The plan was simple... since I had a trade show in San Antonio, I would simply incorporate this race into the trip. Funny how simplicity and complexity are never far from each other...
When I received the pre-race email from Kathy (of Terra Firma), I emailed her back about camping at Camp Longhorn. Basically, I asked if there was a number I needed to call to reserve a spot. Who knew we couldn't camp at Camp Longhorn? I can assure it was me who did not know...
After a few telephone calls and email exchanges trying to figure out where I would sleep Friday evening, Kathy called me back and said they had three spots reserved on the other side of the lake at Inks Lake State Park. Basically, that's where some folks would be storing their bikes for the evening, because part of the race was to paddle across the lake then hop on the bikes for the mountain-biking section.
My job was to help watch the bikes that several folks had staged there...
Not having a whole lot to do, I ventured to the shore and took a few photographs of the wildlife as the sun said good night after full day of shining...
My uneventful evening took a turn for the worse when I awoke around midnight to find my nose was full of God knows what. So full, in fact, that given the lack of room inside my nasal cavity, I had a pond of the overflow on my pillow.
Several rolls of toilet paper later, I was dry enough to resume sleeping... at least for a couple of hours until this unpleasant experience repeated itself again... and again...
Stupid allergies.
The thoroughly beaten-and-abused Iron Man watch on my wrist began its song at precisely 5:00 AM. This would have been no problem at all if I had actually intended to get up at 5:00 AM...
My intention was to arise at 6:00 AM, but somewhere in whatever process that connects my brain to my fingertips was a catastrophic failure.
Flipping and flopping for the next thirty minutes proved to be useless for returning to my nose-dripping slumber. I finally gave up and searched for the peanut butter and bread from my Wal-Mart stop of the previous day.
I loaded everything back into the rental SUV and made my way around to the other side of the lake to Camp Longhorn.
Registration was a snap, since in reality I was
pre-registered... all I needed to do was pick up my race packet. I will say I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the synthetic shirt in the packet... very nice!
brewer arrived at some point, and after moving locations in the transition area a couple of times (I'm odd like that), we began preparing our gear--getting shoes and socks ready... attaching numbers to jerseys... loading up on random electrolyte pills and ShotBloks touted as providing more energy and endurance.
For those folks who hadn't staged their bikes on the other side of the lake, several boats loaded with bikes ferried the bikes to the second transition area (where
everyone transitioned from the kayaks to the bikes).
I did a few stretches prior to the start of the race... and trust me, you'd look this bad too if your face had leaked half the night...
The first leg of the race was the run... 2.2. miles, though at the start I had no clue how long it was going to be. Thrown in for good measure was the first mystery event... putt a golf ball into a hole on a putt putt course after having run balls-to-the-wall for about 2 miles.
After I sank my ball, I continued running until I was met with mystery event number two--a crab crawl across a volleyball court...
If you've forgotten what a crab crawl is, it's where you walk on your hands and feet, but backwards sorta. In other words, your butt is down and your face is facing up.
Even with these two obstacles to slow me down, my time for the run (including the two events) was nineteen minutes and 23 seconds for the 2.2 miles. And I didn't even mention the 150-foot elevation change over a half mile of the route.
I'd given a lot of thought to transitioning from the run to the boat to the bike. Basically, my bike was on the other side of the lake. Me and all my gear weren't. I had to paddle this inflatable piece-of-crap kayak 0.4 miles from one side of the lake to the other with all my gear--helmet, gloves, shoes, Camelbak, water, food, etc.
I made the decision to go ahead and switch from running shoes to mountain biking shoes in the TA. I also put on my helmet and gloves, woofed down another electrolyte table, chased it with a ShotBlok and several gulps from an open Gatorade bottle before putting on the Camelbak filled with 100 ounces of Gatorade and scrambling to the aforementioned piece-of-crap kayak. Total time in the TA was one minute and thirteen seconds.
I strapped on the PFD (personal
flotation device... aka "life vest") the best I could, wedged my seat into the kayak, and grabbed a paddle before lugging the inflatable kayak to the water's edge.
I was about three strokes into it when I realized a couple mistakes:
- Wearing the Camelbak in the boat was stupid. I should have just thrown it into the back of the boat (like I did on my return trip).
- Never having paddled one of these inflatable
kayaks for practice was a mistake. The goofy thing
was pretty much uncontrollable.
I'm not exactly sure why the damned boated needed to turn 90 degrees for no apparent reason, but it did... more than once.
At some point I got into a groove and made my way across the lake in 9 minutes.
After dropping the boat, PFD and paddle, I quickly hopped on my bike and clipped in my soggy shoes and began pedaling.
I probably rode about 100 yards before I had to come off the bike to climb over some boulder-size
pieces of granite. I played this game for maybe a
mile... ride a little, hop off and push the bike over
the boulders, ride some more, and so on...
Until I decided I could probably ride down some of it...
Fortunately I didn't land on my head, and the bleeding was limited to my right shin as I my body made a sudden stop on the granite rocks after going over the top of the handlebars. I shook it off and decided to resume the hop-off-and-push tactic that had worked so much better only a few minutes earlier.
At some point the trail became ride-able again, but it didn't take me long to realize I was heading up an ugly ugly hill...
As much as I didn't want to, I had to hop off and push the bike for about the last tenth of a mile on the up-hill section. I hopped back on after one dood passed me, and that would be the last time I would be passed for the rest of the race.
One mystery event on the biking section was to hop off the bike and
peer over an overlook and describe what I saw... "a
great big house that looked looks a castle."
The second mystery event was to run up and down a set of bleachers... twice. Once on one end and again on the other.
As much as it sucked climbing the hill
earlier, I can assure you the return was much more rewarding... 34 mph... sit back and relax!
I completed the eight-mile-mountain-biking
section (including the two mystery events) in 52 minutes, and I was back in the boat paddling back from where I had come...
This time, I threw the Camelbak in the back of the boat and was able to better control the random 90-degree turns based on my experience from the previous trip. The return trip only took 6 minutes.
I heard someone yell for me to keep my PFD on when I exited the boat. I did, and I followed the route to the final mystery event--a set of rings over the lake with only a platform at the beginning... water at the other end.
I was told I needed to make three rings before dropping into the water, but according to my thinking, if I could make all the rings, that'd be less swimming I'd need to do, so I went ahead and did all the rings before swinging myself as hard as I could and launching myself towards the awaiting ladder...
After a very brief swim, I climbed out of the water to begin the very short sprint to the finish line.
I crossed the finish line at one hour thirty minutes and 48 seconds.
Turns out that was fast enough to capture second place in the Solo Male Masters category...
Overall the race was just over 11 miles.
Second in the old-man category was nice, but I'm more impressed that I was 8th out of all the 30 solo competitors and 12th out of all the 110 competitors (solo and team racers). I guess that Thursday-morning-spin class is paying off...
The End.
Next race, May 17th!
Until then…
Peace.
NB |
