Penn Trafford Recreation Commission Triathlon

Race: sprint triathlon
Date: 15 June 2013
Location: Penn Township, PA
Time: 1:08:51.2
Overall Rank: 123 out of 202
Age Group Rank: 4 out of 13
Results: http://smileymiles.com/2013/RES13%20PENN%20TRAFFORD%20TRIATHLON.htm

PTARC Sprint Triathlon 2013.
Yesterday's triathlon was my 6th solo race in my triathlon "career." Back in 2011, this PTARC triathlon was my first. So now I can compare the two races to gauge my improvement in the last two years. The event included a swim of 200 yards in a pool followed by an 11-mile bike ride followed by a 5K run. Yesterday I finished in 1:08:51.2 which was 10:27 faster than I did in 2011 (a 15% improvement). Yesterday I came in 4th out of 13 in my age group; in 2011, I was 13 out of 13.

Swimming:
Dan and I shared a lane for the event. He quickly passed me but I stayed fairly close behind him the whole time. I am not used to sharing a lane with anyone so I find it distracting. I am thinking more about my position in the lane than about the quality or speed of my swim stroke. A separate issue is the flip-turn. I don't have a lot of control about where I end up in the lane after a flip-turn, so instead of fishtailing around in the lane behind Dan I just did open turns. I didn't feel good about the swim.

T1 transition went really smooth. I wasn't cold, either, which was a big concern given the temp was in the 50s.

Cycling:
Dan was coasting down the first hill so I passed him almost immediately. He told me later he was unsure about the upcoming intersection and whether the policeman there was saying "stop" or "go." Dan trailed me the whole rest of the bike race. I hardly ever looked back to see where he was, but I knew he was always close. I think I managed my energy really well, as I maintained a quick pace but didn’t burn out too early. There were only two spots in the latter half of the bike course where I coasted for a few seconds in order to rest my legs. My average speed on the course in 2011 was 14.9 mph. In 2013, my average speed was 18.2 mph. Of course, I have a faster bike now than in 2011 but my body is faster, too!

The bike segment was fun because I like to bicycle and I find the course scenic and interesting. One thing that was hard this year was the fact that riders were so spaced out, I had no one in view ahead of me for most of the ride. I had to rely on my internal motivation to keep going fast, rather than push hard due to a competitive wish to beat the person in front of me. Dan was close behind me somewhere, but having a competitor behind you isn’t as motivating as having a competitor in front of you.

I’m trying to resist comparing Dan to a persistent disease that won’t go away—there was always the risk that I would have to “deal” with him again!

Dan finished his ride only seconds behind me. This is significant because it turns out that about 2/3rds into the bike segment, I passed a woman on a mild uphill section of the road. Her steering was shaky, as it gets when you are riding very slow and having trouble maintaining balance. I called ahead and let her know I was about to pass her on the left. I think she was wearing headphones though, so it may be that she never heard me. I gave her about 6 feet of buffer as I passed. I never thought twice about passing her until at the T2 transition, Dan caught up with me and said “that woman you passed? Yeah, she crashed. I stopped to make sure she was OK.” (Her injuries were superficial and she told Dan to go on)

I wondered for the rest of the race whether I had done something wrong. Dan tells me I did not cause her accident. Apparently she lost control after I passed her but not IMMEDIATELY after I passed her. My compliments to Dan for stopping to help. My compliments to him also for catching up to me so fast afterward. He really had to work hard to make up the lost ground. Would he catch me in the run segment?

Running segment:
After the swim and the bike ride, I now had a 5K run. My T2 transition went smoothly, though I look forward to changing my laces to the elastic kind, which will save a few seconds of shoe-tying. I grabbed a GU for a bit of fuel and consumed this slowly during the first mile. I don’t know whether it is a psychological or physiological thing, but in the past this has boosted my energy level and today’s race was no exception. Overall, I ran at an 8:20 min/mile pace and finished this segment in 25:50.2. The race course in 2011 was quite different (easier, in fact), so I can’t compare my times. But looking at my five previous triathlons, this was the fastest pace I have ever run.

I did have to walk a few steps in the first half mile because my calf muscles were cramping. This has been a chronic issue, but not recently. I’ll have to work on that.

So where was Dan? He usually beats me in a run. The cross-country running course double backed on itself in several places, so I could see Dan was just a few seconds behind me throughout the race. He’d catch up at some point, but when? I wanted to stop. I was tired of running and the course wasn’t much fun because it was just looping around ball fields in unmown grass. There was a place where a volunteer called out “almost to Mile 2!” and I thought “darn! I thought Mile 2 was a long time ago.” Eventually the course took us down to the high school track for one quarter-mile circuit. Surely this is where Dan would catch me. I ran in the second lane from the inside, giving him (or anyone else) room to pass. But no one did. Finally, Dan started to make his move. I heard him get closer. I stepped up my speed. Then in the last curve of the track he started to sprint. But since I anticipated that he would do that, I started sprinting as soon as I heard the change in his cadence. It was a stroke of good luck that I was in the second lane from the inside of the track. Dan was attempting to pass me on my left. But as we neared the finish line we saw that the chute that you run through was on the right side of the track! I headed right for it with Dan basically at my left elbow. But there was only space for one to go into the chute and I hit it first. I was actually surprised to see the final race results that put Dan 1.2 seconds behind me. It seemed that he was just a fraction of a second behind me.

Given that he had to stop to assist a cyclist who crashed behind me on the bike course, Dan deserves the 4th place age group finish that I received. But life isn’t fair sometimes, and his loss to me by 1.2 seconds is insignificant enough that I view it as a tie. I will only brag in jest that I beat him.

MS150: Escape to the Lake

Event: Bike MS
Date: June 8-9, 2013
Location: Bike ride from Harmony, Pennsylvania to Conneaut, Ohio.
Time: 9 hours over two days

Day #1

This was a fundraising ride for the National M.S. Society.  I received sponsorship from 15 people totaling $520. My friend Dan and I and more than a thousand other riders left Zelienople, Pa. and traveled to Meadville, Pa. on the first day (81 miles). We stayed overnight on the Allegheny College campus and then traveled to Conneaut, Ohio to complete the trip on the second day (another 64 miles). Total distance was 145 miles in just over 9 hours of riding over two days.

Me and Dan after lunch on Day 1

I had a great time and felt fine during the ride, but I must admit that since we did this same ride last year, the novelty of the event was not there; Dan and I knew we could accomplish this feat, and we knew what the ride was going to be like. It was probably the most exciting thing I did in all of 2012, but I really can’t say that for 2013 because the sense of newness and mystery was not as present. Nevertheless, it was a very enjoyable weekend and I am glad I did it!

This year’s ride did differ in a few ways from 2012. First, we started earlier each day and kept toward the front of the crowd. I think we were in the second wave on Saturday and the fourth wave on Sunday (groups of 150-200 riders are released at the starting line at 10-min intervals). The early start on Saturday meant there were fewer riders at rest stops and fewer on the road as we traveled. Since Dan and I maintained a faster pace this year compared to last year, we also arrived at Meadville earlier in the afternoon and had more time to enjoy the activities there. Here is a comparison of 2012 with 2013:

• 2012: Average pace was 14.4 mph on Day#1 and 15.5 mph on Day#2
• 2013: Average pace was 15.3 mph on Day#1 and 16.8 mph on Day#2

By the Miles, Day 1

Mile 2: It is blasted cold (60 degrees)! I should not have taken off my jacket and packed it.

Mile 8: Some of the cyclists have turned on their rear lights. It is mesmerizing to look at the flashing light patterns for too long. Also, some patterns of flashing are more eye-catching than others.

Mile 10: First water stop; Dan and I were feeling good and decided to skip it.

Mile 20: I decide to entertain us by yelling “yaaaaay” as we ride over any bridge and “toooot” as we ride under any bridge. I tried to maintain this the whole weekend, but I forgot sometimes. Dan and surrounding riders were probably glad I missed some bridges and underpasses.

Mile 22: First stop at Moraine State Park. We had just finished a 7-mile long hill. At the stop, Dan and I got chatting with one of the volunteers. She doesn’t really understand how the MS150 ride works, so we answer her questions. How strange it is to have done this before and know all the answers to her questions.

Mile 38: Second rest stop. Already? I was feeling great. I enjoyed the fruit cup snack at the rest stop.

Mile 42: Dan spots someone riding a yellow GMC bike. He rode the MS150 last year on that model so he has a certain nostalgia and perhaps empathy for someone using that bike. His new bike, a Scott, is a very sporty and attractive bike.

Mile 53: Lunch stop at Lakeview Middle School. It is 11:20am and we have been snacking at every rest stop so I don’t feel very hungry, but you know me; I ate well anyway. The grilled chicken sandwich was great. We ate indoors here, just like last year. Except this year we chose to eat indoors to keep warm. Last year we ate inside to stay in the shade.

Volunteers at every rest stop had great spirit. It made the ride extra fun.

Mile 67: Rest stop at a neighborhood park. This one was sponsored by Dick’s Sporting Goods and their staff was extremely kind and wanted to do anything for you to make you more comfortable. I’m half-way serious in saying that if I had asked for my own pepperoni pizza, or a Jacuzzi, or a private massage, they would have found a way to help me.

Mile 71: A water stop after a big hill. At least, it was supposed to be a big hill. I remember being challenged by it last year, but I was in better shape this time.

Mile 82: Finish line at Allegheny College.

 

After this first day of riding, we got our dorm room key, dropped off our bike in the gym, picked up our luggage, took a shower, and changed clothes. By this time it was 3:45pm and we walked over to the beer garden and bandstand. The beer wasn’t to our taste and neither was the band. There was no crowd of people to watch, either, so we just sat quietly and slept with our eyes open. We headed to dinner at 4:30pm and satisfied a hunger we didn’t know we had. We took an hour to walk around the Allegheny College campus, and then around 7:00pm we went back to the dorm room and put on swim suits. The campus pool was open and we had planned to go for a swim to loosen our muscles and get refreshed. There were a few other cyclists playing in the diving well, but we had the swimming lanes to ourselves and we swam 750 yards. Looking back on this swim, I think it was the highlight of my day. It felt good psychologically to know that 80 miles on a bicycle had not depleted my love of exercise nor my ability. Dan and I also kept the same swimming pace (thanks, Dan), and this was just like our behavior on the bike, since we were often side-by-side on the road. I hadn’t thought much of this at the time, but now it seems poetic that two good friends were so inseparable over the course of 80 miles on a bike and 750 yards in a pool. Poetic. Or something like that.

Bicycles stowed for the night at Allegheny College

 

Day #2

This is part 2 of 2 about a fundraising ride for the National M.S. Society.  Having already ridden 81 miles on June 8, my friend Dan and I and more than a thousand other riders began the next day at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa., to travel to Conneaut, Ohio (another 64 miles). 

We arrived at the starting line at 7:10am and just missed the release of one wave of riders. This put us in the front row of the next wave, released around 7:20am. I loved being at the front. There were exactly seven people in front of me and we maintained a tight pace line for the first 8 miles. I closely drafted the rider in front of me until midway up a hill and at that point the lead riders left me behind, as I found I could not climb the hill as fast as them. I discovered that following other people was easier than setting my own pace, so I tried to find other cyclists to follow throughout the day. This worked pretty well, but I tended to pass a lot of people on the uphill segments so I usually had to pick out a new person to follow after every hill. Dan and I found it really fun to pass people. It’s not that we are super-competitive. It’s just having a bit of “traffic” to go around makes the ride more dynamic.

By the Miles, Day 2

Mile 0: At the starting line there were a couple riders with memorable adornments on their helmets. This provided some entertainment throughout the ride as Dan and I made fun of them. But honestly, we were making fun “with” them since these creative cyclists intended to stand out in a comical way.

Mile 2: Oh my goodness, it is colder this morning than yesterday. Good thing I kept my jacket on for this part of the ride.

Mile 14: First rest stop. I took off my jacket and stored it for the rest of the day in my jersey’s back pocket. I struck up a conversation with Sara from the Pittsburgh Triathlon Club. She invited me to do a full Ironman triathlon with her next year. I just smiled and nodded and did not want to tell her that a full Ironman was well beyond my ability…this year, next year, or ever.

Mile 27: Last of the big hills on the route. This one was long rather than particularly steep. I admit it was a challenge but my motivation to pass slower cyclists kept my brain occupied on that rather than my own muscle fatigue.

Mile 42: Lunch at Connie Lance Memorial Park was sponsored by Dick’s Sporting Goods. Once again, the staff at Dick’s was super-super-super polite and supportive. There was an emcee announcing what the lunch menu was, how far we had travelled, how far we had to go, and how good we were to be supporting charity. He got some facts wrong and he was overly dramatic, but it seemed heartfelt. He could have easily did a worse job and still gotten paid the same by Dick’s.

Mile 45: We heard the sickest rooster crow ever. What was wrong with that thing?!

Mile 54: Last rest stop of the trip. We probably didn’t need to stop. This time last year I was suffering from back pain due to being bent over on the bike for so long, but I was pain free today. Dan was doing well, too. Nevertheless, I wanted to be done.

Mile 64: And now we were done.

 

At the finish line we enjoyed another full meal with pizza, sandwiches, and ice cream. I found a paper plate and wrote on the back “for Maureen” and then posed with it so Dan could take my picture. I am fortunate enough to have had no family members or friends with multiple sclerosis, but some of my sponsors have been touched significantly by it. In particular, Jean W. has been very supportive of my rides these last two years and I wanted her to know I was thinking of her during my trip. Multiple sclerosis took the life of her sister Maureen. I’m glad to have done something helpful for those affected by the disease, now or in the future.

I ride because I like cycling. But if it can help someone else, all the better!