Tri for Ole Glory.
July 4th, 2013.
200 meter swim, 8 mile mountain bike, and 3 mile run.
Let it be
known, I am not a Mountain Biker. I own
a mountain bike, and that is as far as it goes.
It’s limited to neighborhood
rides with the kids and family strolls on the local greenways. I approached this race as something different
and expecting that much of the faster triathletes would be elsewhere. Thus giving me a small opportunity to podium
in my age group.
I spent
some time in the weeks leading up to the race practicing on the bike course
(remember “not a mountain biker”). Using my pre-98
model 26-inch Trek 800 was a great workout.
I got in about 5 laps around the course on it and was rewarded with 3
flats. Just a few days before the race a
friend offered his 29-incher equipped with Stan’s NoTubes. This was a significant "technological"
improvement and (could be psychological) made the course much easier from both
an exertion and technical perspective.

By this
time the rain was coming down in sheets.
A little slow in transition, and I must have allowed 1 or 2 racers to
get ahead of me. Bike shoes, camelback,
mt bike gloves, helmet and off for the fun.
The first loop around the
course was pretty uneventful. It was
slick but you could still get some traction on the uphills. Came through for the 2nd loop
expecting the worst, knowing that the course would be closer to “mud-bogging” than mountain biking. Passing people this time around was not too
bad, as most all of the racers were very quick to move to the right or stop in
order that I could pass. The only tumble
came during a short steep climb on the 2nd half of the loop. I announced my intent to pass on the LEFT,
but the racer ahead continued (at slow speed) to attempt to climb the
hill. As expected he made it about one
third of the way up the hill and then fell over to his LEFT! By this time I had my speed up for the
climb. I elected to avoid riding over
him and switched to the narrow piece of terrain remaining to his right. This did not work. He was quite apologetic, and we were both
uninjured. I ran up the hill, clipped
back in and off again. Got in some short
words with Joshua Pierson (broken wheel) and Melissa Johnson (free race entry)
before exiting the bike course. Hats off to Josh to finish the bike course with a locked up back wheel, and I'm
pretty sure Melissa was reconsidering what a good deal her "free"
race entry was as she was slogging through the muddy woods in the pouring rain.
This is beginning to sound like a verse in a country-western song.
T2 was
even a little slower than T1. Lock laces
weren’t cooperating on the running
shoes and I should have just worn the mountain bike gloves instead of taking
the time to get them off.
The run
was (fortunately) a little short of the advertised 3 miles. It was NOT short of lots of deep puddles that
WERE hard to see on the pavement during the heavy rain. The first water station (ha ha) was
un-manned. I guess you could just look
up at the sky and get a drink. But it
did bait me in to a nice deep puddle as I came by the table hoping to grab a
self-serve cup of water. I was passed by
2 runners on the course. One of them
cramped up and I was able to pass him in the last mile, the other one was the 1st
overall female. I must admit the
cramping runner, did start a wave behind me, so he was still faster overall
even though I finished ahead of him.
Final time was 1:28:06, good enough for 3rd in my age group
and 10th overall.
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