Location: Charleston, SC
Date: May 1, 2010
Placing: 6th Overall
Format: 1.2-kilometer swim/56-mile bike/13.1-mile run
Race Photos
Results: Click Here

It's all fun and games...until someone gets eaten by an alligator. I knew there was a reason it was taking me so long to write this race report. And that reason is this: Triathlete Attacked by Gator. The athlete is just fine, but the irony here is the 'gator scare' at the TryCharleston Half-Iron Triathlon. When I signed up for the first-year event back in January, someone made an offhand remark to me about swimming with the gators. I took it very light-hearted. I mean, they wouldn't put us in a lake with gators...would they?

A few days prior to the event, I received my 'pre-race' event email that provides important instructions. I was aghast to see that the big news was how the promoter had hired a 'gator catcher' to sweep the lake as well as all kinds of other information pertaining to gator sightings, etc. The promoter stressed that safety for the athletes was paramount and that everything had been done to assure we would all be just fine. What I had originally thought of as a joke - was completely serious. I know the promoter very well; he puts on fantastic races and I trusted him implicitly. Of course, I didn't see him going for any swims in the lake. I'm just sayin...

The clues were everywhere...

The gator thing got to be a bit of a joke (especially AFTER the race was over). Someone had even made up "I swam with the gators" stickers. I told the promoter that next year the awards should have an alligator theme to them. Cool awards are the number one reason I pick races these days - and a silver or bronze alligator head? Well, let's just say I already dusted off a spot on the mantel. Although I'm not sure that Janis is on board with this one.

The venue was a charming KOA Kampground. Janis and I had stayed in this campground many years ago. At that time it was several miles from civilization. Now it's not even a mile from a Wal-Mart...which I guess still means they are miles from civilization. I highly recommend it as a camping destination. Janis and I don't mind 'roughing it' but not usually on a race weekend so we opted to rent one of their cabins for the weekend. A front porch swing, plenty of shade and an air conditioner were all we needed. The first time you stay 200 yards from the start of a race, you swear you will do it every time. Janis and I do it as often as possible; the ease of walking to registration - and the event start - is worth almost any price. You can never really 'forget something back at the hotel' when the hotel is on the start line.

Of course, there is a small drawback for someone like me. I'm not like most competitors; I like my sleep. I honestly believe that some athletes were waking up just as I was going to bed the night before the event. Maybe some people don't have their act together. Maybe some people like to sit around and build up nervous energy. Not me. If I can wake up 5 minutes before the gun goes off, that's what I'm doing. Unfortunately, the loudspeakers, music and general mullling around started at what seemed like 3am. The only line that ever takes a while is the body-marking line. Here's a little secret...go to the drug store and buy your own thick black marker and keep it in your trasition bag. Then you can have your friend or spouse mark you. Shhhhhh - don't tell the promoter I told you this...

Last month, I had some tips published in GO Magazine (our regional fitness/racing mag) that dealt with racng the clock on your bike. The point of the article was that other than proper training, there are quite a few things that you can do to be faster on race day that have nothing to do with physical effort - and have a lot to do with using your noggin'. Knowing the rules and other pertinent info is crucial to saving time and energy on race day. Why do I mention this? Well...EVERY time I do an open water swim, I ask the race officials how we have to handle the buoys that are placed in the water. I do this for my own edification, but because I am a really nice guy I ALWAYS ask this just before the start; when the race promoter has the microphone in his hand and is supposed to have everyone's attention.

Here I demonstrate how to go around only the yellow buoys. And yes, that is my arm...and yes, Janis is that good with a camera.

You see, we typically swim way out into the water and make a giant loop (or two) consiting of a series of left or right-hand turns whenever we get to a certain color buoy (in this case, right turn at every yellow buoy). The rule is that we HAVE to pass on the OUTSIDE of these buoys. In between these buoys, the promoter places intermediate buoys designed to help you along the way. These buoys are a different color (orange in this case). These intermediate buoys are not always lined up very straight between the yellow ones; sometimes they are quite a bit off course. You DO NOT have to go around the orange buoys on any particular side. As a matter of fact, you can ignore them completely. Your only directive is to go as straight as you can from yellow buoy to yellow buoy and be sure to swim outside them when you get there. I know this is a long explanation but you can probably guess the reason I bring it up...read on.

All the Elite and Elite Master races - men and women - started together in the first wave. My coach Rick and I decided our only goal before the start was for me to feel completely comfortable in the water before the start in order to avoid starting too fast and possibly becoming hypoxic as I've had happen in the past. So I got into the water several minutes before the start and made sure I got warmed up without wandering off and looking like a tasty gator morsel. At precisely 7am, about 30 of us took off on our journey. My warmup in the water had accomplished it's goal and I settled into a rhythm. I had three thoughts..'swim straight', 'swim smooth' and 'it's all about the bike and run'. After a few minutes I had a fourth thought...'for the love of God, will you please quit running into me'. As always, every time I glance up, I was right on target; and yet evry once in a while someone would run into me at what appeared to be a 90-degree angle?! It would get annoying but I managed to eventually seperate myself from them. We were swimming a giant clockwise triangle twice. Both laps when we rounded the second buoy and were supposed to bee-line back to the shore, I could see swimmers heading out to go around a misplaced orange bouy. Tsk, tsk. Well, I tried to save them when I asked the question...

Swim? 35 minutes. Bike? 2 hours 16 minutes. Run? 1 hour 32 minutes. Ensure Slam? 1.5 seconds...

I dragged myself ashore after what seemed like a lifetime of swimming and was ecstatic to see 35 minutes on my watch; 2 minutes faster than my estimate that I gave Janis. Of course, even at 2 minutes faster I was still not surprised to see just a couple of bikes remaining on the rack for the Elite racers. I've grown accustomed to this sight. It's really not so bad. For one thing, everybody and their bikes are out of my way and I have plenty of room to transition. It also fires me up a bit to know that I am so bad at swimming - and so good at the other 2 disciplines. My transition was quick and included slamming a chocolate Ensure in about 1.5 seconds. I was so fired up today that Janis actually heard me say under my breath "Now you're gonna see some serious shit" as I took my first pedal stroke just a few feet from her.

What did I hear you just say? Now they're gonna see some serious what?

And if you'll excse the expression - some serious shit it was. I had not felt this good on my bike in over 2 years. It was like I was back to my old self. This sounds good but it was bad, very bad. I went overboard. I completely disregarded the heartrate zone I was supposed to be in and rode like I was possessed. As much as people left me drowning in their wake in the water...I left them with wind burn on the bike. I caught my friend and teammate, Gail Kattouf shortly before the 20-mile mark (she was the women's leader) and at the halfway point I was still averaging 26.3 mph. I got to the 'bumpy road' that several people had mentioned and I loved it - it reminded me of my bike racing days and I just kept it rolling. I had about 8-10 miles to go when it first hit me. I looked down to see that my HR had dropped considerably and was now having a bit of trouble getting up to where it should be. About the same time, I spied a group of 5 or 6 riders spaced out about a half-mile ahead of me. I kept my head down and caught them just as they turned onto the main highway for the final 6 miles directly into a headwind.

I never like to see riders rider anywhere near each other. I raced bikes for nearly 30 years and I know that you can still get a small draft even several yards back. When I am faced with the situation of riding an equal pace as another rider, I either take the lead or I ride way back...I'm talking 60 or 70 feet. I mean if you can ride 10 feet behind someone and stay there, why not ride 60 feet behind them and remove any doubt that you are drafting? In this case, I took the first option. I went around all of them and rode my tempo at the front. The sad part was that I had now reached a point where my body was out of rocket fuel and I was merely riding on auxilliery power. The last 10-miles of the ride, my pace went from 25.5 to 24.7 and my heartrate went from the mid-140s to struggling to stay in the mid-130s. Occasionally, I would glance back and the rider behind me was being very good about the rules and was keeping a legal distance...I could not see the riders behind him.

As we approached the turn off the highway, I glanced back one more time. This time, there was a rider sitting less than 2 feet from my wheel. This really hacked me off. I yelled at him "Are you passing or drafting?". No response. I looked back 15 seconds later. He was still there - blatantly cheating. I don't know about his habits for the first 50 miles of this ride, but I'll keep my guesses to myself. I moved over and slowed down for an instant - forcing him to pass me. Sorry, racer #2 - but your name has now been entered into my 'cheaters' notebook right next to my most recent entry (Floyd Landis). I'm sure my friend Gregg Cromer will not be happy to hear that you beat him out for 3rd place Master today...by 11 seconds. Sorry, Gregg...you should have been 3rd...

Five of us pulled into transition within a few seconds of each other and I led the way. Even with my energy dropping in the last miles, I was a couple of minutes ahead of my schedule and was one of 3 riders who took quite a chunk of time out of the rest of the field on the bike. In transition I heard several references to us being 5th - 9th place. I slammed another chocolate Ensure and four of us ran out of the transition shoulder to shoulder and the foot race was on. Just one week earlier, I had set a new PR at the Greer Half Marathon, running a 1:16:34. My running has been phenomenal this year and as I took my first few steps, I hoped that my feeling of weakness on the bike would not affect my run so much. Unfortunately it was not to be.

Funny how T1 and T2 for me are both pretty much empty. It makes for 'roomy' transitions; but in all honesty I'd still rather the racks be full when I get out of the water. P.S. Note the 2 completely full water bottles behind my seat that I carried for 56 miles...

Now I know you get tired of hearing this but...I honestly don't even notice the temperature unless we're closing in on 100 degrees. A Texas boy for too many years, the heat is my friend. Even after hearing so many people complain about it after the race, I still had never given it a second thought. So much so, that I only drank a half bottle of liquid during the bike section!! I'm not proud of this fact - and I'm sure the two 'rookie' mistakes I made were starting too fast on the bike and not drinking enough - but my body had no adverse reactions to the heat. Fortunately for me - most everyone else was dropping like flies. Unlike most people, I didn't 'die' on the run. No. I simply never had the energy to start with. I left transition at what felt like a jog-run pace and held that exact same pace for the entire 13 miles. I never needed to slow down...but I never had the strength to speed up.

I could tell just a few strides in that this was not going to be pretty. Oddly enough, it wasn't that I was suffering...it just felt like I had no juice in the tank.

I watched as Peter Kotland and another athlete in our little group gently ran away from me. I had given Janis what I believed to be a conservative estimate for my run at 1:26. This time would have been the fastest of the day and would have left me as second overall. Peter Kotland would turn the fastest run time of the day at 1:27 and ran down everyone except the wimmer (and thus wound up 2nd overall). Woulda, shoulda, coulda. If there was a bright spot about the run, it was that I don't believe I could ever go any slower than I did and I still turned a 1:32...my slowest run ever in a half iron. Conversely, my swim/bike split rivaled my fastest ever.

The run was wierd to me. It's like I was stepping on the gas...but I was driving a Yugo; and a Yugo can only go so fast. The course doubled-back on itself a few times and I took note of who was catching who and how the race was developing. I felt like I wasn't even racing the race, it was like I was a traveling spectator or commentator on the event. I hated how slow I was moving so much that I decided NOT to look behind me. I made it to a turn-around at mile 10 before I saw the inevitable. He was coming...and coming pretty quickly. At mile 12, with little more than a mile to go, I lost 5th place and 1st place Master as Mike Selle from Charlotte, NC ran by. I offered him my last gel - a gel I had been carrying for 12 miles. He thanked me but passed on the offer.

I held onto my pace as I had for the entire run, and finished in 4:27:08. 6th overall and 2nd Master. More importantly...no alligator bites. After the race, I shared my HR and speed data with my coach (which you can see HERE). And it was immediately clear the direction my HR took during the course of the ride. And - like a good coach - Rick spent the next couple of weeks proving to me during my trainng that I would have been equally as fast if I had ridden a consitent HR for the distance rather than starting at 150 and dropping to 135 AND I would have had energy left for the run. He's a pretty bright guy, you know; just don't tell him I said that...he's easier to handle when he's down to earth.

First and second place Masters - TryCharleston Half

Race Notes:
* Most noteworthy oddity of the results? 5 guys named Chris were in the top 12. All you triathletes keep that in mind when naming your next child.
* Kevin Lisska won the event by almost 10 minutes. I'm not sure if he has a pro license or not - but I imagine he could. Kevin beat me by 14:14. However, he only outbiked and outran me a total of 2:20. You can guess where the other 12 minutes were...same story, different year. (Kevin was the only athlete to outbike & outrun me combined, but as one pro triathlete told me a long time ago - "it's a TRI-athlon")
* I missed my pre-race estimate by a little over 5 minutes - all of which (and more) was attributed to the run.
* Even considering a poor run, there are so many things that can go wrong on a long day like this which makes me feel fortunate in the 8 or so half-iron events I've done that my finishing times have all been between 4:18 and 4:33. We'll have to see where we end up after 3 more half-irons this year.
* Neither myself nor my 2 TeamKattouf teammates considered our day as 'stellar', but aside from my 6th overall (2nd Master), Chris Olson and Gail Kattouf took 3rd male and 1st female respectively.

Next Up: By the time I get this report out, I will have done a small 5-mile running race (WarriorDrive5) and be just about ready to take on my second half-iron of the year: Rev3 Quassy in Connecticut.