Tri the Parks - Indian Springs State Park - TriathlonSprint

I placed myself in the front thinkng again that my swim was decent. Well, again I was proven wrong. I started between and slightly behind two guys. When we started, they were pretty much keeping their line. After about 50 meters, we started bumping a bit. I picked up the pace and got myself out of the situation. By the time I had reached the 1st buoy, I was already anerobic and the water was pretty choppy. For some reason, I just don't pull in OWS like I do in the pool. I need to work on getting a good pull in OW.

After the turn, for some reason, I couldn't breath on my right side. Everytime I tried to switch to that side, I would drink more water than take in air. So I just stayed on my left and sighted every 5th stroke. I had issues sighting because after the first turn, it was hard to see. I just followed caps and ended up about 15 - 20 meters to the right of the buoy line. Once I saw the second turn buoy, I aimed right for it. After that turn, I was in my rhythm and moving along. Problem is that it was 500 meters into a 600 meter swim.

Came out of the water ok and headed up the monster hill up to Transition. Part of it was carpeted, so that was a plus.

Not swim a sprint at HIM pace. Also not get discouraged so early into a race. Especially with my worst event.

I had a good transition. I remembered my socks this time although they were a bit tough to put on. I ran well with the bike and as I got to the mount line there were 3 people lined up getting on their bikes. I went to their left and since it was a down hill just jumped on. I was probably going about 10 mph when I jumped on. Problem is that I decided to put my feet in on a slight up hill. I almost got taken out by a guy because I rolled up on his right side. Totally my fault!!

Put my feet in my shoes right after the mount line.

After my stupid move on getting my feet into my shoes, I headed out well. The windy road out of the park was scary in a way. And it was bad for one guy that I saw curled up in the fetal position against the wall of a bridge right before the road. The park ranger saw him, so I kept going.

Right out of the gate, you have the longest climb. As I found out from the pre-ride, I switched into my small front and climbed up it fairly well. Passed a fair number of people, including the guy that yelled at me for coming up on his right. Once I got to the top I switched to my big ring and started to get my motor running. I was consistantly passing people the entire time. I kept glancing at calves to see what ages I was passing. I tried to encourage as many as I could, but for some reason it was harder to do this race.

One guy almost cut me off as he was trying to pass and I was coming like a freight train. It was on the false flat so I don't think they realized why they were slowing down. He said sorry, and I said, "No worries". At around the 4 mile mark, I passed a guy that was 27 and he latched onto my rear wheel. I could tell because I could see his shadow next to me with the sun behind us. I never looked back at him, but dropped it a gear and he was off the back in less than a minute! Bastard trying to cheat on my wheel...I'll be damn.

Then as we approached the turn around, I passed a guy on the downhill and he pushed it up the next hill to get in front of me. So this motivated me a bit and I picked up the pace again. I saw that he dropped off before the turnaround (1/2 mile later). I saw my friend Marc (MarcT) going the other way as I approached the turnaround and he was looking good.

The way back was uneventful until about the last 2 miles. I caught a guy from Team Gu on the last climb and he game by me on the long downhill going into a left turn into the park. I went to go by him and realized that I would probably run out of room so I yelled to him telling him that he had the inside line and I wouldn't cut him off. Last thing I wanted was to try and take it hard inside and have him slam into me.

After the turn, I passed him witout a problem. Apparently, as I found out afterwards, he was pissed that I yelled at him. No matter, I had already made up 3 min on him and was going to beat him into transition.

Work on climbing! Georgia is hilly, Virginia is not. I just never felt fast on the course. For sprints, I want to work on sitting on red line the whole time and see where I blow up.

I mistimed where I should have taken my feet out of my shoes. I took them off about 250 meters too soon. But when the line came, I was ready! I flew off the bike and charged into T2. I actually heard someone say, "Wow". I love getting to the dismount line and looking polished. I think that's my favorite part.

Ran uphill to my bike spot. I was 3 racks in from the end, which was easy to find after the swim, not so much after the bike. I looked for my shoe color. I thought I saw mine but they were T5's, not T4's like mine. Then I spotted my stuff.

For some reason, I took off my sunglasses too and it threw off my rhythm. It only cost me about 2-3 seconds though. I was out pretty fast and on the run. I had issues putting my race belt on while running down hill. I came into Transition just behind Marc and yelled at him to move his A$$ so that I wouldn't catch him.

Keep my sunglasses on.

When I came out of Transition, I saw Marc in front of me and another guy from All3Sports. Marc held me off for just over half a mile and I was watching him and another guy behind him in their Newtons. But the T4's quickly overcame the Newtons.

At the first turnaround, I had just passed Marc and saw that there were like 8 people on my tail. Wow that turnaround was crowded! Then as the hills started, The All3Sports guy and I were playing cat and mouse. The Gu guy came by me and was looking strong. I kept him in check knowing that I had a 3 min lead on him already. At around the first mile marker a 45 yr old guy (can't remember his name), came by me looking strong. He ended up getting 2nd overall and I heard Kona is on his race calender every year.

It was interesting as the hills were sapping so much out of me. But I would make up tons of ground on the down hills but lose it on the uphill. I guess people just don't know how to work the down hill. Going into the first campground I knew I was in for a world of hurt. I don't think the campers were expecting us to come through because they had bewildered looks on their faces.

But as I went around the bottom part and saw the uphill...I knew it was going to be bad. I shortened my stride and survived it. Little did I know that this was the little brother of the second campground hill. On this down hill, I passed the All3Sports guy and he came back by me on the uphill. I swear to you that I saw hand holds on the hill coming out of the second camp ground. I moved to the middle of the road because I knew it would be less steep there.

Once we were on the main road again, I closed the gap on All3Sports guy because I was told to never let them beat me. My plan was to sit on him and pass him the last 1/2 mile when we got to the grass. It looked as if we were both running top end at that point. At least I knew I was because I couldn't breath deeply because my HR was too high. Kinda like hiccup breathing.

So as the final turn came, he took off and I went to switch it into another gear and guess what?? I already was in my top gear!! I had nothing and I had been running at the top of my range since the camp ground (3/4 mile). He beat me to the line by 7 seconds, but I started 3 min behind him. I had no idea if anyone was behind me, so I kept pushing all the way through the line and I heard Nan yelling for me which is always great.

Uphill finishes should be banned is all I have to say. They suck!! I think they should all be down hill and they give you a skate board about 100 meters from the finish line. Wouldn't that be fun? Gives new meaning to finsh line catchers.

Nothing really. With my lack of interval work and hill training, this was a good effort. I'm just not a sprinter and don't have that next gear required for these events.

I got a water and hugged Nancy. She's alwasy so supportive I don't know how I'd do any of this without her Love and Support. Marc wasn't far behind me, so I waited for him to finish. He gave it his all so I grabbed him and forced him to keep walking and got him into some shade until his HR came down. He did a great job.

After that, we went to find others that we knew and cheer them on. I found myself at the bottom of the final climb and decided to cheer on everyone coming and going. It was so awesome to see people perk up when I would get on them to "Don't let them get away" or "Focus on the top and chop your stride". It was really motivating. I saw Lou and told him to get his butt up the hill and he did.

I had about 6 people come up to me after the race and Thank me for encouraging them. I think I might do this in more races. It's so easy to just sit around with all the "big boys" and discuss shaving 3 more seconds off of your time or who won vice helping others cross the line. I think I got more enjoyment out of encouraging people up the hill.


Lack of Interval Training, Hill work and only one workout in the 4 days prior to the race. Family comes first.


For those of you who care: I defended my Darkie Division Championship!

In regards to the race, I think it was put on well. The swim started a bit late, but nothing major. The only thing I would have liked to see is a couple of more volenteers between the run exit and the downhill. People were milling around there when the BOP'ers were starting their run. I had to get on a couple of people that almost took out a guy starting his run.