The Intimidator - Clermont Half Ironman Report

Someone told me long ago, there's a calm before the storm. I know; its been comin' for some time. When its over, so they say, it'll rain a sunny day. I know; shinin' down like water. I want to know, have you ever seen the rain? I want to know, have you ever seen the rain? Comin down on a sunny day? Have You Ever Seen the Rain? Creedence Clearwater Revival

The Clermont Half Ironman, called "The Intimidator" by its organizers was a gut check on John and my training to date as we gear up for the full ironman in Arizona in late November. The event turned out to be both intimidating and a gut check on our training.

John had a golf outing with some friends in North Carolina on Friday, so had dropped off his bike and gear bag for me to drive up from Fort Lauderdale. I arranged to pick him up at the Orlando airport around noon on Saturday for the short drive north to Clermont. We checked into our hotel and headed over to the race site to get our numbers and meet up with friends Keith Seago and Jay Greely who were teaming up to do the event as a relay. Keith was scheduled to do the run, Jay was scheduled for the bike and a third buddy, Paul was scheduled for the swim. Unfortunately, Paul had to cancel, so Keith decided to also do the swim.

The days immediately preceding the event were some pretty hot days in Florida. Saturday was no different. I had planned to either ride a portion of the bike course or drive in Saturday afternoon having missed the bike ride 2 weeks prior due forces beyond my control (see my entry on "Life's Curve Balls"). It was so hot, however, that I quickly decided against any pre-race course preview. I wanted to get indoors and out of the heat to avoid any unnecessary dehydration. We spent the afternoon getting our gear ready for the next day and reviewing nutrition and hydration strategies. John, Jay, Keith and I had an early pasta dinner and turned in early.

With the event teed up as a check on our progress, neither John nor I got too worked up about the event. It was viewed more as a training event. In fact, John, knowing my tendency to go out too hard in a race, told me my mantra for the event was: "Pacing, not racing." Thus, race morning, we calmly went through our routines of setting up our gear and bike stations. On my way to drop off my bike, I came across a couple that had seen the car hit me 2 weeks earlier. "Hey, its the guy who got hit by the car," the guy says. "Yes, its me," I reply, "Glad just to be here."

The Swim

As we await the swim start at the edge of Lake Minneola, John says, "I was calm until now. Now, I've got butterflies." "Me too," I say, "I always get them just before the start." Someone points out that the lake has alligators and they only allow swimming in the lake for the triathlons. An interesting fact. I don't know they figure all the activity of a large group of swimmers keeps the alligators away or they just don't give it consideration. Before we know it, the starters have counted down the first group and then our second group. We begin our 1.2 mile swim.

The lake water seems clean, but is murky as mud. If an alligator was in the vicinity, I wouldn't see it until it was too late. In any event, I try to get into a rhythm and avoid the usual bumping and path crossing that typifies a mass swim. Our friend Keith is swimming in the next group wearing green caps. My strategy is to get to the first of 2 turn buoys before any green capped swimmers overtake me. I make the turn and meet that target. However, by the second buoy turn, the faster of the green caps start overtaking me. I manage to get out of the water in 54 minutes, 4 minutes slower than I expected. I'm guessing that the additional time was due to course corrections or a slight current. Keith & John also take longer than expected, so I don't feel too bad about the extra time.

The Bike

At transition, I take some extra time to put on socks with my riding shoes. I also put bike shorts on over my tri shorts figuring the extra padding will be nice for 56, but even better for the 112 on the full ironman. I want to test this new configuration. As I begin my ride, I find the extra shorts to be no problem. In fact they were so comfortable, I forgot to take the riding pants off for the run and completed the race wearing them over my tri shorts.

The bike course is hilly enough that I'm OK with missing the ride 2 weeks prior. If I had done it, I may not have come back. This is a challenging ride with a series of hills. As John said, the extra speed you make on the downhills doesn't quite even out with the extra work on the climbs. Overall, I'm liking the new tri bike and the areo position. However, about 20 miles in, a guy in a black Camaro passes me and pulls over to the side of the road just ahead of me. He is taking up the bike lane and part of the road. To make things worse, the guy swings open his drivers side door to take care of some business. I can't believe this. After having gotten hit by a 89 year old lady who is late for church, I'm about to plow into a guy dressed in black in a black Camaro. Its like God was trying to take me out 2 weeks ago and now the devil wants a shot too. I swing wide and wonder what else Clermont has in store for me.

The bike course includes a hill called Sugarloaf Mountain that has a reputation for being the hardest climb. After going up a series of hills, I wonder if I've already done Sugarloaf Mountain. Then, I make a turn and see it. No mistaking it. A very long uphill climb. I give it what I can, but I don't do much hill climbing. As I get about 3/4ths of the way up the climb, I realize I'm in the lowest (easiest) gears and I've run out of gears. I'm out of the saddle and slowing. I realize I risk coming to a complete stop and falling, so I swallow my pride and dismount. Fortunately, this humiliation only lasts about 20 yards before I remount and finish the climb.

The rest of the ride is fairly uneventful except that at one point on the course, they still have the markings from the ride 2 weeks earlier. As you look down there are three directions. On the left, the is an indication to turn left the has a label stating "1st lap", in the middle a slightly brighter arrow pointing straight ahead, and on the right, a right arrow with the label "2nd lap." I see a rider up the road straight ahead and decide to follow the slightly brighter arrow pointing straight ahead. Coming up behind me, buddy John is not so fortunate. He gets confused and takes a wrong turn. The road does take him back to the course after adding an additional 5 and 1/2 miles to his ride, doing 61.5 miles compared to my 56 mile ride.

At about the 45 mile point on in, I'm kind of tired of the hills and am thinking that I want to be done with the ride and on the run. Its only my second long ride in the tri bike position and I haven't quit worked up the neck and quad muscles to be comfortable on too long of a ride. As I come towards the end of the bike ride, I note that storm clouds are gathering overhead.

Run Through Hell (If Hell was full of rain and thunder)

After racking my bike and changing over to running shoes, I head out of the transition area. I see buddy Keith coming in the other direction. Since the run course is 2 loops of an out and back course covering just under 3.3 miles, I don't know if he is finishing or half way through his run. As I approach the first water stop about a mile in, the rain is falling so hard, I have to remove my sunglasses as they are more a slighting hazard than a help. A few steps later, I feel the cold flow of the cup of water Keith pours over my neck and back. "You'll thank me for that later," he says as he goes by. I realize that Keith has to run his second lap, so I feel pretty good about my progress.

I make my way out to the turn around point and start back. At about the 5 mile mark, I come across John as he crosses the 2 mile marker. He thinks that the course is a one loop out and back and that I'm at mile 11. As we pass each other I say, "Pacing it, not racing it." He thinks I'm running super strong and am rubbing the mantra in his face. In reality, I am just trying to run a nice even pace to finish up this first lap.

As I start on my second lap, my quads that got extra work on the tri bike, now let me know that they are not happy with me. They start twitching on me that lets me know that soon they will be cramping up on me. I start throwing in walk breaks to forestall a total lock up. To add to the excitement, the rain starts coming down in buckets. Its coming down so hard that the run path is covered in flowing water trying to drain off these rolling hills. My quads don't care and don't seem to be helped by the cooler temperatures of the rain. I am now soaked and semi hobbled. I think back on my hydration and nutrition throughout the bike and run and can find no flaws. I think about my pacing on the bike and run. The bike was clearly more work than I am used to doing, but I did try to keep it in a safe mode. No, I think, perhaps my 50 year old body is just not up to exercising for over 6 hours at a shot. Maybe these long triathlons are just beyond what my body can handle. Whatever the issue, I am determined to finish this event if I have to walk it in.

I begin to fear that buddy John will catch me before the finish. I assure myself that this will mean a long ride home in which he lectures me on proper pacing and nutrition. Not a conversation I look forward to hearing. So, I carry on with a run/shuffle and walking when I start to cramp. I make it to the 9.9 mile turn around without John catching up with me. However, as I head back for the final leg of the 13.1 mile run, we cross paths for the last time. John now realizes that he is closing in on me. I have 3 miles to try and hold him off. The rain takes no note. After clearing and heating up the course to a muggy slog, a new storm comes racing across the sky. This time there is lightning accompanied by very close and and very loud, hand of an angry Old Testament God, thunder. Its at this point that I tell the guy running near me that this area of Florida is the lightning capital of the world. People get struck and killed by lightning in these parts. Another very loud crack of thunder comes down from above. I'm beginning to doubt that the Lord wants me to do triathlons in the Clermont area.

The rain again lets up, but its of little matter. The run course is now a river of water soaking our shoes to the point of slowing us runners even more. To add to the fun, the water stops at each mile have run out of water. Its Gatoraide or Coke. Ok, if that's what your stomach wants at this point, but mine wants water. As I come to the 12 mile mark, my right hamstring muscle decides that it too will cramp. I am stopped dead in my tracks. I look behind me as I try to message the camps out of my legs. No sign of John. I start to walk and am able to get a slow jog going again. As I come to the finish, I think to myself that if my buddy John catches and passes me now, there is no justice. I manage to cross the finish line in 7:02. Not a time I am proud of, but one I will accept with several lessons of additional training needed before November 22nd.

As I talk to some other competitors just past the finish line, buddy John comes in about 54 seconds behind me. We congratulate each other and get some water. John starts telling me about his extra miles on the bike. I decide that its his problem. I officially crossed the finish line first and will not have to be lectured to by him. On a very tough day, its the only victory I've got. On the other hand, Keith and Jay took 1st place in the relay division. Jay joked to John that they had a special award for those participants that rode 61 miles.

Post Race

Clearly, if John hadn't added the extra miles, he would have finished about 20 minutes or so before me. However, he too was having the same questions on the course about his ability to double what we did in this half ironman in about 2 months. He starts to use hedging phrases about doing the ironman, but I tell him that you can never think about an endurance event immediately after a tough course like the one we just completed. "Its like asking a woman if she wants to have more children just after she delivers a baby. Its a bad time to think about such things."

As we sit in a picnic shed eating our burgers and hot dogs, the winds kick up really good and the rain starts coming down horizontally. The course finish area starts to break apart and get blown down. The two of us and several other finishers and family supporters also take shelter. As we watch the finish area slowly deteriorate, we note other competitors coming up to the finish line. We all start cheering and clapping for these competitors that are truly getting the worst of it. The least we can do is give them an ovation. With each new finisher, the clapping and cheering gets louder and longer. These triathletes deserve our appreciation and we are happy to oblige.

After the rains die down for the last time, we collect our thoroughly soaked gear bags and walk our bikes back to our vehicle. Along the way, we talk with a triathlete from Miami who has done the Arizona Ironman. He tells us that compared to the course we did today, Arizona will seem easy. We take some solace from his kind words, but realize we have our work cut out for us.

We return to the finish area to be the last people to get messages. We figured we earned this reward. By the time we get back to our hotel, we are hours past the late checkout time and decide to spend a second night in Clermont. We had planned to clean our gear back at the hotel, but its all such a wet mess, we decide to just leave it where it is and put our luggage around it where we can. We shower, relax a little, then go out for celebratory dinner at Chili's with margaritas to lubricate the festivities. We make small talk with the wait staff and discuss the hard work ahead. Its time to step up the training.

Huntington's Disease Olympic Triathlon

This weekend was a very busy weekend coming off a busy week. Salome & I were scheduled to be at the Breakers in Palm Beach for the Real Property, Estates & Trust, & Probate Law section meeting of the Florida Bar. Knowing Thursday & Friday would be taken up with section meetings, receptions and parties, we decided to squeeze in short brick workouts Thursday morning before heading up to Palm Beach.

I was scheduled to meet with Tony, Carrie, Jerry & Miranda for a 30 minute open water swim at 6:45 AM. I decided to run the 1.5 miles from my house to the beach to meet them. Unfortunately, I didn't get out the door on time and arrived at the beach to see my friends several hundred yards down the beach in the water. Oh well, at least my shoes would get to hang out with their shoes. I got into the water and did a 35 minute swim. I was able to take a sighting of my friends doing their beach jog at about the 30 minute mark. After emerging from the water, I slid on my shoes and ran home. Once I got there, I decided to add on a 10 mile bike ride to do a little bridge work at the 17th Street Causeway bridge. Salome did a similar swim, bike, run at our friends house located on the beach.

The Florida Bar meetings were interesting, but I ended up standing on my feet too long and my calves were sore. I was fearing another calf cramping on Sunday, so I made efforts to not stand as much at receptions and parties. Saturday morning, I managed to squeeze in an early morning swim session in the Breakers lap pool. The meetings on Saturday went too late for us to make it to South Miami for the packet pickup, so we would have to get to the Miami Marine Stadium race site early on Sunday for packet pickup and station set up. While the days in Palm Beach were not particularly demanding from an exertion standpoint, we were both fairly exhausted when we went to bed Saturday night.

Salome and a couple of our friends were registered for the sprint distance, while most of our training group was registered for the Olympic distance. With both events and age group awards going 5 deep, this is a good chance to try to award in the sprint distance. We arrived at about 5:30 AM, which left just enough time to get our numbers, chips, get marked, set up and make a port-0-potty stop before getting down to the water for the start. Before I know it, I was in the water swimming.

My swim took about what I expected, but the bike was a bit of a challenge. With the small Key Biscayne bridge being shut down for repairs, the bike course called for 3 loops with each loop requiring an over and back climb over the Powell Bridge. The sprint distance called for 2 loops, making the bike for the sprint a 16 mile leg. I was fine for the first loop, but with each lap, it got progressively harder to get up and over on the return climb. Salome saw some riders actually get off their bikes and walk to the top. I didn't see that, but I definitely had to get out of the saddle several times to get over that climb. The wind didn't help my time either. No matter. I got through the bike, but wasn't happy with my pace. To add to the slower pace, I also expended extra energy on the bridge climbs that took away from my energy reserves.

Thank God the run course was mostly shaded. Being in the last start wave, I got to see most of my friends on the two laps of the 5K loop course. I really like this run course and hope that more of the Key Biscayne triathlons are held at this location in the future. However, with the extra exertion on the bike, I started to fade on the second run loop. When I realized I would not break 3 hours, I slowed on the run and did a little run/walk the last mile. My final time was better than when I did this course in March at the Miami International Triathlon, but I was frustrated with not breaking 3 hours again at this distance. Oh well, it is August and it got hot on the run even with the shade. On the bright side, my calves were fine. No cramping. It was also the last event we got to do with buddy Jacques Watters who moves onto the North Carolina running and triathlon scene later this month. Find us some good events in the North Carolina region Jacques.

As the only person in the last wave of the Olympic distance, I was greeted by most of my friends cheering me on at the finish. Salome did end up in the awards coming in 4th in her age group. Buddy Ken Merkel also awarded in the sprint, as did new friend Kerry, who was doing her first triathlon ever. Ken's wife, Ana was at the finish line giving out water. She must have done a good job, as she and Ken were going out later that day to get her fitted for a new bike. Carrie and Miranda got age group awards in the Olympic distance, so we stuck around for those awards also.

That evening we held a post race BBQ at our house for all of our friends who participated. We also included buddies John and Rodger, who didn't participate having just come off their week long dive trip. I finally got to hear friend Mandy Miller's stories of her run at the Marathon des Sables, a six-day, 156 mile ultramarathon. I love to hear about these ultramarthons. Not that I have any plans to do one. I find it hard enough to train for the events I'm doing now.

Happy Anniversary! The Fort Lauderdale Sprint Tri

It was this race a year ago that marked my entry into triathlons. It was also the one year anniversary race for wife Salome and buddy Jacques. Thus, we approached this race with a bit of excitement. Not the usual pre-race keyed up excitement; more of a party, let's have some fun, kind of anticipation. The race gave us a one year anniversary gift of good weather, calm waters, and lots of friends participating in the party.

At the package pickup at the Parrot Lounge on Fort Lauderdale Beach, we ran into several friends and met a number of new ones. The pickup situation was a little complicated by long lines and cloud bursts of rain forcing people under awnings and me into the bar. A happy hour beer would help pass the time waiting for the rain to stop. Buddy Tony had already worked his way through the packet pickup and had staked out a seat at the bar talking up a couple of first timer triathletes. I ordered a beer and started running into tri friends old and new. I spy Jerry McFarland and a group of his friends who were ponying up to the triathlon scene. I gave what little advice I could for transitions, but mostly encouraged Jerry and his group to simply enjoy their first triathlon.

After a couple of calls from Salome, I step back outside to wait in line. Jacques and his family soon arrive and we all process through number, cap, and chip pickup. Jacques mentions that he and his wife Christine had an early date at the Parrot Lounge years ago. Tony comes up pressing another beer in my hand, so I insist that Jacques split it with me in celebration of this anniversary tri.

Salome is suffering from what ends up being food poisoning (undercooked fish from the prior evening) and decides to decline Tony's invitation to go out for a pre-race pasta feed. I suggest Franko & Vinny's Pizza Shack around the corner. We call co-blogger John to meet us. John is back in town from a business trip to the Northeast. He is in Ft. Lauderdale just long enough to do wash and repack for a week long dive trip with buddy Roger and another friend to Honduras. As we catch up during diner, John expresses a bit of envy about our participating in a tri the next morning without him. No sale dude. You're the one going on a week long dive vacation. The envy goes the other way round.

As I get home, Salome is feeling worse. A bit nauseous. She goes off to bed after getting her gear in order. I work the bikes getting them ready for the morning. Next morning, she seems a little better. We gear up and bike over to meet up with Jacques. Its so cool to be close enough to a race start that no car is needed. We arrive around 5:50 to get a good rack placing since its an open racking event. First come, best spots. Jacques is cited for a missing handle bar cap and is forced to improvise with a quarter and tap. We agree that we should all carry spare end caps because you never are aware when one of these suckers falls off. We also agree that we could have make a few bucks selling caps to all the other participants who were also surprised to find they were missing a cap. There must be little pixies that steal these off bikes in the night.

We get our stations set up and run into buddy Ken Merkel and his wife Ana. Ken was into the triathlon scene years before us and was the guy who talked us into getting into this whole madness. Unfortunately, Ken was forced to take time away from the tri scene for the last year. We were thrilled that he was returning to the fold. However, no effort to get back in goes without a hurdle or two. Ken had signed up for this event and the next day's tri in Key Biscayne when they were scheduled a week apart. In addition, the prior evening he tweaked a back muscle that had him in real discomfort. However, Ken wasn't letting this stop him. He would get back on the horse/bike.

As we wait at the Ocean front for the start, we keep running into more and more friends. There is simply nothing like a local event to bring the local community together. We take group pictures and warm up swims. The water could not be calmer. Its warm and clear with no perceptible current. Tony is off with the first group which includes the elites and the 45-59 age group. Next up, Iron Carrie goes off with the blue caps. Jacques & I are both in the 3rd wave and line up. The starter counts down the last 5 seconds and we are off.

The only problem with a sprint is that the swim distance is so short that you don't ever find enough space to call your own. I get the classic kicks in the head and side as I try to find my way out of other swimmer's way. Before I know it, the swim is done and I'm running through transition. My friend's had talked me into running this long transition run in my Teva sandals. While I am now able to pass a lot of barefoot runners, I end up distracted in T1 trying to get excess sand off my feet. I'm so distracted that I initially forget my bike helmet. Fortunately, I realize this before getting to the bike out area, so no penalty. As I come out of T1, Jacques is right next to me.

I was pleased with my bike as I came circle Birch State Park in the 23 to 25 mph range. As I go along A1a, my rate keeps in the 20 to 21 mph range: good for me. Tony, meanwhile, is cooking with an average of around 25 mph. The police assisting with side street traffic are a little off their mark with several participants almost getting whacked by cars entering the course. I have to shout off an officer about to waive a car right into me. Salome loses her water bottle in her bike portion (we were able to retrieve it later). She, too, is almost clipped by a car from a side street.

As I come towards the end of my ride, my right calf starts to give me warning signs of cramping. I try to focus on have my left leg do most of the pulling. As I dismount and start to pull off my bike shoes, both calves start to give me warning signs. I slip into my shoes and take off out of T2. Sure enough, about a hundred feet into the run, my calves start to cramp. I curse and stop to walk about 10 yards. I'm able to start running again, but have to watch my speed in order to keep the cramping at bay. I think I did not have enough recovery time from the marathon and the pace of a sprint tri was just too much, too soon. I'm able to pick up pace a bit at a time and start passing people. The 1.7 mile run is over before I know it. My time: 56:40.

Tony's bike time gives him the best time of our immediate group in 53:27. Iron Carrie is up next as 56:23. Jacques is on my heals at 56:55. Jacques' wife, Christine was taking pictures on the run course. Immediately after passing by her, I hear her shout out Jacques' name. I realize he must be reeling me in. I somehow manage to keep him at a distance, but this is going to be a coin toss in the future. The guy is matching me at too many stages. For now, I'm still ahead in the run. But I've been beat by other friends using the stealth draft, so its going to get interesting. Ken had issues with his back, but was right on Jacques' and my heels. Thus, the friendly competition amongst friends is getting interesting. Better train on that dive trip John.

Salome comes across in 1:06:09. She was pleased with her consistent swim, but the food poisoning kept her from pushing too hard on the bike and run. At the finish, she really felt awful. I found her a bench to sit down. After a while she started to feel better, but she doesn't advise competing with food poisoning. However, as a "I can do anything" Greek woman, she would not give into a little thing like food poisoning.

Jerry came in around 1:13, but time is irrelevant for your first triathlon. He seemed to have enjoyed himself. We hope to see him at other events. I could go on and on with other friends' results, but you get the picture. It was a fun and social event. Publix put on a very nice after feed. A good time was had by all. Well, maybe not Salome so much, but she wouldn't have missed the anniversary tri.

Tomorrow, we watch Lance and Alberto battle it out in the Swiss Alps in Stage 15 of the Tour de France. Just a little competition amongst friends.

St. Anthony's....Duathlon????

So, this weekend was the St. Anthony's Olympic Triathlon. I traveled to Clearwater on Friday to visit my folks. That night, my younger brother, Dave, who was also scheduled to do this event, met up with me at our favorite local pizza parlor/sports bar for some brews and pizza. Tri buddies, John, Tony & Keith drove up to Saint Petersburg Saturday morning.

Since I had to wait on brother Dave, who is perpetually late, before heading down to St. Pete for the Expo, we got to the race site about an hour after John & Co. We arrange to meet down by the water. There is a pretty good chop in Tampa Bay. We all exchange nervous talk about the swim as we watch other athletes doing practice swims on the course. The 1500 meter course looks huge. With the first 1/3 of the course running next to the Bayfront Pier, I am wondering if the tide will be pushing us into the pier the next day. Since swimming is not any of our strong suits, we agree that we will swim to survive on Sunday morning.

After doing our number pickup and bike drops, Dave & I peruse the expo. We meet up with another Ft. Lauderdale buddy, Jacques and his lovely wife Christine and his two kids. We now have our personal cheering section for the race finish. Dave tries on and buys a wet suit to get any advantage for the rough water we expect the next morning.

That night at diner with Dave and my parents, I note that I've never seen a bigger transition area. There are approximately 4,000 participants doing the event. That is a lot of bikes. Luckily, I've got an easy to find location along a fence near the swim/bike entrance. Dave too has a good spot. I insist that Dave get his gear together Saturday evening and spend the night at my folks house so I don't have any unwanted delays Sunday morning. He promises to be at my parent's house around 9:30 PM Saturday evening. That night, I watch the Miami Heat beat up on the Atlanta Hawks. The game ends around 10PM. No, Dave. I call him and tell him to be sure to get to the house that night. I head to bed.

That night, I don't sleep well. My subconscious is not comfortable with the water conditions. However, like the rest of my buddies, I decide that if the race officials decide it's safe, I'm in the water. When I awake at 3:45 AM, I find my brother Dave in an adjoining bedroom. He tells me he got in at 1:30 AM. I'm glad I didn't wait up. As we drive down to St. Pete, Dave explains that the proper strategy for the swim is to give it maximum effort on the outward leg since the tide will be against us.

As we park and start to head to the bay front, the winds are kicking up pretty good. I note that the stop signs are shaking. I comment that this could make the bike ride tricky. As we get to the bike transition area, we take a look into the dark surf. It looks about like the day before, but with just the slightest of whitecap tops. We go in, pump up our tires and set up our transition stations. Dave & I return to the SUV to drop off the pump. On our return we meet up with John & Tony who tell us that the race officials just announced that they were canceling the swim portion of the event for everyone other than the pro athletes. At first, I think our friends are playing on our fear of the conditions and messing with our heads. But, soon we notice that everyone is buzzing about this unexpected news. What does this mean? How are they going to handle the rest of the event? Do we care?

Apparently, the tide and waves were bad enough that the kayaks that patrol the swim area are unable to stay stable on the water. What choice do the race officials really have? Apparently, there was one death in the water at St. Anthony's in the last couple of years. If the conditions were bad enough that the guys looking out for our safety can barely take care of themselves, we lost our margin of safety. The news accounts of the pros at the St. Pete Times website make it sound like the swim was a struggle for the pros. Thus, I am grateful the officials made the call.

On the other hand, I've now lost my edge. I totally relax. The portion of the event keeping me on edge has been canceled. As 4,000 participants wonder around the swim exit area, we all ask each other how they will send off the age group waves. We are told that we can wear our bike helmets to the swim exit area and that we will be sent off individually in 2 second increments. So, we get our bike helmets and line up by the seawall. We watch the pro men and pro women waves take to the water. Boy, are they fast swimmers. Watching the pros come out of the water and sprint through transition is inspiring.

My wave is #15 out of 30. Buddy Keith & I are in the same wave, but the last wave of our friends. As the waves get called up, we cheer our friends on like we are spectators. Eventually, wave 15 gets called up and Keith & I line up along the seawall. Since Keith is much faster than I am at each event, I have him get in line ahead of me. When Keith gets to the start official, I think I hear them exchange words. What did they say to each other? Do I have to say something to this guy? He looks me in the eye and counts "One, Two, Go!" Oh, shit! My race has started.

Off I run through transition. As I pull my bike off its rack and start running towards the bike out exit, I realize I forgot to hit the start on my watch. I could try to reach over to start my watch, but I would most likely drop my bike. I decide against starting the watch. I get to the mounting line and get on the bike.

The winds blow, but the course has many turns, so its about a neutral effect. I look down to my bike computer after a bit and notice that its not registering. I think about reaching down to the wheel to try to correct the sensor, but decide against it. I hit the computer button to run see if that helps. Sure enough, the speed starts to register. So, I now know my speed, but the mileage is slightly off.

The wave just before my wave was the Clydesdales. Thus, I'm getting passed by the strong bikers, but passing a bunch of big and tall bikers. I'm hitting 20s to as high as 24 mph with the wind and down to 16 to 17 into the wind. I feel I'm holding my own, except when a faster biker goes by and says something like "way to go." While this encouragement should make me feel good, it actually makes me feel bad. For a biker to go by me offering encouragement must mean I look really slow to him. If not, the guy would shut up and try his best to blow by me. In any event, I come into transition averaging 18.9 mph.

Coming out of transition and into the run, I finally start my watch. I start repassing all the strong bikers that passed me in the bike. This makes me feel great. Vengeance is mine. I start off with a couple of 7:30 miles before slowing down to low 8s. It's gotten warm, so I douse myself with water at each water stop. Near 2 miles, I high five buddy Jacques. He looks strong. Around 2 1/2 miles, I come across brother Dave. He waves me on. Shortly after, I see John. He is too far ahead for me to gun for him, so I just concentrate on reeling in those directly in front of me. Near mile 4, I pass 4 guys in their 30s running as characters out of "Joe Dirt." Thank God! I hate getting beat by stunt runners. With one mile to go, a guy goes by at a good clip. The dude was in great shape. I use him to pick up the pace and pass a few more people to move up through my age group before the finish. Before I know it, I turn for the finish. My run time was just over 50 minutes for the 10K.

My run time was 5 minutes faster than my run 5 weeks earlier at the MIT Olympic tri. However, without the swim, I don't know if I would have run this fast. My overall time was 2:12, but I don't know what to make of it. I'm just into the upper 50th percentile for my age group, so I'll take that as a passing grade. My buddies greet me as I come out of the finish area. They all completed in the low 2 hour plus range, except for Keith who is in a whole different category from the rest of us. The dude is fast at whatever event he competes in. Everyone heads to the refreshment tent while I wait for brother Dave to come in. We walk over to the beer tent and get our reward. The refreshment tent had good food and we hung around with our buddies a while. All in all, a good event, but I have no way to measure this effort without the swim. Oh well, there is no controlling nature. It was still a fun time. The bike and run courses were very nice. I can see why this race is so popular.

Well, better safe than sorry. The race organizers did the right thing in canceling the swim. It did throw me off my game though. We will all have to come back next year to see what the full event feels like.

Next week, buddies John & Tony do the MS 150 bike ride in the Keys. John came through St. Anthony's in good fashion (2:17). Thus, if he does OK in next week's ride, we will officially cease any mention of his recovery. Hopefully, he will post an interesting report after next weekend's ride. Me, I'm chilling for the week before returning back mainly to running in gearing up for the Seattle Marathon on June 27th.

Other friends' finish times: Keith - 1:49, Jerry - 2:08, Tony (the Tiger) - 2:09, Jacques - 2:16, and brother Dave, 2:30.

Miami International Triathon

The Miami International Triathlon, an Olympic distance triathlon, was held this weekend. Injured co-blogster John and buddy Tony came down for the expo as moral support and for goodie shopping. It was a nice expo. I picked up a new tri outfit to start off the new season. After the expo, we went to Monty's on South Beach for lunch by the pool. Tony asks me what I expect to do the tri in. Not having done an Olympic distance before, I tell him I expect about 35 to 40 minutes in the swim, probably 1:25 on the bike and 50 minutes in the run. He advised I try to hit just under 3 hours. It sounded like a realistic goal, but I had no real plans or expectations for this first triathlon of the season. I'm kind of looking at it as spring training in baseball. I just want to get out there and get the kinks out.

That night, I had to cut out early from my son John's high school's fund raiser so that I could get home early to bed. Fortunately, we were able to find some friends to drive my wife Salome home, so she can enjoy a full evening of schmoozing. I returned home, did the final packing of my tri bag, and hit the sack.

I awake at 4AM Sunday morning and was out the door by 4:30 AM. After parking and setting up my transition area, I meet up with buddy Keith for a few minutes. We discuss at what point Keith, who is good at all three disciplines, will pass me in the event. I guess that if he doesn't catch me in the water (he's three waves in back of me) that he will pass me early on the bike course.

After getting on my wet suit, I go down to the water and do a warm up swim. The water is pretty calm and I feel pretty good swimming out a couple hundred yards and back. After that, I await the start of the pros. Its a small group, probably 20 between both sexes, but these are top notch athletes. Its interesting to watch how quickly these people move through the water.

Before I know it, it's time to get into the start corral. With my last birthday, I move into the 50 and older category. Hey, what am I doing with all these old guys? I don't feel like I belong in this group of grizzled veterans. These guys have been doing these events for years and I only started doing triathlons last year. And why do the race directors always give the oldest group grey swim caps? Isn't it bad enough that most of these guys have grey hair? I feel like I'm racing against my dad or grandfather.

Not to worry, most of the old dudes leave me in their wake as the swim starts. I drift to the back quarter of the group where I'm a little insulted to see a couple of guys doing the breast stroke and side stroke. OK, so the swim is still not my strong suit. I put my head down and work on getting a good rhythm going. About half way through the 9/10ths of a mile swim, the fastest of the next wave of swimmers (women 39 & under) start to catch and pass me. As I make my final approach to the shore the fastest of the second wave back (males 20 t0 29) starts to mingle in with us. Although this is a little disheartening, I come out of the water in 35 minutes. About what I expected.

I'm into transition and between getting the wet suit off and putting socks on, I burn 5 minutes in transition. Next time, I think I'll go back to being sockless. I think I could have saved a couple of minutes. I put my goo into my tri shirt pocket and head to the bike exit. I mount and I'm off. Once started, I reach for my goo to find that it has fallen out of the pocket. Oh well, that's what I get for using a new top without trying it out in training.

The bike portion starts with a climb up and back over the main bridge of the Rickenbacker causeway, a steep climb that causes me to go to the largest gear and get out the saddle to finish through the top. The ride down at 30+ mph is sweet, except for the fact that I've got to turn around almost immediately to re-climb the bridge. The portion of the course heading out in an easterly direction is into the wind. My speed drops to the 15 to 16 mph level. However, I am overtaking some of those that passed my in the water. Meanwhile, I'm getting passed by the "Cerveloton" (those experienced triathletes on Cervelo tri bikes with Zip wheels). Fortunately, my speed increases to the 22 to 25 mph range on the return portion of the causeway.

In crossing the smaller bridge of the causeway, I have a front derailleur mishap in going to the smaller crank ring. The chain jumps the bracket and I have to stop to fix the chain. I probably burn 2 to 2 and a half minutes with this fix. "At least its not a flat," I think.

I keep passing and being passed by the same 5 to 6 riders going at around my pace. I don't know where or when it happened, but I later learn I got tagged with a 2 minute penalty. I'm not sure where this happened as I try very hard not to draft or violate the 3 bike links rule. However, the bike is the most likely place to receive a penalty, so I assume it was a bike length violation.

My transition in T2 at 2 minutes is much better than T1. I make sure to locate my second goo and down it in transition. There is no way I'm going to lose both goos. I down it, take a squirt form my water bottle and head out for the run.

The run course is on a trail covered by a canopy of trees. The surface is a little tricky for footing, but the shade is welcome. Buddy John had warned me about watching the footing as there are roots and other rough spots on the run course. He mentioned that they spray paint roots with orange paint. Sure enough, there are several stray root crawlers marked. Its an out and back 2 loop course. I expect to run across buddy Kieth, but never see him. I late learn he did a 2:18 overall and was probably just finishing the run as I started it.

As I come from a running tradition, I use the run to reel in competitors and try to improve my overall standings. At the expo, we had spotted a group of girls wearing tops with cupcake logos on them. I assume they were a tri club. As I see these girls on the other portion of the out and back, I yell "Go cupcakes." On my return portion of the first lap I come across a one legged competitor doing the run on crutches. The guy is moving along at a pretty good clip. Everyone cheers the guy on.

On the return portion of my second lap, a guy just in front of me stumbles on a root or some other obstacle. He is half way to the dirt trail before he can react. I think the guy is going to get majorly banged up and slow up to not get caught up in his spill. Unable to catch himself, the guy, who was over 6 feet tall, saves himself by tumbling head over heal. He has thus avoided any real injury. I ask him if he's OK and if I can help him up. "No," he says, "I'm fine." "Wow," I think, that could have been very ugly."

I come in from the run in 55 minutes, about 5 minutes slower than what I had hoped to achieve. I cross the finish in 3:04. With the 2 minute penalty, my final time is 3:06. While I was not shooting for the time goal, I was a little let down about not breaking 3 hours. On the bright side, I figure I could shave a couple of minutes off T1 by going sockless and a couple more minutes would have been saved if I didn't have the mechanical issue on the bike. As for the penalty, I'll be more careful on the bike lengths. With a little luck and more training, I should break that 3 hours at St. Anthony's in late April.

High Anxiety!

So, with the Miami International Triathlon, an Olympic distance tri, coming up this Sunday, I started to get anxious yesterday. I just got back in the pool a week ago, all but one of my buddies has dropped out of the event, and I haven't done a triathlon since November. So, by Monday afternoon, I'm getting a little anxious. Should I even be doing a triathlon yet? Am I ready to swim an Olympic distance swim?

"OK, calm down," I tell myself. "You just did an Olympic bike/run brick on Saturday." "Yes, but I was a slug on Sunday as a result. Perhaps my energy levels aren't where they need to be." "Yeah, but you were also fighting a little virus and are coming off 2 consecutive half marathon weekends."

I arrange to meet buddy Jacques for a Tuesday morning swim session. Jacques decides to swim for 20 minutes. I decide on a 40 minute swim. As the workout progresses, I feel better about my swim stroke. I do not fatigue in the water. "Alright," I tell myself, "I'm going to be fine in the water." I've decided that the nervousness is partially just getting that first triathlon of the season out of the way. I'll be better for doing MIT come the St. Anthony's Triathlon on April 26th. All my buddies who skipped MIT will be feeling that "first tri of the season" angst at St. Anthony's. I'll have it out of the way. And besides, a little nervous energy is good for you.

So, its taper time. I'll do one more 4 to 5 mile training run, perhaps a 20 minute pool session on Thursday, and a 10 mile bike ride on Friday morning. Then, its down to Miami for the expo and bike drop off on Saturday. Sunday morning: it's go time. Bring it on!

4th Man In

Let's not forget buddy Keith Seago -- who might I add will likely come in first out of this rag-tag team of triathletes! With an e-mail to Keith and his persistence with the active.com system (if you can call it that), he also gets registered. And now we have a team of 5. Should be a blast!

Cyber Monday: Registering for St. Anthony's

I've come to learn that Ironman events and certain other triathlon's have become so popular that registration opens and closes out in a matter of a couple of hours. Such is the case for St. Anthony's Triathlon, an Olympic distance event (Swim 1.5K · Bike 40K · Run 10K). St. Athony's Triathlon takes place in St. Petersburg Florida on April 26, 2009.

In trying to lay out some events in 2009 to lead up to Arizona Ironman in November, we were considering St. Athony's Triathlon as an event to get us geared up for serious summer training. Knowing it fills up fast, we agreed to call each other to make sure we would both be at our computers ready to register at the opening bell at exactly 9 AM. Of course, thousands of other triathletes from around the country were at their computers ready to do the same thing. We also contacted friend Chris and brother Dave to do the same thing. No reason we can't suck a couple of other athletes into registration madness.

I try to log in at 8:59 AM, not being sure whether my computer clock was a minute slow or if the guys at Active.com (an online registration site used by most marathon and triathlon events) might have activated the system a minute early. Can't hurt to try. Bam! I'm in. I work my way throught the couple of pages of information needed to register. I can't believe I got in. When I tried to register John & myself for the Arizona Ironman I had to keep hitting the resend button after repeatedly getting a "Site Too Busy" message from the Active.com computer. I get to the final screen where I imput my credit card infomration and hit the send button. Here we go.......waiting.....waiting......only to be finally met with the following message: "We are experiencing higher than normal volume and are therefore unable to process your request at this time. Please wait several minutes and then try again. We apologize for this inconvenience."

Try again? Dude, I was in. I was logged into your computer and all my information was in. Name, age, address, credit card information, shirt size, blood type. I hit the send button. What are you doing to me? OK, don't panic. Hit the resend button. No luck. OK, how about the back page button? Hey, here I am at the credit card page again, but its missing my information. So, I re-input the data and hit the send button. Now I get a blank page. In the bottom of my screen it says "Done." This is not the way its supposed to look. I'm suppose to get an acknowledgment that I'm registered with a link to a receipt page with my payment information. At least this is what I've seen on every other event I've ever registered for on Active.com.

Alright, I can play this game. I'll hit the go back bottom again and resend. "System Busy, try again later." I spend the next five minutes refreshing the page until I get in again. I now get a message that I'm already registered. I call John and find out he has yet to get in, so I submit his informtion. I hit the send button. No response, other than a "System Busy" message. I don't know why I even looked, but I chose this moment to look at my e-mail in box. I've got mail from Active.com. Whoops, I've got two sets of e-mails from Active.com. It looks like my registration went through.....twice. I call back John who tells me he has finally gotten onto the Active.com web site. I tel him he'd better check his e-mail first. Sure enough, he also appears to be registered. So, he calls buddy Chris and "pays it forward" by registering Chris who hasn't been able to log in. Three in, one to go.

I call brother Dave. We both keep trying for the next half hour. Finally, he gets in. I can only image that these kind of situations were going on around the country as thousands of triathletes rush to grab the 4,000 slots for an event that will not take place for over 4 months. So, its not the swim, the bike, or the run that's the hardest event for St. Anthony's. Its the registration.