Quick Race Recaps: 1st Xterra Tri Experience & The Lake Wylie Disaster

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

"Living with the freedom to do what I want"

The title of my newest blog entry comes across rather differently than it suggest, but is straight the point of this entry. I do have such a freedom that I basically can do nearly anything that I want to at any given time. This is something that most of us never process through out our daily routines. How fortunate are you?

In short, I was inspired to write this blog because of so many people out there that are disabled in some fashion and just would love to do what I do for one minute. Surrounding myself with ultra competitive people in my work environment as well as within my peers, really pushes me to strive for success in my life. Namely my athletic life, since the majority of people who surround me are extremely active. How many times have we been disappointed about a race or a game because of the outcome? I didn't run that PR or I didn't beat this person.


We all really need to be thankful for so much in so many ways its incredible. As an example, MS is a large problem amoung the world and in the US. 2.5 million people worldwide and 400,000+ are affected by this disease which eats away at your bodies protective nerves. How many of these people affected are debilitated? As I wake up to go on an easy 5 miles run, I don't think about these people who struggle to just get out of bed much less run somewhere. As a goal for myself this year, I truly am going to be thankful for every step I take whether its running or walking down the hallway,road or a trail. Life could be so much different at any given time, why don't we realize how great so many of us truly have it; riches, fame and power is nothing compared to being able to give someone a hug or a hand shake with total comfort.

In short be VERY THANKFUL

Tri Recap: Savannah; Time to Tri

After my good friend Logan Beytagh moved back to Tybee Island, Ga this past year, I decided to look for a triathlon out his way. I knew that I had just completed the Boston Marathon, followed by my 1st half ironman, followed by a sprint triathlon followed by a 10k, followed by a International Distance Tri "Over the mountain", but with 2 weeks of no races, it seemed like something "FUN". Driving down for the trip, I tried to remember everything I could to bring for the race but most importantly I wanted to enjoy my time and visit to the beach.


Thinking about bad I have been running of late following everything, I put a tad more focus back into the run over the 2 weeks leading up to the Savannah Tri. In the process I also inked in with "Studio 7 Multi-sport" with Coach Lance Leo, in order to really give a shot at improving my multi-sport status. TrySports also spoke with me about being my main sponsor and offered full support of my attempt to give this Triathlon stuff a real try. Confidence was high knowing that in the near future I would have the backing of several credible sources in the community that believed in me. Lastly, I received a call from a highly respectable trend setting Chiropractor in Scott Greenapple about the possibility of joining forces with his office, so in the span of a couple weeks I really had a lot going on but moving forward in a positive manner.



Onto the race, the day before I went on an easy ride with G$ rocking out my Team USA one piece that is way too small, it was pretty cool hitting the roads with it on though. Afterwards I hit the beach with Logan's friends, drank some beer, played horseshoes and hit the ocean of course. Exactly what you should not do before a race! This was a fun trip, so no pressure and no worries about the outcome of the race tomorrow. Going into the race I had seen previous results where it seemed a local legend Jerry had claimed several victories over the years at this race and was obviously a phenomenal cyclist, so the comp would be good.

The morning of the race, I woke a little late after watching part of Avatar into the night and G$ was really pushing the issues to get things ready and to hit the road. Dave Cross was in town, so we followed him to the race site because he had a Garmin, all the while G$ was worried that we were loosing our way. Arriving just a bit later than we wanted, G$ high tailed it to the packet pick up and said I will see you at the start. "alright" I say and look back to Dave as we talk about random stuff and maybe getting in some kind of a warm-up. Looking around in the transition area, I notice a lot of REALLY nice bikes equipped with Zipps and disc wheels, at first I get a little worried but then I just think back to my college running days. These skinny guys would do stride outs before the race and everyone would get nervous because "that guy looks good, he is skinny" but I just didn't care what you looked like or what you had.

The swim was great for me being that it was only 500 yards! I had a good swim warm-up for a change and tried to keep my focus of really going hard from the beginning. Being up near the front was great for a change, I even got to draft behind someone for about 100m. After reaching the transition, I grabbed my bike, helmet, sunglasses and took off quick. After a mile I had passed about 3 people and some guy came ROLLING past me, So I did my best to go with him but I just couldn't match his effort. From mile 3 on, I watched 2 guys about 200m in front of me take turns trading pace efforts and it just made me livid.


After giving my best efforts to catch the 2 guys in front of me, we hit transition and I was 5th hitting T2. "TIME TO ROCK" is what I kept thinking, so I hit the road and knew I had to throw it on the line in order to catch a few guys, so as soon as I had my shoes on I was flying out of T2. After passing the finish area just before the mile, the announcer called me out, "#58 from Charrrloote, NC Chris-tapher Lamperski is eating up the competition and will most certainly catch 2nd place but does he have enough to catch Jerry?" in his european accent. This jacked me up even more and shortly after I passed the next couple guys and moved into 2nd overall. "Where in the hell is 1st place? Am I in 1st place?", is all I thought at that point. The guy who was in the lead was on the far side of the lake and I never saw him until I hit the 2 mile mark, so I pushed onward. I was getting updates from spectators once I hit the 2 mile I heard "he is 50 seconds up, go get him!". Once we hit a small turn around I came back through and the same guy said its only 22 seconds!

With 1st in sight and over 1/2 mile to go I knew I had it in the bag permitting that I didn't fall. G$(on his 1st loop) was just in front of Jerry who was in 1st, once I approached I told him to keep it rolling. It was great just knowing my legs finally came around after being dead for weeks and that i would be winning my 1st official triathlon. Nearing the finish, I slowed it down a bit in cruise control but I heard the announcer saying that I would be close to a course record, so I kicked it in to cross the tape. "I can't believe I just won, but you deserved it" is the 1st thing I thought of.

All in all it was a great day for me, I was 12th out of the water, I think I had the 6th fastest bike, I ran 15:40 for just over 3 miles on the run course according to my Garmin, won the race and set a new course record. Time to hit the ocean and celebrate!!!

Shout outs to Glenn Carroll for a 4th place finish in his age group and to David Cross for winning the Overall Duathlon Title. Special Thanks to Justin Breland & Angi Klick of TrySports for your support, Scott Greenapple of "Greenapple Sports & Wellness" for helping me stay healthy and to all of my peers out there whom I get to run,swim, or ride with on any occasion.

Australia: Update for a visit

Just a brief update on my proposed plans to visit Australia in the near future which i haven't commented on lately. My plans are still intact to visit "Down Under" come the 1st weekend in October in order to race in the Western Australia Duathlon Championships. I am awaiting the opening of registration for the race so that I can actually have it checked off of my list.

My next goal is establishing a time line as to the length of my visit. Throwing a wrench in this mix is the fact that I will almost certainly be making a stop in NZ and am thinking about having a couple day layover in order to compete in a running race there. Luckily for me, one of my best friends is actually moving to NZ in August so I will have somewhere to stay for a couple days.

I am so thankful to have so many people that support me in so many ways. Some have helped financially and other have helped by providing me with kind and supportive words. My hope is that by mid July I will have my plane ticket purchased and only have some minor trip details to lock up.

We all have dreams. In order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline and effort.

Their are certainly times when I think, why don't I just act like a normal person? Finish a good days work with dinner with some friends while chatting over a few drinks and heading home to relax on the couch. That sounds just blissful at this point, I think its something that I often battle with and have battled with over the years. Trying to lead a busy social life while kind of half assing my training for whatever event is in the forefront.

Now that I have signed on with Studio 7 and Lance Leo as my fulltime coach, I have fully committed myself towards attaining some proposed goals in 2011. 2010 is basically a wash for me as I am using it as my building year for triathlons, to gain strength and experience. Putting in a full years worth of dedication and hard work should reap some major benefits come 2011 race season which will be specifically planned out permitting I stay injury free.

Sometimes I wonder what separates the "men from the boys" and it basically seems to boil down to hard work in endurance athletics. I kind of like what Bill Bowerman once said with pushing yourself to limits.

"the real purpose of running isn't to win a race; it's to test the limits of the human heart. A teacher is never too smart to learn from his pupils. But while runners differ, basic principles never change. So it's a matter of fitting your current practices to fit the event and the individual. See, what's good for you might not be worth a darn for the next guy."

"Testing" my personal limits is certainly a goal of mine and in order to do so appropriately I have realized that I must cut certainly luxuries out of life to attain this. Luckily I can keep my head on straight while staying focused on ultimate goals in life, with the main one being "Happy" and "Content" with life. Along with achieving my individual goals, I hope through my coaching service as well as volunteer work I can impact other people's lives in a positive way....this is what really matters.