| Age | Swim | 100s | Bike | MPH | Run | Pace | Total |
| 33 | 17:32.8 | 1:45 | 01:42:21.8 | 8.50 | 01:23:24.3 | 13:26 | 03:27:02.4 |
| 34 | 16:24.2 | 1:38 | 01:36:41.5 | 9.00 | 01:17:47.6 | 12:32 | 03:14:36.2 |
I improved my time by 12:26, so I can't be too disappointed. Still, I'm not going to be happy until I can complete the stupid race without cramps. The good points, I improved my bike pace from 8.5MPH to 9.0MPH, and even despite walking a lot with cramps, I improved the run pace. If I can get back down to a 10 m pace in the run, that would knock another 10 minutes off the time and I'd be closer to where I think I should be.
So, I made the 3.5 h drive from home to Owasippe on Saturday and stayed at the Oak Knoll campground again. Made camp around 6pm, organized my race gear and ate a PB&J for dinner. By the time I got everything ready for the following day, it was 9, so I went to bed and read a book for an hour. It's amazing how conditioned you get to interruptions when you have a 3.5 year old and a 5 month old in the house. Every time I heard other campers talking or someone walking, it momentarily pulled my attention from the book. I kept thinking a kid or a wife needed something! Then I would realize I'm all alone out here, and I'd go back to reading. Don't get me wrong, I love my family, but hey, everyone likes a break, right? The solitude was quite nice for me :-).
Got up a 6am the next morning and ate a peanut butter sandwich, bananna and a protien bar as the sun came up. Everthing around me was quiet (most of the other campers were there just to camp, so not a lot of early risers...). Broke camp and rode the bike over to the race, got the registration packet and set up the transition area. I love the bike racks that Endurance Sports uses, they're nice and high so you can take you bike under them, unlike what I had at the Ft. Custer XTERRA. I had packed my wetsuit, not thinking I would use it, but everyone but a few people were putting them on, so I thought "hell, I bought the thing for triathlons, might as well use it". So, at the last minute, I got suited up. I still tried to cruise the swim, but I cut 1:08 off the swim time, which I fully attribute to the added buoyancy of the wetsuit. It really makes a difference... I was 4th out of the water, which again set me up for the numerous superior mountain bikers to pass me. The water was nice and calm. I didn't do much warming up before the swim, instead just using the swim itself as a warmup. Started out slow and once we rounded the first bouy, it was just me and two other guys I could see in front of me. The leader was absolutely flying, and I didn't see him at all. During this swim start, I didn't manage to get at the front of the starting line, so I got to experience the washing machine a bit. That's not a lot of fun. Got kicked in the face a couple times and my path blocked by slower swimmers, but eventually, I made it out.
My transition was slooooow, partly because I have more crap to put on now. This is supposed to make me faster, right? Anyway, wetsuit off by turning inside out, added gloves this year, and the team jersey, which I didn't wear under the wetsuit. Put on the sunglasses, socks, cycling shoes, a shot of "Gu Brew", grab the bike and I'm running out of transition. Pop Quiz: what's missing?
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HELMET! D'oh! I was out of the transition area at the mount line before I realized it. I set my bike down and ran back in to transition to get it. Don't know if that's a DQ or not since I didn't actually mount. Either it's not, or they didn't see it, because my time's posted :).
The bike was still tough for me this year. I'm not sure exactly what it is. It must be climbing, but I can't imagine it's THAT much more than doing a few laps of Maybury. I'd like to see some elevation profiles sometime to compare. It was still sandy, mostly single track. I crashed once, because some clown didn't call out a pass while I was letting some guys by. See, I don't know if I'm being over nice, or just not being a total ass, but I get out of the way if there's bikers behind me. Yeah, it's a race, but I'm really not there to win anything at this point, just get better. I respect the guys and gals that are better on the bike than me, so I usually leave the trail to let them by. Sometimes there's two guys behind me, and the second guy will yell out "One more!", so I'll stay off path a little longer. Well, this time, a third clown just tried to blow by w/o calling out so as I was cutting back to the path, I had to slam the brakes to avoid t-boning him. Well, he made it by unscathed, but I ended up endoing and crashing behind him. Thanks, clown. I yelled at him to "Call it out next time!" and he says "Yeah, that's a good idea."
Rest of the interactions were fine. I was actually holding my own on a lot of the climbs, until my drivetrain decided to go haywire on me. I dropped the chain twice off the chainring when trying to downshift on uphills. Dropped it twice more off the cassette when trying to downshift, and I don't know how many times I had chain suck. So, I was battling the hills and my drivetrain. I finally just stopped trying to use the small chainring and staying in the middle of the cassette to make it through the ride. Frustrating. I just had the derailleurs professionally adjusted too, so I don't know what else to do. Oh yeah, it was also ghost shifting like crazy. It makes me hate my bike, I wish I could fix it. Regardless, I did feel pretty good about my climbs and I think without the drivetrain problems my ride would have been much better.
Now for T2, into the run. Park bike, switch shoes, remove gloves, more GU Brew, grab a GU pack. WOAH! Might not want to run with that helmet, there, Marvin the Martian!
About .5 mile into the run, I'm feeling pretty decent, thinking I just might make it through this run w/o cramps. Then, at what I think is the exact spot as last year, debilitating leg cramps. Can't even stand up, no less walk. I'm not even breathing hard, my HR is low (like 150's), so I just don't get it. I downed a whole 24oz of GU brew on the bike, so I would think I was hydrated enough. I don't know. Maybe I'll ride with the camelbak next year and see if lots more water helps. Anyway, not much to report, other than once cramps kick in like that, I don't think there's much you can do besides try to walk when they kick in. I tried stretching, drinking at the aid station, walking... nothing worked. I'd start running and there they were again. I'm quite surprised I ended up pacing around 12:30. It felt like I could have walked it faster. I did stop at the porta-potty once, so I guess I should include that in the run report! :)
Post race, the usual. Just not very fun when you don't have anyone to talk to . So I just headed back to the campground and took a shower, then headed home. I did have a post race beer and a hot dog, but the food selection just wasn't that good. The beer was great, but the food was not. They didn't even have any sweets! Come on, choco chip cookies are perfect finish line food!
Overall, it was still a fun race. I hope I can find someone else to do this race with me next year. Meantime, I have a lot of hill repeats and bricks in my future!
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