White Lake Half (Page 9)

Dossey02 - 2010-05-02 5:08 PM Wow, that was brutal.

First, congrats to my fellow Clyde, Wayne Weaver, for his 3rd place finish.  Really nice guy.

The swim was indeed nice, almost no contact with other swimmers, good sighting, well marked course.

The bike wasn't as windy as I thought it would be, but still not a cake walk.  My only gripe on the bike was the third water station: supposed to be at mile 45 but I think it was closer to 50-52.  A little disappointing.

The run was a disaster.  I knew it would be tough when I was heading out and noticed a ton the leaders walking in.  I did just fine until after the turnaround.  When I hit the Mile 6 aid station on the way back, I guess that makes it about 6.5 miles in, they were out of water.  I hate HEED.  This was a bit of a mental thing for me, concerned that the next aid station might be out of water too...
Anyway, I made it to the 7mile aid station, hydrated a bit, another wet towel on my head, and took off.  Only made it about another half mile before I had to start run/walking.  Got to the Mile 3/10 station and the volunteers were buying ice from the gas station because they were not being resupplied.  Really disappointing, I expect much more from Setup Events.

I was having a really tough time after that, not because of the water situation, but because I was completely wiped.  I couldn't finish my run training before the race because I rolled my ankle two weeks out and didn't put any more miles on it after that.  Thankfully, no ankle pain on the run, I was just unprepared. 

I caught up with another runner and we ran/walked from mile 10 or so, great to have a bit of company and really kept me moving forward.

Overall a good race and with my ankle and lack of training, my only goal was to finish. 

Side note, there was a guy that did the race on a hand bike, I'm assuming he was in a wheelchair to start.  Totally blew me away, this guy had more heart than any of the other racers.  I had already finished, showered, packed up, and was walking to the car when he came in from his bike ride.  Unreal.  I stopped to cheer him on and got a bit choked up.  Don't know his name, but he's a true athlete.

runnergirl - 2010-05-02 7:10 PM

I wonder if it was you I passed about the last mile or so in?  There were 2 guys chatting and walking and I mentioned something about just trying to survive as I ran (more like plodded by) and one guy said "well then that makes 3 of us."  Was that you by any chance? 

mutri - 2010-05-03 11:02 AM Congrats to everyone who participated this weekend! I was there coaching a few athletes and they all did well including one who dropped 36 minutes off his time from last year in route to a 5:01:xx! Alot of people were struggling out there on the run course due to the heat and for once I was happy to be on the sidelines

bgraboski - 2010-05-03 11:10 AM

Were you out on a bike coaching on the run? 

I saw one guy coaching from a bike and told the guy right behind me, "It's gonna be a REAL long day if you start walking now".   The guy replied something like, "Dude, I'm dying!"  I started laughing out loud because if you would have told me that, I would have sprinted across the road and beat you with my wet towel...and then continue walking!  If that was you, your motivation put a smile on my face (even told my wife about it on the way home)!

maria40nc - 2010-05-03 4:39 AM

Hee hee.. I LOVE that!  I'm going to say that to myself when it's my turn this weekend.

HumanVelocity - 2010-05-04 9:07 AM

That was my friend and I you passed. I have Florida 70.3 so I just swam and rode my race then waited for him on the run to pace him and he was miserable. And we werent chatting, I was pushing him on and he was abusing me. But all in good fun.

By all means it was hot on the run and aid stations 5 and 6 running out of water was inexcusable, and Benji (RD) is making sure that DOES not happen this weekend. The aid station vols didnt call in they were running out of water, so the RD didnt know until the last second when they actually did run out of water.

Congrats to all on a good race and finishing, and maybe we will see you there on Saturday (Volunteering) and raceing on Sunday.

jessica71980 - 2010-05-04 1:04 PM

Congrats to all who races last weekend!  And don't feel bad, I just saw the updated weather forecast for this Saturday: Scattered Thunderstorms, 40% chance of precip. and high of 89!  Of course, Sunday looks beautiful.

jessica71980 - 2010-05-04 1:04 PM

Congrats to all who races last weekend!  And don't feel bad, I just saw the updated weather forecast for this Saturday: Scattered Thunderstorms, 40% chance of precip. and high of 89!  Of course, Sunday looks beautiful.

DMarkSwan - 2010-05-06 1:11 PM

And they probably wonder why more people don't buy pictures. I would have bought a good finish picture from my first race, but they had packed up by the time me and the rest of the slow pokes finished. And who really wants a picture of your self right after the swim. I realize it would be hard to get everyone, but I'd rather have a pic of me actually swimming. I have some good ones taken by family at pool swims and even one in the channel at Wrightsville Beach. Take some really high res shots of sections of the crowd and tag each number visible in each pic.

Umstead Marathon had a finish line photographer, but I haven't seen those pictures either.