04.18.09 - East Cooper Coastal Tri

0.6 mile ocean swim, 16 mile bike, 4 mle run

Back in the fall, I learned via Facebook that a buddy of mine from high school, Steve Glover, has also picked up a triathlon & marathon habit. He mentioned that he lived on Isle of Palms near Charleston and within walking distance to the race start/transition area of the East Cooper Coastal Triathlon.

This race was the first tri he had ever done the previous year. I told him I would come down and join him. Only hesitation was the ocean. I am scared to death of the ocean. I am that guy that is extremely hesitant to go more than knee deep into the ocean, mainly because I am deathly afraid of ocean critters of all kinds. Very, very afraid. So to a degree, this race was much of a self-directed intervention as it was a triathlon.

Saturday morning we had a 5K in Greenville, SC. The 2nd annual Zebras Do Exist charity 5K that our FCA huddle was both participating in and helping out with. Lots of fun had by all. Allyson pulled off a podium in her age group. We wrapped, jumped on the road and headed down to IOP. We arrived early afternoon at my friend Steve’s, who lives one row off the beach. Very nice. He showed us around then had to head into work, which by the way is at a restaurant in Mt. Pleasant called The Red Drum. He invited us to stop in that evening for dinner, so of course we did. It was amazing and he, the owner and wait staff treated us like royalty. And even picked up the tab. Unbelievable. We headed back to the house and settled in for the night. 7:30 start the following morning.

Race day we got up, rounded up the gear and out the door. We rode to the race start/TA. Took us all of about three minutes to get there. Allyson was shortly behind with the SFV (super fan van.) We were running a little late, so the setup was a little rushed as well as the squeezing into the wetsuit. The walk to the beach was a little ominous (see notes above about the ocean.) Couldn’t have been a more beautiful morning though. Pretty much perfect conditions, except for, well, the ocean. Water temp on race day was in the high 60’s, or as I would call it – frickin’ freezing. I didn’t get in and warm up. I decided to stay as warm as I could for as long as I could. Probably not the best decision in hindsight. All of the men started together on the beach. The horn sounded and we were all off into the ocean.

Simply put, the first half of this swim was probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life. Triathlon or otherwise. The initial shock of the water temp was worse than I expected. Getting out to the first buoy required a lot more energy than I expected. I turned right and started swimming down the coastline. Surprisingly, amidst all that chaos not a single person touched me the entire swim, which was great because I certainly didn’t need to add that to my struggles.

By about 200 yards in, I took in a face full of water and my heart rate was way up. I rolled over onto my back and back stroked about 10 seconds just to get my composure. I pressed on for another couple hundred yards but was really struggling. No rhythm, breathing was erratic, things were not going good. At this point, I was about a split second away from turning right and taking it back to the beach.

I rolled onto my back again and backstroked, this time for about 30 seconds or so. I looked up at the clouds and the sun and started praying, asking God to calm my heart. And he did. By the midway point of the swim, everything just came together. I was now swimming like normal. The rhythm was back. I now knew how long it takes me to get use to swimming in the ocean – about 500 yards.

The rest of the swim was actually a blast. I kind of wanted to go start it over again and definitely looking forward to the next one. I exited at on the beach near the boardwalk at the city park on Isle of Palms where the TA was. There were a good number of folks out there on the beach watching, including Allyson. I came out and got a hoorah from David Bolger, one of the founders of Try Sports, a multi-sport store chain in NC/SC. I had a chance to hang out with him back in December.

Then there was the transition. I remember looking down at my watch as both feet left the water and it was around 19:30. The timing mat was at the entrance to the TA and my total swim time was 22:12?!? Needless to say, it was a haul to the TA from the water. For the most part, T1 went great. I was on the Giant Trinity I was testing out and was loving it. In the first mile, there was a quick climb to the top of the connector bridge, then quick down and all flat from there.

The first 8-10 miles of the bike were fast and flat. The highlight was coming back across the IOP connector and reaching the top of the connector bridge. For a split second I almost stopped the bike and took in the scenery. What an incredible view of the Atlantic, the beaches, Charleston off in the distance. It was beautiful, but there were still another 6 miles or so to go, so back on the pedals.

A hard right hander took us down to Sullivan Island and then back to the TA. I was fortunate to log my fastest bike split of any sort to date. Off the bike and onto the run. And it was starting to heat up. The first mile wound us through a residential neighborhood on IOP, then it was back up the connector bridge and the long, straight, completely wide open and none shaded run to the finish. This was a point to point run, and once you got to the top of the connector bridge, as far as I could see was as far as I was running. I carried a bottled water with me on the run. Good idea. I passed a few folks once I got on the connector, but it was quiet otherwise. The action started picking up toward the finish line. I saw Allyson as I turned left into the shopping plaza/finish chute. She was snapping some photos. Pushed through the finish at 1:35:31. This was nearly ten minutes faster than I was expecting. The evening before at Try Sports packet pickup, they had a contest where you filled out your projected splits. I can’t remember exactly what all of them were, I just remember it adding up to 1:45.

I saw my buddy Steve a couple of times quickly on the bike. Other than that, it was a short wait at the finish line for him. He knocked 15 – count ‘em, 15 – minutes off his time from the previous year. Great job, Steve. Allyson slipped off to find my new favorite post-race beverage – very bold, dark roast coffee. I have no idea why. She found some good brew and we hung around for the awards ceremony, listening to some good tunes, talking with folks. I wanted to hang out and see if maybe I had placed in my age group. They did not post any prelim results. The 35-39ers were toward the end and I missed third by 52 seconds I would have rather missed by 5 minutes. Still was able to come in 27th overall. Not a bad day at the track and a fun first ocean experience.

We went back to the TA, grabbed our stuff, off to Steve’s to shower up and head out for some really good post-race pizza. It was great to catch up with him on life the past 15 years. We had to get back to Charlotte, so dropped of Steve at his place and hit the road mid-afternoon.

So Whats?

- A swim is a swim is a swim. I don’t need to get all freaked out by the conditions, the competition or the venue. Stick to the technique, stroke pattern and game plan and things come together.

- I had no idea how much of a difference a tri-specific bike would make. It makes a ton of difference, especially on a flat, open course like IOP. And I came off the bike feeling better than I ever have at any race.

- Carrying the water bottle on a sprint distance works for me. I normally train for longer stuff with a Fuel Belt, which is overkill for the short races. The water bottle helped with hydration and distraction.

Really enjoyed this race. Looking forward to going back and giving it another go next year, hopefully with a bunch of my local tri buddies. It was also a good warm up for the big race in two weeks – White Lake Half Ironman. I’ll be riding the same bike, so it was good to get some seat time on it. After that swim, 1.2 miles in the placid waters of White Lake should feel like a breeze. Feeling good coming off this race.

03.29.09 - MAP Triathlon

500 yard swim, 14 mile bile, 5K run

This race was not on my schedule for the year. In 2008, it was the first tri I ever did (see previous post) and had a great time doing it, however this year with a packed schedule and limited funds, it was not going to make the cut. Instead the plan was to volunteer as part of FCA-Endurance and cheer on all of the friends racing. But not so fast…

Nick had made contact with the race production company, Setup Events, and got us/FCA-E in to help out with packet pickup. We would be at the end of the line manning what we are now referring to the ‘Novice Table.’ After handing folks their race packet, we would ask if there was anything they needed help with or questions they had. It is a fantastic way to get face time with the athletes.

After I had left for the day, Nick on his own accord asked Hope (Setup employee and race director’s wife) if there were any relay spots open or if anyone needed someone for the race. She said no, but asked who was inquiring. He mentioned he was asking for me as he was already registered. She without hesitation said for me to come see her in the morning and she would provide me with a number. And she did. And just like that, I was racing.

There were very good things and one bad thing about this – the obvious being that I was racing. And gratis at that. There is simply no better triathlon to do than one someone is willing to give you. Thank you Hope and Nick. The one bad – MAP is a pool swim, and everyone is seeded ahead of time based on a 100 yard split time that is submitted. This can not in any way, shape or form be altered, so I was going to be starting 646th - or dead last - in the field.



So I got comfortable for while and cheered folks on. Once I finally started, I had to navigate some fairly crowded waters in the pool. My swim ended up being pretty slow, but it wasn’t the end of the world. At a couple of points I had to wait at the wall and find a clearance to get through. One lap I actually treaded water for five seconds or so before shoving my arm through a mess of people, touching the wall and moving on.

I exited the pool and it was onto the bike. Overall the weather was great, however there was a really nasty wind that had been persisting all morning. A lot of folks were coming off the bike and complaining about it. By the time I had got out on the bike, it was probably the worst it had been all day. On a very flat, open stretch of Hambright Road, I was pedaling as hard as I could, legs burning, heart rate maxed, giving it all I could and I looked down and was going 12 mph. Not good.



I pushed through the bike. It seemed like there was a headwind in every direction. In the last two miles, a city bus pulled out in front of me and I ended up having to pass it in the opposite lane going up a hill. I was pretty frustrated at this point. Had a USAT official caught that stunt, they probably would have penalized me like 60 minutes or something.

I came off the bike and had a horrendous calf cramp. Nick was close by encouraging me (he was already finished and had a fantastic race. Killed the bike. Just killed it) I finally got my shoes on was off for the run. The course was significantly changed for the better this year. The run went fine and I crossed the line a couple minutes faster than the previous year. 1:11:12.

At my church back in Nashville, they always end every sermon, regardless of topic or who is teaching, with a ‘So What?’ The ‘So What?’ is the take way moment from this message, i.e. ‘so what do I do with what God has said to me today?’ Starting with the new triathlon season, I decided I needed to include the ‘so what’ into my race summaries, so here it goes…

So Whats?

- Triathlon racing should be fun. If at any point it isn’t, things need to change at that point. I found myself handed an opportunity and being all frustrated and bothered due to circumstances. Need to look for God and His goodness in each moment and focus on that versus frustrations.

- I need to get physically stronger in a big way. I believe the majority of my issue on the bike was less about the heavy winds and more about me not being in the right kind of strength shape, especially core.

Next up is a big one. East Cooper Coastal. Heading down to Isle of Palms to race with my old high school buddy, Steve Glover, who is also now doing triathlon. First ocean swim. I’m completely horrified. Words can’t even describe how horrified. We’ll see how it goes.

03.07.09 - Corporate Cup Half Marathon

So given the number of long training runs that I’ve done preparing for marathons, I’ve technically run quite a few half marathons. However, I’d never actually toed-up to the line and ran one for a time. So having finished Myrtle Beach a few weeks earlier and having a good base built up (and the fact there was a half available here in Charlotte) I thought I’d give it a go.

The Corporate Cup Half has been a long-standing race staple in the area. The whole gist of this race is to put together a corporate team, so you get a bunch of folks together from your company and go run/walk the race. There really isn’t any award or anything, which kind of stinks, but it’s fun to get a group together anyway.

We put together a 15-man/woman team ‘sponsored’ by Run For Your Life. RFYL is one of the local running stores and command central for a lot of the training activities and race production in Charlotte. Pretty much everyone on the team either works for or trains from RFYL. And most of them are very fast. And younger. And fast. Faster than me.

We did a couple of training sessions together, got our t-shirts all made up and we were ready to roll. The race started right in downtown. Allyson was running the 5K event, so it was cool to go down there with her. The weather was perfect. I almost missed the start of the race making a last minute potty break. I was walking up to the line about a minute before the gun went off. Didn’t even see Allyson or get to wish her good luck.


So gun sounded and we were off. Four of us guys were going to pretty much pace together, shooting for a 1:35ish. We were again using the gradual increase in speed approach. I can’t remember what we set out at, but around the half way point, the four of us had separated and all settled into our own paces. And the fighting of the hills began…

Those not familiar with Charlotte, it is surprisingly hilly. If you don’t believe me, go to www.marathonguide.com and look for the Thunder Road Marathon in December and read the comments. The first part of the marathon is really hilly, which is more or less the second half of the Corporate Cup. The first major challenge is Providence Road right after the half way point. I remember feeling great pushing up this hill. About half way up, I came up on a buddy of mine that was really struggling. I gave him an encouraging smack on the rear and proceeded. I saw my buddy Paul Dye at the top of Providence. His house was about 300 yards away.

The course proceeds through the Myers Park area. Pretty uneventful except for the hills. Did I mention there are hills? I motored up the hill next to Myers Park High School with my friend and training buddy, Erik Johnson. Good to have some company going up that one. Then the last mile is literally a steady climb back into downtown Charlotte. All in all, I was keeping right on pace and feeling pretty good.

I made the sharp right into downtown, kicked it in and crossed in 1:33:47. The best case scenario goal was 1:35, so I was pretty pleased. Then shortly after, my good friend Nate-dog Hearns crossed the line in 1:39:52 running his first half marathon ever. Stud. Allyson had been waiting there for me for a while because she had smoked her 5K. So much so that she stinkin’ placed in her age group and she missed the award ceremony because she was waiting for me. Needless to say, I felt like a giant heel. We did end up picking up her award at a later date.

I really enjoyed the half distance. More of a success than the time or overall place was probably the consistency. I was able to go out and stick very consistent splits for the entire race, and confirmed that that progressive approach doesn’t work best for me. I’m better off to know what that target pace is and just go out and stick to it. Some may argue with me on that. Seems to work better for me.

Marathon season is officially over and it’s time to start turning up the heat on triathlon season. We’ll try again next year for Boston.

02.14.09 - Myrtle Beach Marathon

So as much as I enjoy journaling my race experiences, I’ve come to the conclusion that if I don’t make these a little shorter, I’m never going to keep up with it long term. So here is my attempt at shorter…

Myrtle Beach was my first repeat marathon. I did this race the same time the year prior by ‘accident’ and really enjoyed it. This year there were a couple of really cool things about this race weekend. The first was that it was Valentines Day weekend and Allyson was with me (and there were about a half dozen finish line proposals. All yeses, from what I hear.) The second was a chance to reunite with childhood friend, Brian Kiper, and his family.

Brian and I grew up together in Wooster, OH. For many years, we were in the same church and lived not even two miles apart. We moved to the street right behind him and lived there six years before moving to North Carolina. My freshman year at Carolina, Brian came down from Kent State on his spring break to hang out. That was the last time I had seen him – spring 1993. Let’s hear it for Facebook.

We met Brian and his son Hunter at Broadway at the Beach where Hunter just finished the kids mile run. We headed back to the house for a pasta dinner with some of their friends that were running the half. As was Brian’s wife, Jen. We ate, caught up on old times a bit then headed off to bed as it was going to be an early morning (this race always starts in the dark at 6:30 so runners can watch the sunrise as they approach the beach.)

After the ‘morning routine’ (see previous entries) we loaded up the van and headed to the race site. I had to make one last pitstop in a nearby wooded area and it was off to the start line. Kisses to Allyson and toward the front of the pack. I was stretching out when a guy decided he would save me some serious strife and embarrassment. I had put my fuel belt on upside down. That would have been real great when the bottles came flying out at some point shortly after he start…

My approach to this race was a little different. I had talked with a couple of guys I’ve trained with or trained under in the previous months and decided to go with a progressive approach, which was to start slower and progressively pick up pace the entire way before settling into a faster pace around miles 18-20. This worked pretty good until around, go figure, mile 20. My first 13 mile splits were give or take +/- 5 to 7 seconds off the pace plan, and I crossed at the half way point within 45 seconds of the pace chart and feeling really good.



I don’t recall a ton of specifics between miles 13-20. I just remembered being really comfortable and on cruise control. I saw Allyson around mile 14 or so I think. Around 18 the course takes you out to the beachside, which is really great. When I turned to head back inland, the legs started not firing quite as good and I was incredibly thirsty.

I thought I had been taking in enough fluids. And I was running with a race belt, but at that mile 20 stop, it might as well have been an oasis in the middle of the Sahara. They were handing out full water bottles, which I downed the entire thing and kept pressing forward, though slower at this point. I was supposed to be settling into a 7:10-7:15ish pace and was instead cresting 8:00 with six to go.

I ran for a couple of miles with a young guy that had went flying by me a little past half way. We talked and passed the time, but I was squarely running into the wall hard. I saw Allyson around mile 22, walked through the water stop, walked a little with her and talked, handed off the fuel belt (which was really starting to bother me for whatever reason. I think everything was bothering me.) Just a few miles to go.

Around 24 the adrenaline was kicking in and carrying me to the finished. I was well aware at this point I was, again, going to come up short for Boston, but well on track for a PR. The finish chute at Myrtle is really cool. And long. Lots of folks cheering. I crossed the line at 3:24:36, a PR by several minutes.



Usually I like to hang around a bit at the finish, but it was just Allyson and I and I was pretty much spent, so we headed out speedy like. We saw our friend Leigh-Ann who ran the half (and placed in her age group, go figure.) and hobbled off to the van. The second we got to the van, the skies unleashed. Hatin’ it for those folks still out on course, but a pretty much perfect day for a marathon.

We headed back to the Kipers, then off to some friends of theirs for a brunch. Later that evening, we headed to the House of Blues for a really great after race party. It was jam packed, but lots of good energy and food. We hung out a while, then back to the house to turn in. We visited the Kiper’s church with them the following morning. They have a fantastic church right down the road.



So that was a little shorter. Still need to work on it. Big takeaways – My wife is a rockstar super fan. Seeing Brian was the highlight of the trip. Progressive pace plans (at least one with that much variance) is probably not the best approach for me. 9 minutes is still a really, really long way to go to reach Boston. Back to the drawing board.