Triple T Race #4

Sunday finally arrived but not without Saturday night going off without problems. We again arrived back at the hotel a bit later than expected. We didn't even haul in the gear...I didn't want to deal with it. I stretched out, showered and attempted to wash my nasty uniform.

I was feeling pretty good that morning. I was definitely tight but I was energetic and ready to take on the days events. We were a bit lethargic leaving the hotel and getting to the race site. Once at the site, I took care of all those things that we failed to do the night before.

The whole weekend was unsupported. This means there were no bottle exchanges on the bike course. To assist the athletes, they placed a couple of tables out at the bike turnaround where everyone placed their bottles. Imagine 300 athletes placing 2-3 bottles on a table. How in the world were you expected to find your particular bottle. Thinking ahead, I left mine with Jess and told her I would meet her on the road.

It was yet another cold morning and it didn't help that my uniform didn't dry out from the night before. It was quite the icky feeling putting on damp shorts and shirt in really cold weather. This actually lowered my body temperature even more. I think my teeth were chatter like I have never seen before. As a result, I skipped the bike and swim warmup (big mistake).

Swim:
By the fourth race, the excitement and energy is gone. We all made the death march to the beach. The swim start was so uneventful. I started the swim by slowly walking into the water and talking to the other athletes. Rather than diving into the swim, I just kinda fell over laughing. Time to swim.

First lap was really good. I found tons of people to draft off of and used that to my every advantage. I was feeling really good until the second lap. At this point all the swimming began to catch up with me. I was tired. I worked through the fatigue but people were passing me left and right. I honestly felt like the only person in the water. When I got out, I actually looked back to make sure there were others in the water.

T1:
Again, I took my time. I was planning on riding with socks but decided at the last minute to ditch them. I was in no hurry so I gathered my stuff and got moving.

Bike:
This is where the race began to come unravelled. I started out of transition and onto the main road. I could tell something wasn't right. I struggled to get up to speed and debated pulling over. I finally convinced myself to pull over and check the bike. Front wheel was flat. FUCK! I was only about 1/4 mile into the race and was already flat. I quickly assessed the situation and determined that I could turn around and race back to Jess' car quicker than I could change my wheel. I dumped the bike and dove into her backseat for my second wheelset. At this juncture she was walking toward me a bit so I yelled at the top of my lungs. She heard the call and came running. I grabbed my extra front wheel and threw it on the bike and pumped it up. She topped me off and got me on my way.

In retrospect, I think it was totally my fault. I began to pump my tires this morning and got distracted. I came back to the front wheel being flat. I think I pumped it up again. I don't see why I wouldn't have pumped it. But I guess the air didn't take or the valve was leaky. I checked the tire in Kentucky and couldn't find anything wrong with it. I put air in it and still didn't find a leak. Not sure what happened.

This malfunction threw me. Mentally I was off my game. I easily lost 8-10 minutes time. To make matters worse, I was riding a front clincher and rear tubular. I had a spare tubular on me but not a spare tube. This was a chief concern of mile for the first 5 miles....not to mention trying to play catch up.

We hit the first climb in about 20 minutes. And a climb it was. Gawdzilla it is called. I called it the mini-gaps. It winded back and forth through the mountains for a few miles. As we began the steepest part of the climb, I dropped my chain. FUCK! So I got off and put it back on. Back to climbing. I did my best to catch up with the pack from before. It was really sad when you hit the flats because there you felt exactly how tired you were. I was mashing the pedals and going no where.

At the base of the second hill, I dropped my chain again. FUCK! That's twice. I was nervous about this all weekend and watched the shift every single time. Ok...just need to stay composed. I made it to the final hill and that was the real gut checked. I forced myself up it but I knew the second lap was going to be brutal.

When I hit turnaround, my plan worked flawlessly. I stopped by and talked to Jess. We exchanged bottles and she topped off my aero. I was good to go.

The second lap was brutal. Gawdzilla broke me. I had nothing at this point. My chain dropped at the same exact spot. I was close to the top and I honestly debated pulling off and just sitting down. I was physically spent. I pulled deep from inside and powered myself to the top. Every stroke hurt.

The flats were even more depressing. I will giving it my all and I doubt I was pushing 17 mph. I watched my overall pace continue to decline. The second climb hurt just the same. And just the same, my chain popped off. That's four times. I let out a whole string of words that caused the rides to just look back. I was done. When I reached the summit, I could see the path below. I began to wonder if it was just easier to ride off the cliff. Sure it would hurt but it might save time. Yep, I was delirious. With 10 miles to go I just get counting down the minutes.

The final climb wrecked me emotionally. I wanted to quit. I have never wanted to give up in a race. I was done. Completely spent. The only thought was that when I got off the bike that I was going to sit down in T2 and just cry. It sounded a lot easier.

T2:
This was the longest transition in the history of man. I stepped off the bike and just put my head down. I slowly walked toward transition and let plenty of people pass me. I don't even recall going through transition. I was completely lost. I came walking out of T2 talking to Jess. I don't recall what was said and she said I was just spitting out garbage. I was reduced to the idea of walking the entire 13.1 miles.

Run:
Well I began to run, stopped, walked, run, stop walk (repeat). I didn't make it half a mile before I had to walk. It was that bad. I kept trying. My first mile time wasn't horrendous. I stopped at the portapotty for a brief moment. Run, walk, repeat. It hurt and it hurt bad. My plan today was to walk when I needed and to walk ALL the hills. This meant the first few miles SUCKED. I did what I could when I could. I hit all the aid stations and put back as many calories as I could.

When I hit the peak, I let the momentum take me down the hill. Ahhhhh.....the feel of running. I suddenly felt better. I walked back to the top on the steeper parts and welcomed the downhill. It is amazing how much better I began to feel running. My spirits were quickly lifted. I still stopped a number of times but my walk breaks were much shorter.

All weekend I thought the death of me would be starting out on the second lap. I was actually feeling better at this point. And I was running a bit more consistently. My goal became to negative split the run. At this point I was running a bit of the hills or at least to a certain point. I was still taking in as much hydration as I could. The downhills couldn't come soon enough. I was pumped and the adrenaline was flowing. I was able to step it up and actually began to find a solid stride. I was going to survive this dame race.

Post race:
I felt ok when I crossed the finish line. Of course, I was really disappointed by my performance but overall I was pleased with the weekend. I jumped in line for some food then cooled off in the creek. Rick, Brian and I chilled for about an hour before we finally departed.

		Swim	T1	Bike	T2	Run	Total
Average Time		0:35:45	4:03:57	3:39:07	2:26:52	2:13:46	6:30:21
Best Time		0:22:14	0:50:00	2:44:48	0:48:00	1:26:22	4:42:35
My Time		0:36:36	2:18	3:43:37	2:36	2:20:51	6:45:57
Rank		154	55	182	174	179	168