Luray Triathlon

It's race weekend! This weekend was the Luray Triathlon: Swim 1500 meters, Bike 25 miles, Run 10K.

I had really no expectations on this race. Coming off an injury and my DNF at Ironman, I was really just looking forward to having a good time. I drove up race morning with Carol after crashing at her place (and watching Michael Phelps swim in the Olympics!) to join Team Z for race day.

Although the swim was wetsuit legal, I elected to not use mine. Ok. I did not bring it. I wrongly assumed that the water would be too warm to allow wetsuits and felt like bringing it would be too cumbersome. It turned out the water was 74 degrees, and wetsuits are allowed for anything below 78 degrees. Oh well. It would be fun to swim sans wetsuit and I was not trying to podium or anything, so who cares if I did not have the wetsuit to help me go faster?

The swim was rather murky, especially at the start. It seemed as though I was swimming through the black abyss. I had trouble sighting buoys as well, and was seemingly swimming very wide and off course. No biggie. I kept my cool and just enjoyed the swim. Swim time: 33:07.... not bad for no wetsuit (for me).

Finishing the swim, I saw Carol pass me, who started a wave or two after me. I tried to catch up with her for camaraderie sake, with no luck. She's just too darn fast in the water. (And she was swimming without a wetsuit too.) I did manage to catch up with her in transition though.

I had heard that the bike course was hilly. To my surprise, it was not too bad. The weather was cool and we even got to hit a section of fog on the course. It seemed to me that the bike course was a net loss in elevation, or at least in the easier direction. About the middle of the first of two loops, I passed by Kat Rich. She began to jokingly curse out that she was thrilled she was ahead of me and "mad" I was passing. Ha ha. Some fun competition never hurts.

I did make a nutritional error, however. I had become accustomed to long distances and prepped my nutrition as such. I had some Clif Bloks, a couple Gus, and two bottles of Accelerade. After downing most of one bottle and Clif Bloks, my stomach began to get upset: too many calories. I was hammering on the bike harder than I would during a training ride, with my heart rate approaching my anaerobic threshold. My legs and heart were handling it just fine, but as a result of going relatively hard, all the blood was in my legs, not allowing my stomach to digest the calories. One would think after all the triathlons I have done, I would have learned how to race by now, but alas, apparently not. Needless to say, I had to back off eating and drinking to avoid more stomach upset, or even worse, vomitting. Luckily, it was cool enough that my body could survive without fluids. The lesson learned there is to stick with lighter Gatorade and water for short distance triathlon.

Kat and I passed a couple more times on the bike course, as she caught up to me as I dealt with stomach distress. Hmmm... with the fun trash talking, I had to find a way to drop the hammer a bit and cross the bike finish line before her, which I did. Bike time: 1:37:02

She and I shared some good nudges in transition, and I managed to get out on the run before her, knowing full well, she'd likely catch up with me on the run.

The run was fun, but I did eventually start to suffer from a calorie deficit. Towards the end of the run, it was over an hour since I consumed any calories. Not liking the sports drink on the run course (Heed- YUCK!), I stuck with water. I had to take a few walk breaks, but overall, moved along fairly well. The nice thing about the run course was that it was two out-and-back loops, which allowed for many opportunities to see a friendly face.

Upon finishing the first loop, I saw Ed, who high fived me, and gave me a smack on the butt, mentioning "how does it feel to run SHORT course!?" He's pushing me to stick with short distance triathlon from now on. I did tell him later that I would like to go long just one more season (it would be nice to finish an IM strong and not have to go to the ER), and then promise to stick with short course.

About the last mile of the run, my bad knee began to bother me a bit. I wound up sort of galloping into the finish, definitely favoring my right knee. Ug. It wasn't too bad, but a little tender. I continue to nurse it. Run: 1:04:08.

A good race. One I'd certainly do again. Afterwards, the weather was so beautiful, it was nice to sit back, relax with the team, and hang out. Saturdays just don't get much better than that.