I spent the entire run with lots of leg soreness watching the tenths of miles slowly tick by.  There was lots of walking up the steeper hills and through the water stations as I just struggled to get to each mile marker. ‎ I had water at each water stop and doused myself to cool down. I had a Huma gel at mile 3. 

A hilly, hilly run.

Belews Lake International Triathlon 4/9/2016 -- Race Report

PRE-RACE

Well, the first triathlon of the season did not proceed as expected.  The weather forecast for Saturday was a low of 27 and a high of 52.  The week of the race, the race organizers announced a duathlon option consisting of a 5k run/27 mile bike/ 5k run.  I opted to stick with the triathlon format using a sleeveless wetsuit, as that is what I trained for.  I planned to change in the warming tent for T1 into full winter biking gear.

For breakfast I had an apple, a banana and a Pro Bar Peanut butter and chocolate flavor (430 cals, 10g protein).  At 7:30 a.m. on race day, the air temperature was 41 and water temp was reported to be 60.  However, the extremely high winds created a lot of chop on the lake and the race organizers were unable to properly deploy the watercraft so the swim was canceled about 20 minutes before the start and about 2 minutes after I got my wetsuit on.  The duathlon format was mandatory.  Having the benefit of ignorance as to how much harder duathlons are than triathlons, I blithely changed into running gear and lined up for the time trial style run start.

No swimming today.

RUN #1 (5k) -- 34:17, Rank 214/220, pace 10:37 min/mi (course was 3.2 miles per my Garmin)

The first run was pretty uneventful.  I was a little nervous as, due to travel and my knee injury, I hadn’t run since March 17!  Due to the cold morning temperatures, I wore my tri shorts, a long sleeve shirt and a running jacket.  I had a stinger waffle before the run.  I was able to maintain a steady sub-11 min/mile pace, keeping my hr between 147 and 167, depending on hills.  Splits were: 10:48 / 10:25 / 10:49 and 9:36 for the last 2/10 mile.  Elev gain was 223 feet.  When I got to T1 though, my legs definitely felt the effort expended on the run.

T1 – 8:48

Due to the unseasonable cold and high winds, I took time in transition to put on leg-warmers, shoe covers, which were tight and hard to zip up in the back, a ss cycling jersey over my long sleeve running shirt, a cycling jacket, gloves and a Gore beanie.  This all took a lot of time, especially the stupid shoe covers.

BIKE (27 miles) – 2:09:27, Rank 209/220, avg speed 12.6 mph

The bike was hard.  The course was extremely windy and there was 1,079 feet of climbing.  I have never gone for a 5k run before biking and my legs felt tired from mile 1.  Every time I felt like I was cruising at a decent speed, I hit a hill or wind or both.  I got passed so much that for a time I considered legally changing my name to “On Your Left”.  The bike course was two loops and towards the end of the first loop, many people shouted encouragement to me as they were passing me that I was “almost at the end”.  They did not realize that while they were almost at the end of loop 2, I was still only on loop 1.  While I was working at controlling my bike in the wind with 34mm rims and dressed like I was about to scale K2, some guy passed me with a rear disk wheel wearing nothing but a tri-suit.  At some point, around mile 21 I think, I heard an ambulance pull up behind me.  I moved over to the right to let it pass.  When it never passed me, I realized that it was sweeping and I was definitely the last one on the bike course.  This was, however, not a big surprise.  There was a big hill before the final turn, and after I climbed that hill the second time I was indeed almost done.  I saw my wife and my kids sitting on the grass a I biked in towards transition and they saw me and waved.  That was nice.  I turned in to transition and dismounted before the dismount line.  2 legs down, 1 to go.  I did stick to my nutrition plan on the bike.  I had 400 calories total of Tailwind in two water bottles and finished over 1.5 bottles, a stinger waffle in mile 1 (160 cals) and then a Huma gel every 9 miles (3x100 cals each).

T2 – 4:20

Apparently, taking everything off was a lot easier than putting it all on.  I also saved time by not taking off my helmet.  The kind people at Jones Racing Company noticed this before I left transition and offered to take it from me and bring it back to my bike.

RUN #2 (5k) – 41:32, Rank 207/220, pace 12:58 min/mi.

I ran in my tri-shorts and long sleeve shirt and gloves and kept my short sleeve bike jersey on as wind vest instead of putting on a jacket.  I waved at my family as I ran back out onto the course.  My legs and lower back hurt on this run. Quite a lot.  I knew that I could run the whole course and that I wouldn’t have to stop or walk, but that I wouldn’t be able to match my pace from run #1.  I just kept moving forward and didn’t look at my watch once the whole run, as there wasn’t all that much I would have been able to do with the information.  I knew I was running slow and that I couldn’t run faster, so I just kept a steady pace and kept on putting one foot in front of the other.  Apparently, if you keep moving, you do get to the finish chute eventually.  The run seemed to take forever.  After I got to the turn-around I didn’t see anyone else on the run course for the last half of the run.  When I ran back on to the road for the last half-mile, my friend Amy was driving in as she arrived just in time to see me finish. She offered me a lift and I accepted, but she pulled away before I could climb through the open window of her car so I had no choice but to run to the finish.  I was really, really happy to see the finish chute.  I got an enormous cheer from everyone waiting at the finish to see the last finisher and that felt nice.  Everyone at the race was very nice and supportive.  It felt very good to stop.

My first triathlon hardware.

TOTAL TIME: 3:38:23, Rank 5/5 novice masters male, 212/212 overall for finishers.  4 people DNFd after run #1 and 4 more people DNF’d on or after the bike.  I feel proud to have finished it and feel that I have come a long way since this time last year.