Pre-Race: This was a crazy weekend for me to do this race. The wife and kids left for West Virginia Thursday and I had to work late Friday night, so I tried to take advantage of the time. I awoke at 4:30a with Scooby at my side. He had been my bunkmate for the past couple nights while the family was away visiting family. I had arrived home from work the night before at a bout 11p, so was on a short sleep cycle, but no worries the race day adrenaline would get me through. One quick walk around the block to evacuate the body of all remnants (Scooby that is) and we were off into the darkness. Smith Mountain Lake is 2 hours away to the south. Fortunately for me most of the road is highway which Scooby favors, however his long history of car vomiting reared its ugly head about 15 minutes from the lake. No problem, he was fine after that. My triathlete sister and my dad were kind enough to meet me at the lake to watch the dog and view the race. This would also allow me to spend a great weekend with them afterwards. Thanks guys! Nutrition was fine: a banana, granola bar, coffee, and water about 2 hours prior to race. No nausea. Feeling good. Saw my other FCA teammates (Joe and Jeff), met some members of the southwest Virginia huddle (a great group) and headed into the water for a short pre-race swim. Water was cold when you put your head in, but not terrible (or so I thought). About 10 of us gathered on the beach for a pre-race prayer and then the 1st wave went off.
Swim: I was in wave 2 (age 30-49). I hadn’t thought much about where I was going to position myself nor was I too worried. I had been swimming well this year and had done this before. I chatted with a first timer before they blew the gun, reassuring him to take it easy and it would be over before he knew it and on to the bike. I should have heeded my own advice. This was a beach start, so we had to run into the water from the beach, not too crazy but different from my previous deep water start. I ended up about smack in the middle of the pack, not good. I ran into the water and began to fight for space. There were guys poking, prodding, slapping, and grabbing. Not on purpose (I suspect) but looking for an opening to swim. Its hard to put your head in the water and swim with feet in your face and a fist in your back. Things spiraled downward quickly and I was searching for a clearing. This was only half of my problems. I guess there is this reflex called a diving reflex, which happens when you put your face in cold water. It takes your breath away. I went out too hard and now my breathing was out of whack. I ended up sidestroking for a while. God had chosen this moment to humble me. It took me most of the race to get my breathing back and be able to put my head back down in the water a freestyle. I had read about these types of problems, but felt my swimming was good enough to overcome them. I was wrong. I got out of the water at 16:16, which brings to light a great teaching point in triathlons for new athletes. This swim was the worst I could imagine for me at the 750 meter distance. It was still only 2:45 slower than what I would call a pretty good swim at this distance. So for all you non-swimmers who want to enter the sport of triathlons, don’t worry. Get through the swim however you can and learn as you go. It’s not that bad. There was about a 100 yd run up the hill to transition, then another 50 yds to my spot. I was still winded at the rack.
T1: Transition 1 went smooth, but slow. I was winded and a bit disconcerted from my swim, but knew I could make up time on the bike and run. Time 2:09
Bike: We had to run our bikes up about a 15 yard hill to the mount line. I hit the flying mount perfect like I had done so many times as a kid and passed about 4 guys standing there trying to get on there bikes and clip in there pedals. I did not swim as a kid, but I sure did ride my bike a lot. The rest of the bike was fairly uneventful. Its somewhat uphill to the first right hand turn which is an out and back, then its on to the main road with a big downhill and a lot of rollers. We hit the turnaround and that big downhill turns into a big uphill. I like the climbing, because we do so much of it in Charlottesville . It is usually to my benefit in a race. We make the left back into the park then its about 1.5 miles back to transition. I decided on the way in to try slipping my feet out of my shoes before back to transition to avoid having to take my shoes off in transition. It works good and much easier to run down that hill back in to transition with no bike shoes on. Time 39:32
T2: Transition is quick. All it requires is popping off the helmet, sliding into my greased running shoes and running out with my visor and race belt. The only mishap here is I popped off one of the snaps that holds my race number onto my racebelt. Never to be found, I will probably have to buy a new one. Time 0:50
Run: The first 1.5 miles of the run is a gradual uphill. I passed a few folks and a few folks passed me. All in all the run was good. My legs felt OK. In retrospect I might have been able to push a bit more in the middle of the run, but this was not a race that I deemed worth it to risk injury. The way back in has a nice little gut check hill about 300 yds to the finish line. I was not happy when some guy flew by me with about 100 yds to go, but if you have gas left at the end, use it. I was on empty. Time 23:21
Final race time 1:22.06
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