Ok, so this race snuck up on me. In fact, it was a last minute surprise. My AryFi teammate Nick had signed up for this race to be his first triathlon. He wasn’t able to do MAP and wanted/needed to get at least one race in before the big Olympic distance race two weeks later. So he landed on Statesville, a TrySports Triathlon Development Series inaugural event about 30 minutes up the road.
Allyson was out of town that weekend and I was planning on escorting Nick as his coaching section. The week of the race, one of his co-workers who had signed up decided he hadn’t trained enough and didn’t want to do the race. He wasn’t able to get a refund, so versus letting the money go to waste, I was offered the opportunity to race as Christopher Smith of Huntersville, NC. It was a very last minute except Setup Events (the series producers) made that they assured me would never be allowed again. I assured them I would never try it again. Because Christopher was registered as an age grouper, I had to race as an age grouper. So any races I’d be doing in the TrySports series would be so for the remainder of the year.
Nick’s wife agreed to bring Sorelle to the race with her so Nick and I could venture up there early. We arrived and went through the normal transition area setup. My stomach had been acting up all morning, which was not good. I had already been in the pot several times. Just before the race was about to start, Nick got a call on him mobile from his wife. Sorelle had thrown up in the car just as they had left the house. They were cleaned up and heading to the race. I then had to make pit stop #4 just before getting in the water. In fact I just about missed my starting spot. I thought I had more time than I did.
I got in and started the swim. I think Nick best summed up the swim part of this event – It was like throwing fish food to carp and watching them crawl all over each other. The entire swim was a complete disaster. A literal train wreck. It was a 300 yard, 12 lap swim in a six lane pool… yes, the wheels are turning, aren’t they? That’s right. It was an up and back in the same lane, then under the rope.
It quickly turned into a mess with people passing up the middle of lanes in between two swimmers (yes, I did that.) Then bottle necks at the walls. At one point, another friend of mine doing the race said he was literally walking in the shallow end waiting on the people in front of them. The race directors said if you wanted to pass, tap the foot of the person in front of you. I was hitting the woman in front of me and someone was hitting me on the foot at the same time. Train wreck.
I pushed through and jumped on the bike for a 12-mile ride. Now keep in mind this race is part of the Development Series, which is supposedly for newbies or those not looking for the intense pressure and competition of the NC or SC series. It’s also supposed to be a little easier for the newbies. This bike course, though somewhat shorter, was anything but easy. Crazy hills. Many of them. It seemed as though the whole time I was climbing really slow or descending really fast. One thing I do know is that I didn’t have the bad elements to blame for my poor bike performance. Again, I was crazy slow on the bike. Though it was a beautiful course that I really enjoyed.
I was happy to get off the bike and was able to pull out a real quick transition. I grabbed a cup of water right at the start and proceeded to log a sub-20 minute 5K on a fairly moderate course. The legs were feeling great once I got off the bike. I feel much more in my element with the shoes, the shades and the feet on the pavement. Several others mentioned the run being hilly though I thought it seemed fine. I guess that is a product of me being more of a runner than biker. There were probably plenty of them not complaining about the course that I thought was horrendous.
The run was a point to point, ending in a really cool park near downtown Statesville. Nick’s wife, daughter and my Sorelle were there to greet. There was a great playground area, a pond ducks, tons of food. It was really a great setting. Nick raced as a Novice, so we had a little time to wait for him since he started later in the pool. Only really eventful moment while waiting was two bikers that tried to ride across the finish line not realizing they were in the totally wrong place. The bike finish was about a mile and a half away at the Y and they somehow had ended up at the park. Felt bad for them.
I finished at 1:06:03. Nick a few minutes back. The overall times were posted on the side of the technical trailer, however no category information, so we knew where we had finished overall, however no idea in our categories, me 35-39 Age Group and Nick in the Novice. Turns out I was able to pull a third in the Age Group and Nick a second in the Novice. Or so we thought. We got home that night, checked the results page and saw that Nick was listed as first place Novice. He emailed the race director who informed him the first place finisher was DQ’ed for unverifiable results. So first place to Nick.
This was a good little race. Had a blast. Not sure I will make it a yearly event, especially given that whacked out swim, but a good little race all the same. Of course, free races are always the best kind of races, aren’t they? Beggars can’t be choosers, so I’ll just take my free experience and move onto the next one, which proved to be a much bigger challenge than this little sprint. First Olympic distance race two weeks later in Kings Mountain.Official results 21st overall, 3rd place 35-39 age group
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