Keuka Lake Triathlon Race Report

I drove down to Geneva for a meeting with my Musselman Arts Triathlon co-directors on Saturday afternoon following Luca's baseball game. Adam came down to meet me at four o'clock before taking off to Keuka to go and pick up my race packet. Once on campus of the college, I started getting butterflies. This always happens, especially for the first race of the season. I start looking around at all the tricked out tri bikes, athletes. I always start sizing up my competition, speculating which guys look strong. You can never really tell though. After picking up my packet and purchasing an overpriced stick of glide (which has now been added to my triathlon shower list,) Adam and I drove the coure to check it out. I had never been on the course before, which is kind of ridiculous, considering I do not live very far from any of the Finger Lakes. The swim course was fine, but upon exiting the water, you have to climb up two flights of wooden stairs before you are allowed to take off your wetsuit.

After driving the course and getting a sense of it, I told Adam I wanted to get a couple of nice pictures of the bluff and the area all around because it was so beautiful. Having lived in the area during his childhood, Adam knew all these places that most people would have completely overlooked. He took me to a place called Garrett Chapel. It is nestled on the side of the hill overlooking Keuka Lake. If you did not know it was there, you might not ever find it, as it is hidden completely from the road and there is  a gravel and dirt turn off from the bottom of the hill to get there. What am I doing in this picture? Let's just say that Adam decided to "liven" up the car with some of his odor. This is no normal flatulence mind you—Adam has been known to take lead paint off of walls.

Did I mention, he's single ladies!

Walking up to the chapel

Flying buttresses!

Adam thought the scenery was lovely. Here he is watering the flowers.

Did I mention, he's single ladies!

Adam was just a bit jealous that he was not racing the next morning and made sure I knew. 

Did I mention, he's single ladies!

I was a mess the day before the race. I had to leave the house in a hurry to get to make a meeting with some colleagues Saturday afternoon an hour away, and I was running around the house with my wife trying to find all my race gear. Luca had his one and only Saturday baseball game that morning (of course!) As soon as I got him home from the game, I had to be out the door again. Before you pass judgment and think I am whining—know this: my wife had a concert this past weekend with dress rehearsals almost every night of the week leading up to the concert. I was at home solo all week getting the kiddies in bed. I had zero time to prepare, wash clothes, think. I have been concentrating on getting the dishes done, working on professional obligations and getting to bed early so I don't feel terrible the next morning while training. Okay... I'm whining a bit. I'm done. As the age old adage goes, it is what it is.

I was in bed by 9:30 the Saturday evening. I was pretty comfortable in a strange bed, although I woke up freezing. In the morning I could hear rain coming down incredibly hard outside. Adam had to borrow a couple of sweatshirts from his father on the way out, or we would have been icicles waiting for the day to warm up.

This was the lovely view from the car on the way to the triathlon.

Part of the reason I love the sport of triathlon is the camaraderie that you share with your fellow athletes. One of the first people I saw in transition is my friend and blogger buddy Alexa (who coincidentally, sold me my first pair of triathlon shorts ever three years ago.)

Alexa placed second in her age group, 12th overall. Awesome job Alexa!

Race Day:

Terrible.

The end.

Have a nice day.

I certainly did NOT put together my best race today. Okay, working out the kinks is  not so terrible, and I had several "kinks." First of all, my swim time was dreaded. I spoke at lengths about this in a past post. I got out to the first two buoys decent, but after that I was incredibly wide of the buoys. A conservative estimate is that I swam at least an extra 300 yards. I was fairly fast when I started out, but when I looked up I was a good 50 yards off course from the rest of the second pack and I could see the dreaded triathlon breaststroker gaining on me. I felt completely demoralized in the water!

Okay, out of the water in 33:25. Embarrassing, right? My transition time: not any prettier. I forgot to count the rows where I placed my bike. If it were not for Adam walking up to the transition area, I might still be there trying to find it. T1: 2:47. The bike was okay—not terrific. I pushed the climb way too late and still had plenty in me when I got to the turn around. Bike: 1:19:23 (18.9 m.p.h. average)

Guess what happened at T2? Yup, forgot where my spot was. T2 time: 2:21

Hey! I found my shoes! Finally!

The only "bright" side was my run. I thought I was running fairly slow the whole time, but managed to run 8:19's, despite the fact that I had a woman fall down right in front of me on the run—the run! She was saying hello to one of her teammates running to the turnaround, and she twisted her ankle where the road meets the shoulder and fell to the floor hard. I immediately stopped to assess the damage. She gashed open her wrists pretty good, and she had road burns and blood on her ankle, and chin. I yelled for someone to get the medic, made sure she was alright with two other racers who stopped. I helped her to her feet. Conservatively, that was another two minutes that I "lost." If it were a dude, I might have ran right on top of him on the way to the finish line. Kidding. No race is that important to leave a fellow athlete on the ground.

Here I am with Marit, the young damsel I "rescued" in distress. Holy abs batman!

She could not have had a better attitude. She got herself up and just continued as if nothing had happened to her. Way to finish Marit!

Okay, the first one is out of the way, but I am definitely going to need a "prove-it-to-yourself" triathlon here in the next couple of weeks to fare way better. The good news is I was not sore at all the next day (which is proof I did not work hard enough?)

Ah, the finish line. Despite having a poor race, I had a smile on my face and I had a wicked great time!

Here I am with Chris L. Chris is running Placid in a few weeks. I will be volunteering. Good luck hombre!

Okay, not my best race—by far—but I did have an awesome time, so a lot of great people, made some new friends, and I am super motivated to go out there and kick some serious butt next time around.

A big shout out to my friend Kelly over at trimommylife for an AMAZING first place Athena division finish at Rev3 Quassay!!!   Awesome job Kelly!

Okay, I was back at it this morning with mile repeats. I am not going to let one bad race get me down. Here I go again!

Train Smart!

Redemption: What A Difference A Year Makes

As I was gearing up for the Musselman HIM last season, I went out and did a handful of half-marathon runs. Among them was the CATS half-marathon course out of Mendon Ponds Park in Rochester, N.Y. Having already had a handful of 13.1's under my legs, I felt confident that this was going to be the proverbial "walk in the park" run. What I did not know, is that this course is incredibly hilly—as in 50 rolling hills. Sure, you get to go down them too, but, allow yourself to let your legs go and you will be silently ripping your hamstrings to shreds and feel miserable by mile nine. I vaguely resemble that remark. When my running buddy Vanessa came home after finishing graduate work, she said "We have to get out there again and seek redemption on that course." Yes, it pretty much kicked all of our butts. I walked and jogged the last 5k. I am happy to report that this year was indeed different. Vanessa, Adam, Manuel and me went out and ran the CATS course on Saturday. With one bathroom break along the course, I finished in 1:49. Manuel and Adam finished about 40 seconds ahead of me. Vanessa took two bathroom breaks and nearly caught us. It is amazing how much easier it is to run when your bladder does not feel like it is about to explode. Following our run, we headed over to the local bagel shop and fueled up on the depleted glycogen levels and got some much needed protein—mine in the form of 2% chocolate milk. Great recovery drink!

The day after our half, Manuel, Scott, and I were going out for a little 30 mile shake out before our 50-miler the next day which included a lot of hills. We got about 12 miles out when Scott (who has the worst luck on a bike than any other human being I have ever met) decided to have an altercation with a stone garbage receptacle, bending his front rim, drawing some blood, and leaving him bewildered and frustrated.






This is a picture of how Scott should look. Notice he is on his bike.

This is a picture of Scott after a trash can ran into him.

Here is Scott crying over his wheel because he can not continue his ride.

There is a happy ending to the story. Manuel's friend Summer lives in town. Summer picked up Scott and his busted ride and drove him back to my house. Scott high-tailed it to the bike shop that was closing in a half hour on the other side of town (about a 40 minute trip form where we were.) Luckily, Scott Audi comes equipped with the all important flux capacitor. He made it to the bike shop, got his wheel fixed and we were out attacking hills the next morning around Canandaigua Lake. 

Speaking of Canadaigua Lake.... we headed over to Kershaw Park on the north end of the lake around 7:00 a.m. for a mile swim. Surprisingly, the water did not feel that bad with our wetsuits on. Of course, I had not yet plunged my head into the frigid blue deep. It took me a good five minutes to exhale normally in the water. The good news is that I felt fine after a few hundred yards, but I couldn't spot worth a lick. My goggles were really fogging up and me. I will have to go and get another pair before the Keuka Lake Triathlon this Saturday. As we transitioned from our wetsuits to our bikes, a rider came up and introduced himself and asked if we planned on going around the lake. His name is John. John is probably in his late to early 50's, great shape and was riding a Cannondale. When we first started out around the lake, we were all concerned that John was not going to be able to keep up with us. Little did we know that John crushed it on the climbs. There was a climb on the south side of the lake that he was ahead of me by a decent hundred yards. I would have taken a picture, but I probably would have fell off my bike in the process. Looks can certainly be deceiving. He took us on a couple of really steep climbs from the base of the lake up back up to the road that circles around the lake. 

Here is John telling this dude how bad he kicked the four of our butts up those climbs..."These young dudes with their matching team outfits... how cute..."

Right before we got back on and rode back north.

Doesn't Manuel look like he should be 

in comic books? He even stands like a superhero.

John and his self proclaimed "Rag-Tag" team that

we met along the way. Great guys. 

A nice steady low grade climb heading north.

Adam in the aero position. 

My new "old" ride. 

It isn't Colorado, but it is really beautiful!

The Big Deal:  Did I mention that I was Runner of the Week over at ncrunnerdude.blogspot? I would like to thank Thad for asking me to participate. 

If you have not checked out his blog yet, do so. This cat is the real deal. He updates daily with posts ranging from injury prevention, nutrition, strength training, shoe reviews, and training. I like that fact that he believes that running should be an inclusive activity. 

It was great answering the questions he asked me. It made me reflect on just how far I've come since my earliest days running two miles on a treadmill in graduate school. 

Getting ready for the Keuka Lake Triathlon this weekend. The weather report is calling for the possibility of thunderstorms in the morning. A possible du? More soon. Train Smart!