Date: September 21, 2014
Location: Moraine State Park
Time:
Overall Rank: X out of 60
Age Group Rank: 5 out of 7
Results: http:
SWIMMING
60 degrees. The water temperature of Lake Arthur at Moraine State Park where we did the swim. Earlier in the week it was 67 degrees but today the fishing website says 60. In any case, my wetsuit kept me comfortable. Air temperatures ranged from 66 to 79.
60% chance of rain. The forecast looked quite bad for a race, and things didn’t look good at the start. Dark clouds and a brief rain shower came in just as we were entering the water at 8:30am. Otherwise, we had no rain for the rest of the day.
6 buoys. The swim course was a giant triangle marked off by six large orange buoys. This would have been an adequate number of buoys on a clear day, but today the skies were dark and the water was gray. My newest pair of goggles is tinted gray, so I was not seeing well at all. Between the second and third buoy I got disoriented and swam 90 degrees off course for several strokes. I looked up, and seeing no buoy, stopped swimming. As I treaded water, I couldn’t find any buoy at all, and then I saw one 50-100 yards away. I was about to swim toward it when I saw a pack of swimmers moving past it to the left. Their direction of movement was not what I was expecting, and this is when I realized I was looking back toward a buoy I had already swum past. I turned around and picked out the proper buoy I should swim to, where I eventually joined that pack of swimmers. I would have been well ahead of them if I had stayed on course! (It’s my fault I got turned around, but this does suggest the race needed more kayakers and boats watching for wayward swimmers like me)
17th place. I finished my 1.2 mile swim in 36:38, which was the 17th fastest amongst 60 competitors. Dan was 2:02 ahead of me and came in 11th. Given that Dan was not that far ahead of me, I guess my getting lost during the swim did not set me back as far as I was thinking.
BIKING
16.0 mph. This is our average speed on the bike during the first of two 29.25 loops on the bike route. This number dropped to 15.2 mph by mile 40 and was 14.5 mph at mile 58. The bike course consisted of two loops along country roads in and near Moraine State Park. It was a challenging course with no flats at all. We were either descending fast or climbing slow.
39.6 mph. This is my maximum speed during the race. I tend to keep it under 40 for safety reasons. In this case, nearly every downhill segment ended with sharp curve or stop sign so I had to be conservative. I am very pleased that Dan and I arrived a day early and drove the route in his car so we could see what the hazards were going to be. Cyclists (and motorists, too) tend to treat Stop signs like Yield signs. This is especially true during a race. Today though, I had to stop for a couple cars at an intersection and both front and rear tires skidded as I stopped. I was headed downhill and the pavement was still wet from the earlier rain shower. Skidding on wet pavement is something to avoid, but I never lost control of the bike, so this episode did not diminish my fun.
4,367 feet. This is the total elevation climb of the course when all hills are added up together (according to MapMyRide.com). Dan and I were trying to figure out how this bike course compared to the first day of our MS150 ride back in June. On that day we rode 86 miles and climbed 4,758 feet at an average speed of 15.4 mph. If one compares the feet climbed/mile for each of the two rides, today’s race course was 26% harder than the MS150 ride. “Who chose this triathlon to do?” asked Dan during one of the six biggest hills. “I think it was you!” I said.
Three. This is the number of chipmunks that scurried across the road right in front of my bike. I would have lost control if any of them chosen the wrong way to go. I also avoided driving over a spotted newt, a frog, and countless caterpillars. In fact, it’s a good day when I don’t kill anything with my bicycle!
Three. This is also the number of Honey Stinger Waffles I ate while on the bike. I drank 42 ounces of water and 21 ounces of Gatorade. I have had varying levels of success staying hydrated and fueled during my previous triathlons, so I had to be careful not to drink or eat too little or too much. I think I found the right combination today. I was in good shape for the bike but was very hungry toward the end of the run. My hydration was perfect, though. We athletes are always paying attention to our urine. I visited the port-a-john in the transition zone at the end of the bike ride and it took me a full minute to empty my bladder. My urine was also light in color. This means I had good hydration and I wasn’t hydrolyzing much muscle protein, either. About 5 hours into the race, I was still feeling good.
40 miles. This is about where the aid station was on the bike course. Dan and I stopped to fill our water bottles. We asked for food, too, since it was announced there would be food at the aid stations (bananas and energy gels). The friendly volunteers had no food to give us, but they had food for themselves that would soon arrive. “That was the pizza guy; he’ll be here in one minute,” said one volunteer to the other as Dan and I pedaled off. Pizza would not have been a good food to serve athletes in a race, but it sure sounded good. Volunteers need to eat, but I craved a banana and didn’t get one. Dan was hungry, and so were two other athletes that passed us around that time.
51 miles (7.5 miles to go). This is the point in the bike segment where Dan started to lag far behind me. I stopped at the crest of a hill and waited about 30 seconds for him. He unclipped from his pedals so I knew he needed to rest. His hands were shaking as if he were shivering. I often shiver at swim meets so I joked “it’s your turn to shiver.” He wasn’t in the mood for a joke. He was tired. In fact, I was really concerned for my friend. I did not think he was having a medical emergency; he was simply exhausted and needed food. But there was no food, and there was no one else I could ask for food. Only one athlete passed us by during these minutes we were stopped, and she had no food and was hungry herself. Dan really wasn’t improving but somehow he found the motivation to get back on his bike. I decided to let him set the pace and I followed closely. I was worried that Dan would lose his ability to stay upright on the bike. And then what would I do?
53 miles (5.5 miles to go). This is where Dan was saved and I was surprised. Dan’s wife and cousins had been cheering for us the whole day, and this included driving to different places along the bike route to cheer us on. And there they were at mile 53. I was praying they had food they could give Dan, and sure enough, they got us some pretzels to eat. (This was one of three USAT rules that we broke, but to hell with that). As Danise was caring for Dan she said to me “Go ahead to that stop sign. You’ll be glad you did.” I didn’t know what to think but I wondered…could it be? And sure enough, it was. My girlfriend Shannan was standing there with a big grin. She had gotten up early and driven a few extra hours from Ohio to surprise me. It meant the world to me.4:29:03. This is how long it took us to do the bike ride. Dan was determined to keep going, “even if they disqualify us [for taking too long].” How long would it take to walk 13 miles? A long time, but I would do it with him.
RUNNING
21 minutes. This is about how many minutes of walking we did during the 13.1 mile running route. Maybe it was more. Yes, probably it was more. But I only remember stopping to walk 6 times along the paved, shaded, and beautiful path along Lake Arthur. At the very start, Dan was recovering but still fatigued and he encouraged me to go ahead of him. He would walk and I would run. I refused, so within a couple minutes Dan decided he would try to run. That went well but his confidence was shaken—we still had at least 2 hours to go and we didn’t want to push him too hard. So at mile 2 we walked again. I watched the clock and got us running again after 3 minutes. At mile 3 we stopped and walked 3 more minutes, then started up again. We did the same at mile 4. There were actually a lot of athletes who were walking.
5 miles (8.1 miles to go). We did not stop at mile 5 to walk. Dan was doing quite well now, and it was me who was starting to lag behind his pace. I wasn’t concerned about myself at this point, and since Dan was doing fine, we just ran for a while. Between miles 6.5 and 8.5 I started to lose motivation. Little pains were springing up all over my body and I couldn’t distract myself from them. I stopped to walk briefly after every water station (every mile or so). Dan was having fun joking with the people at the aid stations. I appreciated that a lot, but was too tired to contribute. I told Dan that during the last 5K (3.1 miles) of the race I would not walk. I don’t remember why I broke that goal, but I remember we stopped to walk once during that last section (oh well). By the time we reached the finish line I think my walking stride would have been longer than my running stride. But it’s a run. Nobody walks across a finish line!
2:08:15. This is the time we took to run 13.1 miles. Dan and I crossed the finish line together, so we were puzzled when it was announced that I took 5th place in my age group. I guess there are no ties, so I got 5th place because compared to Dan, my last name comes first in the alphabet, or my race number (122) was less than his (123). I have never had my name announced as a winner. Cool! Of course, there were only 7 people in my age group so a 5th place is not really something to celebrate.
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