My First Age Group Win and the Loss of a Comrade
1187
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335 days
TriSooner posted 16 weeks ago.
Your bottle is in a better place. It's time to move on and let the healing begin.
668
Member
307 days
jsk85 posted 16 weeks ago.
Pretty impressive to pop out 7:00 min miles with "little run training"...well done overall, and an AG win is always sweet.
As for the bottle, in time the pain will pass. I leave my bottles everywhere so never get too attached....I guess I'm afraid of commitment
167
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295 days
chekmarks posted 16 weeks ago.
i just looked at the bottle on my bike, a seasoned veteran, and teared up a little. i'm so sorry for your loss.
629
Member
720 days
Ironmom posted 16 weeks ago.
Tis better to have loved and lost that bottle than to have thrown it away in a water station handoff.
Congrats on your age group win!
Blue Skies, -Robin-
http://ironmom.blogspot.com/
542
Member
301 days
jhudalla posted 16 weeks ago.
There is always a cost to victory. Try to think of the bad memories of that bottle. Remember the time it didn't want to stay up w/ you and watch that movie? How about that time you pulled it out of the bottom rack of the dishwasher and placed it in the top rack to keep it from melting... and it didn't thank you. It'll numb the pain.
Congrats on the ag win. That's all I'm shooting for!
Weary is the path that does not challenge.
109
Member
1226 days
JMA posted 16 weeks ago.
Nice job! Congrats on the win. FYI, this is the first year they've added the Sprint distance to that event. What did you think of it? I thought the narrow roads were just slightly crowded with bikes, but I didn't see any wrecks because of it. Maybe people were being more careful due to the rain...
Sorry 'bout the loss of your compatriot.
4479
Member
1632 days
kylie posted 16 weeks ago.
congrats on the race! And so sorry about the bottle... I have gone back and looked for mine after launching them before, but don't always find them.
691
Member
1140 days
deepbluex posted 16 weeks ago.
I feel your pain but I like to think that great victories require great sacrifices. In your case, perhaps the lighter weight from not having a quart of liquid to haul could have bought you a little extra time. In the end, that bottle served as a brave little soldier along the march toward ultimate glorious victory forever.
4910
Member
1714 days
beads1985 posted 16 weeks ago.
I hate losing stuff. I am sorry for your loss.
Nothing to it, but to do it
3354
Member
1400 days
RV posted 16 weeks ago.
Nice job on the race!
Tho, isn't that abandoned equipment? Sorry but we must DQ you! ;)
Oops only a time penalty:
h. Abandoned Equipment. No participant shall leave any equipment or personal gear on the race course. Any violation of this Section shall result in a variable time penalty.
RV
It takes a long time to get good. - Scott Molina
Slow is smooth; smooth is fast. - Rich Strauss
578
Member
183 days
jtrimom posted 16 weeks ago.
RV wrote:
Nice job on the race!Tho, isn't that abandoned equipment? Sorry but we must DQ you! ;)
Oops only a time penalty:
h. Abandoned Equipment. No participant shall leave any equipment or personal gear on the race course. Any violation of this Section shall result in a variable time penalty.
way to kick the poor soul while he's in mourning....tsk tsk
288
Member
302 days
CadenceGuy posted 16 weeks ago.
I thought it was great. Im was a huge fan of the 40k bike ain the sprint distance as Im sure many would be. Id like to see that format or something similar taken in by my local RD's here around Michigan. I thought the day was great except for the two hours I had to wait to get my cowbell, haha.
229
Member
310 days
xc800runner posted 16 weeks ago.
Was this Evergreen? I raced the Oly. Sort of...
The rain was aweful. Had a nice chat with Rhodes while setting up transition and gave him a weather report from my iPhone. The outlook: not good. Worse was the 1.1 degree drop in water temp overnight to 77.9, thus making it wetsuit legal. Much to my chagrin, as I left mine in Chicago the night before.
Still came out of the water 4th in my wave (20:49 for 1500) and passed a guy in my AG in T1 (T1 34s) while he was fiddling with his wetsuit. Grabbed my bike and was super excited to get out on my new Zipp 900. Then, at the timing mat on the exit, I slipped and went down. Slid into a patch of gravel and tore up my left leg, shouted a few profanities, and feared my bike (new disc) was damaged. Fortunately, it stayed on the timing mat, while I did not. Picked up the bike and tore off, averaging 44 kph for the first 4k, with my blood and rain water cascading down my shin. I then looked down to see what was the matter with my right foot, as there was considerable pain at my big toe, and saw a bloodsoaked toe box of the shoe. Pulled over to the left to get out of the way and check out my foot. When I took off my shoe, I noticed a large cut in the top of my foot, right where the big toe flexes, with a rock still imbedded in it. I decided it would be better to turn back and get medical attention rather than completely tear up my foot 2 weeks before Steelhead 70.3. Not the sub 2-hour day I was hoping for, but I got in a good swim at least. The foot is still terrible. I can't kick on the swim, tighten the toe strap on my bike shoes, or run without agony. But that'll go away when I trot through the chute in my half.
Congrats on the win. As for the bottle, think of it like a nice pair of running shoes. You got some good use out of it, but when they're worn out you replace them. I've lost 2 bottles to launching this year, and a 3rd when the bike it was on was stolen. Didn't care so much about the bottle on that one. I was most upset about the stolen bike because I'd just put on a new Michelin Pro2 Race that morning. Had 5 miles on the thing. And now I don't have a matching set for my training rides.
I spent the weekend moving my girlfriend to Illinois which started friday with a seven hour drive and a number of 'boxes up stairs' carrying before it was me time. I finally was able to give my bike a once over at about 11 friday night and was able to sit and relax shortly there after.
Race Morning: I woke up from my insomnia at the crack of 4:15. I of course was soo out of place staying at my parents and getting things around for the move that I didnt bring my normal race morning nutrition and settled for a power bar (which I hate) and some cereal (special K) from the box as I drove. Did I mention it rained torenchal down pour style the whole hour drive to the site?
Pre-Race: I got around and did my normal routine, which never changes, in the rain and was able to get the first spot on my heats rack so there was plenty of room to make myself at home.....In the rain.......
Swim: The rain quit for the start of the swim and my heat was off. I made it to the turn around bouy 1st in my heat and still felt really strong. I was passed about 15yds passed that bouy and just decided to sit on his feet and draft going back in. We were swimming straight as I was still sighting just not as much but the heats behind us decided they wanted to swim on the other side of the bouys so we got slowed down when myself and the guy in front of me collided a good number of timea with the other heats......off to T1
Swim - 9:42 1/13
T1 - 1:24 3/13
Bike: I was excited for this today because its not very often to have a sprint distance with a 40k bike and since Im still not running I wanted to take advantage of this. Wind was blowing to the north so heading south for the first 12 plus miles kinda sucked but I knew we had to get back somehow so I was patient and just kept the cadence consistent. We hit the turn around point and the speed picked up significantly. With ten miles to go I hit a nice little bump and thats when it happened, my bottle came out of the cage leaving me with no fluids at all. (TAPS...........after 2500 miles on the bike and countless miles in my car with me I send you off with a tear. You will be greatly missed and never forgotten..sniffle) I backed off a little not knowing how my body would respond for the run if I hadnt drank anything in the last half hour. Off to T2......
Bike - 1:08 1/13
T2 - :56 1/13
Run: The run was another run, and me with still no run training. It had started raining with about five miles left on the bike and was still pouring for my whole run. There was a couple of small rollers and was content to run my 7 minute miles. I was able to stick behind a guy for about 3 quarters of a mile then i picked it up a little and was able to finish strong.
Run - 22:19 2/13
Total Time: 1:42.42 Good enough for 1st in my AG (M25-29) and 8th overall!
It was a great day over all minus the rain. It was also the first triathlon that my parents had ever been to and even more so to see me race so I was glad to finish as well as I did with them there.