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 Swim
Comments: After working hard on my swimming all off-season, I felt confident enough in my ability to start on the front line! This was a totally new experience for me, since last year I always started out in the back and to the side of my wave. That was the most exciting start to a race I've ever experienced. Everyone was jaw-jacking, b.s.'ing, and encouraging each other. That is, until the 10 second countdown started. The horn went off and we all started jockying for positions and sprinting to avoid being swam over. I quickly got on someone's heels and rode behind him for about 100m until I started consistently slapping his heels. I decided to pass him and catch another set of heels, and they took me to the first turn bouy. Made the turn without incident, but made it too quickly and lost the guy's heels. I swam alone for a few minutes, and eventually found myself about 25 meters off line from the next intermediate bouy. CRAP! I looked to my left - nobody! I looked back to my right - everybody! I finally made my way back over to the intermediate bouy and started sighting about every 10 strokes instead of the 30 or so I had been sighting. That slowed me down some, but not nearly as much as if I had gotten another 25 meters off course. For the rest of the swim I held pretty close to the course. By the final turn bouy I had passed several from the wave in front of me, and several in my own wave who had slowed down. I was feeling strong so cruised on in. Got out of the water and looked at my watch. My race goal was 15:00 and I got out of the water right at 18:00. CRAP again! I ran down the lane on the astroturf mat that was laid down, with cheering people all along the fence. That never gets old! Got to the wetsuit strippers, laid down on my back like an upside-down turtle and they ripped off the wetsuit in a split second. That was awesome!! What would you do differently?: Sight better! I need to practice both in open water and in the pool by closing my eyes and avoid playing lane rope ping pong.  Transition 1
Comments: Fumbled around folding up the wetsuit so it would be out of the way. Dried my feet a little and put on my socks. Shoes, Garmin, shades, helmet, race belt, and I'm off. Ran through transition with my shoes on. What would you do differently?: I'm still a little disorganized in transition. If it weren't for the choking foot funk caused by riding without socks, I'd go without them. I'm also taking time to strap the Garmin on my wrist. I think I'll start practicing the jump start on the bike with the shoes in the pedals. There's a way to secure the shoes with rubber bands, I just need to practice.  Bike
Comments: I flatted about 20 miles into the bike course. As fate would have it, it was the only race I've ever done without my spare tube and CO2 cartridge! Stooooopid! They had mechanical support out on the bike course, so I really wasn't worried about it. (Little did I know....) Since I figured it might take awhile to get support, I had an idea that more than likely this meant a DNF. Also, I had a high hamstring pull where it connects to the top of the femur right below my butt that must have happened sometime right after the turnaround. It started hurting so badly that I couldn't sit on my saddle comfortably - kind of like the soreness you might get if you've never ridden on a road bike saddle before, but worse. After getting off the road and letting my bike "fall" to the ground in disgust, I bent over to pick it up and my hamstring felt like it just blew up on me. That pretty much cinched it - I was definitely DNF'ing. After about 45 minutes of watching the race fly by (thanks to everyone who offered to help), I decided that I'd had enough waiting so I put my bike on my shoulder and started to hike back to the race site 8 miles away. Fortunately, the sag wagon was about a quarter mile ahead helping someone else with their flat. I caught up with him and he replace my wheel with one of theirs, and I was on my way back. It turns out there were a bunch of flats that day. I got back to transition, packed my stuff, put everything back in the truck, and made my way to the finish line to watch all my friends finish. What would you do differently?: Well, that's a dumb question. Next time I'll be smart and bring flat fixing stuff! Transition 2
 Run
Comments: NO RUN TODAY!!! WOOO HOOOOOO! I guess I shouldn't have been so excited about that but by the time I was back on the bike, aside from the pulled hamstring, I was too tight to run 6.5 miles. Post race
What limited your ability to perform faster: Not taking a spare tube. Duh! Event comments: This was an awesome race experience! I've heard great things about Mooseman and Timberman from other people, and I'm ecstatic that Endorfun decided to branch out into the Texas market with Lonestar and Longhorn in October. The pre-race activities were spectacular. The pasta Friday night was delicious, and the expo was great as well. There was plenty of food after the race. Pizza, bagels, bananas, oranges, soft drinks, tea, water, they had it all! I worked an aid station for the sprint on Saturday, and Endorfun had everything ready for us to setup. We didn't have to ask for anything. Well, it would have been nice to have a 100'x100' tarp to cover the aid station during Saturday's monsoon, but we can't have it all. ;-) Last updated: 2007-02-21 12:00 AM
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EndorFUN SPORTS
65F / 18C
Overcast
Overall Rank = /448
Age Group = M34-39
Age Group Rank = 0/61
Woke up at 5:00a at the BT frat house after a great night's sleep. With a fellow BT'er, nonetheless! Well, she says she slept "on top of me". ;) Okay, I was on the air mattress on the floor and she was on the couch next to me. Ate the race day breakfast of a bagel and peanut butter, and downed a glass of Gatorade Endurance.
Got to my spot in transition and as luck would have it, my BT sleeping buddy (who is now a top-level USAT official) was critiquing a guy's transition area next to my spot. "Hey guys, I'm almost guaranteed no penalties today because I slept with this official last night!" Of course that raised a few eyebrows and caused a couple double takes. Then this "un-named" BT'er/USAT official corrected me by saying, "Well, actually I slept on top of you." Then she walked off leaving me to explain. I'll leave it to the discretion of the aforementioned BT'er/USAT official to identify herself. ;)
Jogged a little and stretched well in the parking lot. Used the facilities, then made my way back to transition. When I got back I saw that Mike (marmadaddy) was set up at the next rack over. We b.s.'ed around a little bit as I worked to put on my wetsuit. I wriggled into the arms and torso then started to zip it up, when the zipper stuck. (Please note: the particulars of who said what, and what exactly was said in the following exchange is somewhat in question, as I don't recall the conversation exactly. For possible variations on this story, I encourage the reader to cross-reference Mike's race report here: http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp... ) Mike looked over and saw my predicament and said something like "Hey man, you're hung! Let me help." After a couple seconds of standing in stunned silence not knowing if he was offering to help with the zipper, issuing a compliment, or coming on to me, I made the safe assumption that he was offering to help with my "hung" zipper. "Okayyy, yeah, thanks." Sure enough, my zipper was hung on my tri jersey. Whew, for a second there, I was afraid the BT term "jockstrapping" had developed an entirely new meaning!
After wrapping things up at transition Mike and I, strutting confidently in our most-recently-confirmed heterosexuality, walked on down toward the race start where we met up with a bunch of other BT'ers. Then Mike, Marcy (dodgersmom), and I did a little warmup swim. There's nothing more refreshing than the sudden jolt of cold water breeching your wetsuit. Anyone else notice it never fails that the first place cold water rushes to is the gluteal cleft?