Race Reports
Written for www.trinewbies.com
Wow, what an experience! I have never experienced such highs and lows
all in the same race. I'll get to all that shortly but first the
preliminaries. You have permission to skip this long-winded session
and go straight to the race report.
My wife flew in from NC on Wednesday night to join me on the trip to
Panama City Beach. As stated earlier, I'm in Jax, FL since being
transferred here for work so we're temporarily living apart. Got
into Panama City late Thursday afternoon and was glad to find out
there was a time difference so that gave us more, well, time J.
Instantly I was mesmerized by all the awesome bikes and serious tri
bods. Just a little intimidating. Got checked into the host hotel,
picked up registration packet, and then commenced to buy stuff at
the expo (best expo I have been to by far). It was like Super
Wal-Mart Triathlon store. Had a nice dinner that night with a couple
glasses of red wine to settle the nerves.
Got up early Friday morning for the TNO swim. Met up with Big Daddy,
Mark in FL, Ironstevie, Eileen from Orlando, Dixie Chick and others
that I can't recall by name but hope to see at future races. Decided
to swim without the wetsuit just in case the race is not wetsuit
legal. There were some nice breakers near shore which weren't too
bad to maneuver. But out about 50 yards was a sand bar with some more
breakers. Got wiped out by one that I didn't see coming and went
tumbling backwards almost losing the Seal Mask. Glad I experienced
that before race day! Headed in and then went to the pancake
breakfast and talked with some of the above-mentioned TNO'ers.
I then went for a 30 minute bike and 10 minute run and everything
checked out fine. I then proceeded to freak out again at the expo,
buying every little knick-knack I could get my hands on. Two things I
used during the race, a Profile aero water bottle stabilizer and a
bike-mounted gel holder; both worked great. Cleaned the bike up real
good and proceeded to freak out some more. Let's just say I was so
nervous that my "tummy" was a little upset. Thank God for
Immodium!
Had a very nice pasta dinner out by the beach that night and met some
more very nice tri folks from all over the country. Holly and I then
walked down to the beach to watch the sun set and try to get settled
down some. Got to bed about 10:30 and actually slept pretty well
(melatonin rules!)
My 14 alarms went off at 3:30 and I was ready to go! Had a bagel with
PB, banana, water and coffee. I got to the transition area at about
4:30 and got everything set up, but went back TWICE just to make
sure! Holly calls it obsessive-compulsive disorder J. The great thing
about staying at the host hotel is you can go back to your room and
take care of business, no nasty-arse porto-potties for me!
Got down to the beach and watched the pros start out. Waves and
current seemed more severe than the day before. The pros who
started on the inside were almost instantly swept to the inside of
the buoys. I knew where I was starting, to the back and outside.
Some people from later waves abondened the swim entirely when they
couldn't get past the breakers. But one girl was a real inspiration.
She started walking/stumbling back to shore obviously upset. But
then she stopped and turned around back towards the open water.
Everyone on shore starting cheering her on and she put her cap and
goggles back on and took off. That was great.
The down and dirty:
SWIM: 55:38 SWIM TO BIKE TRANSITION: 6:05
BIKE: 3:04:24
BIKE TO RUN TRANSITION: 4:43
RUN: 2:14:55
OVERALL TIME: 6:25:43
You may be looking at that swim time and transition times and be
thinking "Has this guy actually swum before? What does this guy
do, take a nap in transition??" Well there is a good
explanation and here it is, finally.
Swim: 950 yards out, 200 yards across, 950 back Felt absolutely great
on the way out. Got through the breakers in mackeral-like fashion.
Started way on the outside and got pushed right to the turn buoy,
meeting up with many others in my group. Question, why do they give
us ORANGE caps? Are the little marker buoys not orange also?? Anyway,
took the turn and shortly after I started feeling a little nauseous.
Turned to head for home and BOOM, the vomitting commenced. It took
about 10 minutes longer to swim in than to swim out since I had to
stop about every 5 minutes and throw up. This also pushed me way down
the beach. This guy and girl on a jet ski kept coming by and telling
me to veer to the right. Whatever. My strength was gone. I stumbled
to shore, threw up some more and then proceeded to walk/jog the
longer-than-should-have-been distance back to transition.
T1:
I just had to sit down for a few minutes while my senses and legs
came back. Was not too worried about time at that point.
Bike:
I really started feeling good on the bike early on. I was able to
start drinking water and gatorade almost immediately. I was averaging
21-23 for the first several miles and then it happened. I'm
approaching an intersection where we take a hard left. I see a cop
waving cars through and then I see him frantically waving his hands
at a car. I then see this car with it's brakes locked up and tires
smoking so I take the turn pretty tight because I think this lady is
gonna be in the intersection. Well, a guy comes flying up on the
inside and slams into me, sending me sprawling across the pavement.
My first thought was "how bad is this?" I was dazed and
confused (classic movie) and then saw a bunch of people standing
over me, including the guy that hit me. They helped me up and the
nicest volunteer (an elderly man) helped me to the ambulance which
just happened to be parked right there at the ambulance station!
They asked me a bunch of questions because they said my helmet
really hit hard, though it appears okay to me. I then proceed to
check myself out and man am I skinned up. All down the left side of
my body are intermittent scrapes. My hip was hurting especially.
Well, I proceed to get a little emotional because I'm sure my day
and my first half are done. I'm about to ask the emergency worker to
call my wife's cell phone but then I get this idea: Maybe my bike
isn't destroyed afterall. I get bandaged up and ask if I can
continue. They said to go for it as long as I didn't feel like my
brains were scrambled. I got to my bike and the guy who ran into me
had set it upright and was still standing there, though he didn't
actually crash. He apologized and said it was his fault but I told
him that it wasn't his fault since I cut my turn a little bit. I
told him to please not worry about it and to get back on the course
and that hopefully I'd see him out there a little later. Well, my
handle/aerobars were turned to the left and my chain was off but
everything else seemed okay. I started off, sore but racing. I
gradually started feeling better and better and then a funny thing
happened. I just started laughing, out loud. One dude looked at me
while he passed, checked out my arm and torn up shirt and asked why
in hell was I laughing. I just said because I can't imagine what
will be happening to me next. I kept thinking of things like a deer
running into me, or taking a wrong turn, or the aid stations
refusing to serve me. What the hell else could go wrong? I actually
started catching some people in my age group late in the bike and
felt very good, considering. You know, the wind did not even bother
me. I was just so thankful that I wasn't sitting in an emergency
room. Holly saw me come into T2 and was like, "Um, what the
hell happened to YOU??!!" Told her I'd explain later.
T2:
Had to take my time as my hip really hurt when I got off the bike.
Walked around a little, hit the dreaded porto-pottie, put on more
sunscreen, and SLOWLY shuffled off.
Run:
Man, it was freakin' HOT. And Panama City Beach ain't got NO shade.
Both hamstrings cramped within the first mile but I was able to
work that out. The run became a mission to get from one aid-station
to the next. I walked each aid-station and ate/drank considerably.
The volunteers were awesome. And there were lots of folks on their
front lawns spraying water on us. But what was really awesome was
seeing Holly up ahead in our Yukon at about mile 9 blasting my
favorite on the stereo...PHISH!! Her and the music really picked me
up and I actually ended up running negative splits, even running
through the last aid station. I was very happy to be steadily
catching guys in my age group. But mostly, I was just happy to be
out there.
I got a little choked up when I saw Holly at the finish though I
don't think she noticed. I guess it's just hard on you mentally when
you have to go through all that stuff out on the course by yourself.
But if you look around out there, you'll see inspiration all over
the place and that's what I tried to concentrate on.
Nutrition:
Pre-race: bagel with peanut butter, banana, water, gatorade, gel
Swim: saltwater, gave back breakfast
Bike: 6-7 bottles of water, 3-4 bottles of gatorade (and I didn't
even pee), pretzels, 5 servings of Hammer Gel, couple bananas,
Bakers Breakfast cookie
Run: water, gatorade, orange slices, Fig Newtons, pretzels, Clif
bar pieces at almost every stop.
Question: Why the hell do people wear solid black in a triathlon when
it is sunny and 90 degrees? I mean, there could be a good reason but
I just don't understand.
Post-race: Very quickly!!
Fueled up on food, water, and my favorite carbohydrate source, BEER!
Had a great time at Spinnaker's post-race party where I met Steve the
navy guy from Ft. Lauderdale, and a bunch of the TNO folks I met
earlier. Missed Big Daddy as I guess he ate and took off but I did get
to see him finish his race which was fantastic.
Thoughts:
I'm lucky (even though I hurt like crazy today). I was hoping to break
6 hours and I think that this race shows that I'm capable of it if the
stars align themselves properly. The "blue-collared"
triathletes like us are a great group of people.
If you finished reading this report, thanks. The only one that will be
this long in the future is if I ever do an iron-distance event.
Oh, and my own Holly has signed up for her first triathlon!
Mike in Jax