American Triple T - Race #2 AM: Olympic - TriathlonOlympic

Yikes, that's cold! The rain didn't exactly turn the lake into a bubble tub. I'd guess it dropped about 5 degrees in fact. The trick here was to force yourself to exhale when the water was so shockingly cold that it grabs your diaphragm like a Sub-Zero Spine Rip fatality move (finish him!). So I went back to my tried and true bubble mantra humming. bubbblybubblyGO! gubblybubblyGO! Hey, you do what you have to do to get the fock out of the water, right?

Listen to Maynard and learn to swim.

Sans socks for the first time! These bike shoes aren't made for that! Gah!

What a morning to ride. Cool, windless, with a little fog rolling over the hilltops, this was a true Appalachian breakfast treat. The morning course we were supposed to ride had several fallen trees across the roads, so no Thomson Hill for us. A tear slowly rolls down our collective cheeks. So instead, we did the afternoon course, an out-n-back on Route 125.

Some folks were out there pounding away up the initial 3 mile climb, while others like myself hung out in the weenie ring and just spun away for a while. Just had to keep reminding myself it was gonna be a long weekend and not be bothered by the wuh wuh wuh blazing by.

Let's talk climbing. The uphills I was ready to take on with my new 12-27, but the descents were a little more than I was ready for. With tight technical turns and some very steep (7-8%) segments, the tri bike was less than stellar for handling...or maybe it was just the rider... Many times on these courses I was ready to have a road bike with a big ol' triple up front and some nice wide hoods to grab onto.

After the turn around at mile 12, and before the big climb back, I was averaging 22mph and felt like a rockstar. And then came the 2 miles straight up. Which made me feel more like Bret Michaels. The 2010 version.

The long ascent part of the course was awesome. Here we were, all decked out in aero helmets, several thousand dollar bikes and wheel sets, and going about 5mph. Keep turning those legs over, just keep motoring. Several sections necessitated standing while others were all about not burning those matchsticks. I was paying for the sockless choice as some fresh blisters were festering on the bottom and sides of my feet. d'oh!

I started thinking about Alaina at this point. Where was that skinny little speedster? Will I see her sometime today before the run course? Should I be seeing her or does that mean I'm going too hard? Wait a sec, I know that little rider up there. Could it be? Hmmmm, what to do.

I pulled into transition just 2 bikes behind Alaina and quietly clickety clacked around to my rack. Zipped on them shoes and got the heck out of dodge. Sneaky, eh?

Heh, that's by far my best transition time EVER.

Oh daaaang, so this is Lamp Black Trail: a dirt + rocky fire trail with some rolling, but mostly steep inclines on the way out, until you get to mile 2.5, where you go straight down to the turn around, then come right back up. It's a beautiful run, with a rise on one side and a ravine on the other. It's the kind of place that I'd love to hang out at if I were a member of a ravenous gang of horseflies. More on that later.

Keeping a 7:00-7:10 m/m pace on the way out, I kept thinking I was going to hear Alaina pittering behind me, but it wasn't until the turn around that the moment of truth came to a head. I was about a quarter mile past the turnaround when I saw her running with one of the dozens of sequoia-esque dudes, all smiles and chatting, when her jaw literally dropped. She yelled (meanly I might add), "YOU'RE AHEAD OF ME?!?!?" I gave her the two-handed snap and point, with a kiss of a smile to boot and the ran my friggin' azz off the rest of the way, holding sub-7s as best as footing would allow.

Yep, I beat her in a triathlon. The rest of the weekend could do whatever it wanted. I finally won. Heh, she's gonna kill me.

I waited at the finish line for Alaina, who gave me the NFL-illegal throat cutting gesture as she crossed. So sweet, right?


I won. I beat Alaina by a gigantic 2 minutes. She'll never let me live that down.