My 1st Off road triathlon experience was a blast looking back afterwards. At the time I thought otherwise because it beat me up pretty good including a fall near the end of the bike portion. After borrowing my good friend Lat's mountain bike, I attempted 2 off road rides the week of the race just to make sure I can even ride trails and especially with Clip in pedals.
The swim went OK at best, I thought I would be up front the whole way and it didn't work out like I wished, but I came out with my friend Rob Dietz when we had to run to the next swim transition, so I was pleased knowing he was a good swimmer. Once I hit the bike, I was still fairly clear of most of the field but I knew once we hit the woods I was done. My body was dripping wet and my glases fogged up. Holding onto the handles was near impossible the 1st couple miles. I made it through the ride, got passed a lot and managed to pass a few people even. With about a mile to go, I was excited to see open gravel and i went for it down a hill then tried to take a sharp turn, BAM!!! I was on my butt, bleeding and shaking from the fall.
I managed to jump up and head to the transition area, where I was excited to be, since it meant i would be running. I took awhile in transition because I was asking for water from anyone since I did not have any water the entire bike ride. Upon leaving T2 some guy took off in a Florida Gators singlet and I was pumped to catch up. I ran down tons of people and almost ran my way into a top 10 finish even. My split was pretty good and it pleased me for the most part, it even ended up being 2 minutes faster than my friend who won the open 8k the day before...Big thanks to my friend Brian McMahon, Kent and Devon for cheering me on as well as Uncle Wayne for helping out along the journey
http://www.xterraplanet.com/races/view_results.cfm?race_id=1143
Swim: 15:27
T1: 0:57
Bike: 1:08:18
T2: 1:25
Run: 32:50
Finish: 1:58:55
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Lake Wylie Triathlon recap
After getting an entry into this race, I knew the pressure was on since i was signed up as an Open male and the field would be stacked. At this point I had so much stress from moving and trying to juggle several jobs I have been taking on, so I was basically exhausted. On friday after a day of work i spent my time moving boxes from one house to another to complete my move. Moving houses while its about 100 degree's outside, just wears you down! I finally called it a night at 11:45pm to stop packing up and moving things.
4:50am came way too early, I hit the road with the old beater truck I am borrowing for moving purposes and it was hot even in the Am with no A/C.
After checking in and managing a bit of a warm-up I just felt off, I wasn't really excited, i just wanted to get it over. When I got to the water we all hung out forever, then they made us leave and then get back in. I got left after about 300m in the water, the wakes were really hitting me hard and fortunately there was another swimmer as bad as me in the open division.
After trying to stand up and walk in 100m from the beach, I cut my feet up and just swam the rest of the way A DISTANT ways back from everyone else. I hit the bike and picked off an elite woman right away who is a good cyclist, at least something was going right. I saw another person ahead so I attacked and then boom on a flat road. My chain just totally fell off on the outside of my big ring. I couldn't get it back on, so I stop completely after going 23mph, get passed and put my chain on. Once on my bike I work back up to the people I have already passed once and once I finally catch up to them, it happens again, chain OFF. I stopped and had to put my chain back on again. The final straw of frustration came on the bridge just a 1/2m from T2, I jumped in with a group of fast cyclist from the group that started behind me and when we passed a couple elite women, my chain came off AGAIN!!! WTF
By the time I got to T2, i just wasn't sure what to think, a bad swim, even worse bike, and now I am going to run to catch who? I hit the road w/my shoes on and passed a couple people on the 1st mile. After that, I just it in cruise control all the way, I kept a steady pace but certainly did not push myself because I just felt it would be best to save my body for a good training day and put this one in the books. Upon entering the final stretch, they call out my name and guy who is right behind me, he gives it everything he has and passes me before the line while falling over. I calmly slide my chip off and give it to the woman and say "thanks for being out here, I am going to get a cookie".
For anyone reading who watches my races closely and knows I typically do pretty well, this WAS a big set back for me. After the race, I lost my mojo, with moving, trying to work 4 different job angles, I just had nothing left for the sport of running, biking or swimming. Essentially I went on a training hiatus with a couple of occasional runs and rides. USA Triathlon Nationals went out of the window and any other race in between before leaving for Australia. I am not going to consider myself anything special, but locally I am towards the front of the endurance based community and with the combination of events, i just lost ALL confidence, it can happen, to ANYONE, I am living proof...........
I even took a picture of my bike with the thought of putting it on craigslist
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