Mock Orange Bikes Tri-4-Fun

Pre-Race: Packed everything up, over packed just like a Boy Scout.

Made the hour drive to the race site, a little more interesting than an average drive because I forgot the directions and my GPS. I'll wing it, only two wrong turns. Got there, got checked in, and had my arm marked. I found it funny they marked my arm considering my jersey covered it. Transition set up, check.

RACE TIME!!!

Weather: 96 degrees, humidity 55%, heat index 101.

Swim: We were started in heats by 200m time and there were 2 of us per lane. I thought this was odd, especially when they paired me with a really skinny chick. Fat guy expecting to get dusted by the skinny chick. The race started and I felt myself taking off to fast, forced myself to slow down. I did this several times. Half way through my form was slipping I had to rest with breast stroke for 5 stokes. Even with taking my breast stroke break, I finished in 5:09. New PR! Oh, the skinny chick, after first my length I pulled ahead of her by one body length. After I finished my third length I had half a lap on her.

Transition 1- 1:32 I had to put on socks.

Bike: PROBLEM, due to the heat they changed the route to get more shade and have less loops. Unfortunately, the new route was rolling uphill for 5.25 miles of the course. 12 miles and I complete in 52:08.  The new route hampered my big ring boogie strategt. I passed 5 people, and was passed about the same amount of times by others. It did feel good when I passed one guy who had passed me 4 miles earlier. I came to an intersection about 100m after I passed him and volunteer yells to me "good job taking that guy down". That made it feel even better. I had the observation that in the bike section, the first finishers were the the lean guys with fit legs similar to regular cyclists (they probably were cyclists, but I don't know for certain), the middle group was stocky guys, like me, with powerful legs, and the last group was the ultra-lean guys that look like runners.

Transition 2: I was able to get my shoes unbuckled before I got to the transition so I jumped off the bike and left them clipped in. Then I freaked out because someone had left there bike in my spot! I was on the end so I just leaned my bike again the end of the rack, there was not room left to hang it. According to my watch I was there 12 seconds, seems wrong too short , but whatever.

 I was also surprised by all the people who brought buckets, crates, and coolers to sit on. Without a bucket, i did not sit and therefore did not stay in the area as long. That is a good enough reason if not for any other reason not to use one.

Run: this was the hardest part of the event. This was actually shortened to 2.55 miles due to the heat. I was burning up. I ended up running the slowest run ever, an dumping a half cup of water over my head at every aid station. I took 3 two minute walking breaks to lower my heart rate and averaged 190bpm for this section. If they had no shortened the route i would have finished but it was not easy considering the heat.

OVERALL TIME 1:31:14

Post Race: After siting down and drink my Gatorade all I wanted to do was take my shirt off and pace in the shade to cool off. This is unusually for me because I don't like being seen without a shirt on, I was just that hot. At 5 the bike shop hosted a post race party with pizza, garlic bread, and free beer. This is my kind of post race party. The last 5k I ran they had bananas, pretzels, and water. Pizza and beer, that's fat kid food!

This is how I felt:

candid photo, not posed at all!

Thoughts: I had so much fun. It was hard, but felt very rewarding to finish. It was very well organized and the volunteer were so nice and encouraging. Most of the athletes were very friendly; there were only two exceptions that reminded me of a feminine hygiene product, one might use on summer's eve. One of these was bragging about how he had the fastest 100m swim time. It made me laugh when he didn't finish the swim first, he was passed by a woman doing backstroke. I can't wait for my next race in October. I am going to take advantage of my training and several 5k's and 10k's to get faster. Running is my weak link I need to improve. lastly, if the race had been to length and i had walked the rest I still would have been done in under 2 hours so I am going to consider that goal accomplished. Hopefully, I will beat my 30 minute goal on one of those races and can repeat it on my next tri. I can't wait.