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"Half a Man"
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Sunday, 12th September 2010 |
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2009About a year ago one of my friend's sees me swimming and says, "We should do a Triathlon." I respond with, "Sure that sounds like a good idea." Which surprisingly means "No" in Tom speak. I don't run, I only have an old mountain bike, and I don't like swimming in open water. It really doesn't sound like I should be planning to do a Triathlon. I figure I'll humor the guy and say sure, maybe, someday I'll do a Triathlon, but then again maybe someday I'll date Julia Roberts.Cheryl buys me a road bike after I drop 70 pounds and I start riding. My friend sees one of the guys who volunteers with Ironhead and says, "Tom and I are going to to do the Prairie Man Sprint this year." He says, "Great I'll see you guys there." I go home and register for my first Triathlon. I train a lot and start to run instead of walk around the block. The sprint is only a 5k run and I figure if I go all out on the bike than I can stumble though a 5k run. The morning of the race I get a ride with Ed. He picks me up at 4:20 a.m. which makes me think again, "Maybe Triathlons are not my cup of tea." It's raining. It rains every single second of the race. I'm freezing and I didn't bring a jacket because this is Dallas/Fort Worth and it's the 13th of September. You don't freeze in Fort Worth in September. The race briefing goes something like this. "The course is wet, you will be riding around and through huge puddles all day so try not to fall over. You will not get a great time today, just try and not kill yourself." I came in 43rd over-all and 3rd in my age group. I left my wallet in Ed's car and when I try to run down to his house to get it after he dropped me off, I realized that I couldn't run, I could barely walk. He meets me at the door, hands me my wallet and says "We should do another Triathlon." I respond with, "Sure that sounds like a good idea." I do a two more Triathlons in 2009. I sign up because another friend of mine says, "We should do a Triathlon together. I'm signed up for the Monster Triathlon just down the street in Keller." I respond with, "Sure that sounds like a good idea." I finish 2nd in my age group at the Monster One and as Grand Master at the Monster Two. (Grand Master is the fastest of the old guys.) I love that they write your age on the back of your leg, because when I get passed in a race I can look down and think, "Yeah, but that guy is only 30 years old" When I past someone they have to look down and see a big 53 on the back of my leg. 2010I sign up for the St. Patrick's day Sprint in 2010 because after I finish the Monster One my friend says, "We should do another Triathlon." and I responded, "Sure that sounds like a good idea." I also sign up for the "Triple Challenge" It's advertised as a "Stepping stone to the Half" I'll save $35 and it's designed to help me progress through the triathlon season from Sprint distance to the Half Iron distance. It starts in June with the Super Sprint Metroplex, followed by the Olympic Distance Wool Capital Triathlon and culminating with the PrairieMan Half Ironman. I'd love to do an Ironman someday, but I'll have to retire or get fired first because the amount of training you need to do is crazy. I was trained in the Army that, "The More We Sweat in Training - The Less We Bleed in Battle." I don't want to go out and just try and do a race. I want to use the race as the destination, but the journey for an Ironman is just too hard to do when you have a 60 hour a week job.I do the Metroplex Sprint at Joe Pool Lake the same place I did my first Triathlon. I freaked out during my first open water swim which just about everyone does. The other Triathlons I did have been in a pool, this is my first time back in open water. I'm a little nervous, but I keep thinking I've been training for a half Ironman and this is only a Sprint. I have the worst race ever. I had to crawl out of bed at 4:00 a.m. lost my GPS watch band and more importantly my timing chip about 200 yards into the swim. The wind and waves almost drown me, as the thought of a DNF (Did Not Finish) played in my head. Followed by "I have two more of these to do?" I almost mis-started in the wrong wave. The wave in front of me wore bright green swim caps and my wave wore yellow. I'm color-blind so they look the same. I'm walking into the lake and the lady is yelling "Yellow cap!" I'm thinking she is saying, it's time for the yellow caps to go, but she is really saying, "Hey Stupid, you have a yellow cap." We got that sorted out. I started with my own wave then; first I lost my watch band, then my timing chip comes off and likely sinks to the bottom of a muddy lake. I'm thinking, "I wonder how much they are going to charge me for my lost chip, and now I'll have a DNF after my name. "I got out of the water and walked up to guy running the event and said, "I lost my timing chip." A guy standing next to him had two timing chips in his hand. He asked me, "What is your number? I told him, "10." He said, "Merry Christmas" and handed me my chip, it had washed up on shore before me. I didn't get a time for the swim, but since they had my start time and finish time I was able to pull off a 3rd in my age group overall. The next event is the oldest Olympic distance Triathlon in the Southwest: the 23rd annual Wool Capital Triathlon in San Angelo TX on August 8. The swim venue is in the middle of the Concho River and then on the bike on very worn out, rumblely country road, which is at least closed to traffic. The 10 km run was on the infamous "Dirt Road from Hell". Cheryl comes down with me and we will make a weekend out of it. I skip out of work on Friday off and we take a leisurely ride down to San Angelo stopping in Abilene, TX. Woolman Triathlon Olympic Distance 1.5km Swim, 40km Bike, 10km Run  (Not to Scale, I mean really NOT TO SCALE!)  "You can click on this map to see it in Google Maps" I wasn't sure how I'd do when I was looking at the course the night before. I kept telling Cheryl, "Man that's a long way. Doesn't that seem like it's more than 1.5 kilometers, that's just under a mile, but is seems longer to than that to me?" She just smiles and says, "It does seem like a long swim." I have the best open water swim ever. The swim was in a river so navigation was a lot easier. I start the ride, but since I don't know how to pace 40 kilometers I don't really know how fast I should go. I have a 10km run right after the ride, but I figure I'm faster on the bike so I might as well push a little harder during the bike section and just hope for the best.  I get off the bike get turned around a little, but the Marines that are helping run the race get me squared away and I head off. I have no idea what my pace should be so I just put one foot in front of the other and run. A guy comes up next to me at the 5 mile marker and say, "How much you got left?" I said, "I got a some left." so he says, "Well lets chase some of these guys down." I picked it up and then lost him as we came off the "Dirt Road from Hell" and finished 2nd in my age group and 25th overall. He is the guy without the shirt in the photo below. I was playing tag with the older guy in the blue during the whole run. He passed me, I passed him. He was 58 so unless you count the Grand Master it wouldn't matter to either of us who finished first. I was huffing like a burned out steam engine and if I wasn't so scared of them "reeling me in" I would have backed off like my lungs were begging me to do.  Half a Man.I have one more race to go and it has me pretty nervous. I have been training pretty hard getting up early for a bike ride down to the pool, a mile swim, and then a ride home. I take a break from working around 6:30 p.m. so I can get in a quick 18 mile bike ride or a run. I do 14 hours of training a week most of if over the weekend. That seems like a lot and it is, but if you want to do a half a marathon after a 1.2 mile swim and a 56 mile bike ride you have to do a lot of miles. My screen name is "TryAthlete" which I thought was a pretty good play on words until someone told me it means a guy that doesn't train. He just shows up on race day and hopes for the best. I'm not a TryAthlete, but I'm not sure I'm prepared for this race.I'll feel pretty good if I finish the race and since I don't know how to pace, I'm not worried about where I finish. If I finish, I'll count it as a win. I've spent the last two weeks with one of my partners driving to Dallas in the dark and home in the dark. We were running short of time for lunch so I grab a sandwich in their cafeteria. That night (the Wednesday before my race) I'm sick as a dog. I have cramps and lose 5 pounds. I'm not trying to lose weight and even if I was this wouldn't be the way I'd do it. I call in sick on Thursday and shiver in my bed like a heroin addict "Jonesing" for the needle. I get a call from the technical specialist, he tells me they are going to wrap it up early Friday so if I want to meet them for lunch, today would be the day. I'm punching the address into my GPS and my hand is shaking like I'm having a stroke, which is my first thought as wonder about going out to meet them. I bluff my way though lunch then get sick in the restroom. They head back to the ACS office and I head back to bed. Friday I'm feeling better. I'm trying to put some of the weight back on. We go out to dinner with some friends and I'm feeling good enough to have some wine and some big fat dinner rolls, it has been a long time since I ate rolls with dinner. I'd like to get a Beer and since I'm trying to "Carbo load" a couple pretzels. I talk them into going to this German place we like. We get there and it's closed because they have an Oktoberfest tent up out in the back parking lot. We buy a lot of beer, but no pretzels. They aren't selling pretzels at an Oktoberfest! I know it sounded crazy to me as well. My friend tries to convince the waitress to find some for us, but we can't score a pretzel so I have to Carbo load on beer. I don't know if it's a good training plan but it seemed like a good idea at the time. I had an old Top Sergeant tell me, "The best way to kill a stomach flu is to drown it in Alcohol." I relax Saturday. Tune up the bike, pack all of my gear and worry about the race.  The
transition area opens at 5:15 a.m. and closes at 6:15 a.m. It
takes about an hour to drive to Joe Pool Lake so I set the alarm for
4:00 a.m. I wake up at 3:30 a.m. and decide I might as well get up. I head out for the race, but get turned around and my stomach is cramping again. The parking area is a good way from the Transition area which also means it's pretty far from the restrooms. I get body marked with my number 10 and my age 53, get my helmet and bike inspected and then rack my bike and head over to the restroom. It was 0'Dark-Thirty, so well Dark. I don't see the Concrete Parking Stop and jam my toe into it. It hurts like hell, but I still have to get to the restroom so I limp over as quickly as I can. I limp back to my bike, unpack my transition bag lay out my towel, my bike shoes, running shoes, and a pair of socks. My running shoes don't need socks, but my bike shoes do, so I'll have to put them on. I'm wearing sandals and my toe hurts, but it doesn't look too bad yet. I don't know how I'm going to jam it into my shoes, but the swim is first so I'll worry about that later. I don't do a practice swim since the briefing for the Half Ironman is at 7:30, but they pull everyone out of the water when they do the briefing for the Sprint at 7:00. I listen to both which just confuses me, Jack the race Director is telling the Sprint guys where to go and where not to go. My foot hurts and I'm hoping the butterflies in my stomach are nerves and not a more serious problem. I keep looking at the swim course and thinking, "Man that's a long way. That seem like it's a lot more than mile." I've done a couple of open water swims and even took a class so I know I can do it, but my navigation skills are still not the best. There is no black line running along the bottom of the lake. During the open water swim class I notice the instructor has a Ironman tattoo. In case we didn't notice it he points it out, but at least he "Brags by Bitching" and he tells us a funny story.
 He
got the tattoo on the back of his calf, after his first Ironman. It's a
pretty standard place since we are always looking at each
others
calf's because it's where they mark your age. He
is walking
along the beach and a kid notices his tattoo and ask his Mom, "Why does
that guy have a Men's room sign on his leg." I don't want to
get
any ink, but if I did an Ironman I'd be tempted to
get something etched
on me, maybe not the official corporate logo but something so people knew I was a full Man. I do the swim course, my as I wrote my navigation skills aren't where they need to be. I try and sight on some other guys, but they pull away. This race has a relay and an Aquabike so some of these guys are only going to swim and some are only going to swim and ride. I'm lifting my head up to sight and see the yellow buoy which looks a lot further now that I'm in the water. I over-correct and end up inside the buoy line then have to cut back out. I make the turn look for the next yellow buoy and think "Man that's a long way. That seems like it's almost a mile and I have already swam so far just to get here." I have lost the leaders, but the old saying is you can't win a Triathlon in the swim, but you can lose one in it. I'm swimming alone now trying to sight as well as I can, then I see another guy coming up on me. He is wearing a white cap so that means I'm getting passed by the wave behind me.  I'm trying to pull hard since you don't use your arms much for the rest of a Triathlon, but not too hard since I don't want to go into oxygen debt. I'm still weaving around like a drunk shrimp and when I get to the last turn I look up and think, "Oh come on! Man, that's a long way. It seems like it's still almost a mile and I have already made the last turn." I'm starting to get a cramp in my foot, not the one with the busted toe the other one. I can also feel the start of a cramp in the calf of the same leg. I can sight pretty well know since there are a lot of people with the restroom building behind them. I'm also thinking I could use the restroom. I get out of the water and step on some loose stones, that's what the towel is for, not to dry off, but to wipe the junk off the bottom of your feet before you put on your shoes. I decide to sit down to put on my socks and then I get this killer cramp. I look down at my tattoo-less calf and it looks like someone shoved a softball in the muscle. It takes my mind off the busted toe. I pull on my socks and slip on my shoes. I walk the cramp off, put on my helmet and exit the Transition area. I get on the bike, but the the exit is funny. They want us to stay to the left on the way out since the Sprint people are coming back in already. I see a couple of guys collide. I start to weave my way through the mess when I realize I forgot to put on my racing number. I have to lean my bike against the fence and walk back into the Transition area and retrieve my number belt.  The course is a little hard to follow since it has a couple of turn offs tacked on to get us to the 56 mile mark. We go out on the same route as the Sprint course, but then turn out to do 4 loops of 11.45 miles each. There is a sensor that we have to ride over. Counting to four while you ride 11 mile loops is harder than you think. I also figure out that I have to cross the sensor 5 times since there are four loops, but you have to come around one more time then do a u-turn. During the Swim I keep thinking, "This is a really long way." During the Bike, I'm thinking, "This is a really really long way." Jack has signs out on the course, but they don't really make sense the first one says 20 miles, but written in the street next to it, it says. "Loop Two" I ride another 5 miles and the sign says 10 miles with "Loop One" spray painted on the road. The next says 40 miles and the last says 50 miles with the appropriate loop next to it. Since I'm only on Loop One I ignore them all and ride. I don't know how to pace. When I train a good day is 17+ mph for my standard "Maximum Heart Rate Hill" ride of 18 miles. I can just keep it above 16 mph on a 50 mile ride. The problem today is normally when I do a 50+ day I don't get off and run 13 miles. During a Sprint I normally average 21 mph, but then I only have to run 6 miles. I need to leave something in the tank for the run so I sing to myself. I figure that I can push my legs as hard as I want as long as I have enough breath to keep singing. You can't draft or ride side by side in a Triathlon so no one can hear me. I sing for 56 miles and average 19 miles an hour. I'm getting passed by a lot of guys and girls. It's hard not to pick up the pace when you're getting passed in a race, but since I don't know what pace I can hold I stick to singing. I don't care if I finish high enough to get an award, but I sure as heck want to finish. On the second loop I start passing some people. I can tell some of these guys have been racing someone else's race. I still see a lot of Ironman tattoo's passing me. A couple of the guys in line to pick up our chips mentioned that they were doing this one to train for their real race. There is also the relay guys and the Aquabikers these guys are going to be a lot faster than me since you pick your fastest biker in the relay and they only ride the bike portion. The Aquabikers can leave it all on the road since they don't have to run after they finish the ride. I keep singing and riding my own race to finish. A guy on a bike ahead of me looks tired and his wheel gets trapped in a crack, he over-corrects and falls. The guy behind him sees him fall, but can't do anything about it, so rides right into him. You can't ride over a human being and stay upright. He goes down inches from my front tire, since I almost never ride anything with more than two tires I avoid them both. My motorcycle skills helped me spot the problem as the first guy was getting in trouble and my mountain bike skills helped me countersteer my front tire and lock my rear tire, more bouncing then riding around them. I didn't look back, since I didn't want to see the guy with the Ironman tattoo punch out the other guy for causing the crash. I wear a Garmin Forerunner and have it setup to show me my speed and my cadence. I switch it to show me the miles ridden on the third lap when I get to the 40 mile sign. I'm sure I'll have to do another loop and then pass over the sensor again since the 50 mile sign is just 4 miles ahead. I'm glad I have my GPS I'd hate to make the turn too early and get a DNF. I do the last loop then make the turn one more time and head back to the Transition area. My legs are a bit tight, but my foot feels OK for having a busted up toe. I dismount and walk the bike in. I rack it, pull off my bike shoes and put on my running shoes. I can feel a small stone in it, but I figure it might move out of the way and since I can't really bend over now to do anything about it just hope it will move. My back is hurting from being tucked into the Aero position for 56 miles so bending over to fix it wasn't really an option. I decide to wear a hat I brought since I'm going bald and the Sun is beating down. I don't want the Sun in my eyes or sunburn on my scalp. I have been drinking water during the entire ride and ate some "Sharkies" which have some calories and electrolytes. I don't think my stomach could take anything else. I have some "GU" energy gels, but I can't get myself to open one up for this ride. I like them and worry about getting dizzy if I don't eat enough, but my stomach warns me to not piss it off. I start the run and the stone is not moving. I keep going and while I'm still in the park I'm looking for a restroom, I figure I'll kill two birds with one stone. I can stop and also get my shoes squared away. I can't find a restroom in the park and then I make the turn on to the very long road out across the Joe Pool Lake Dam. It is hot, "Africa Hot" it was the same temperature there as it was in Cairo, Egypt. The stone in my shoes is really starting to bother me. I look for something that I can lean against or sit on to pull off my shoe and dig out the stones. I have 12 miles to go and already have a stone bruise. I see a guard rail across the road and run over to lean my hand against it. It's too hot to hold and way too hot to sit on. I kneel down next to it, pull off my shoe and bang it against the guard rail to knock out any little stones I have picked up. I put the shoe back on, just as an official comes by in his golf cart and ask me if I need a hand.  I
say, "I'm good." which I'm not, but I'm as good as I'm going to get.
I start to run again, but something is still in my shoe.
I
run another mile then figure I have to get it out.
I stop
again
pull off my sock and bang my shoe again trying to dig whatever it is
out of there. I leave the sock off so I have one
sock on
and one
sock off, but my running shoes can be used sockless and I figure my
busted toe doesn't want to be messed around with. I'm off
again carrying one wet sock. I can't leave it on the course
since that is bad and I would get a penalty. It's really hot. I wore the hat for two reasons to stop my head from getting sunburn and so I could put some ice in it. I saw it on Troy Jacobson's web site. He talked about wearing a hat and putting ice in it. It works really well. I was getting a bit dizzy in the 98°F heat. I'm not sure if it was from the lack of calories or just pushing too hard on the bike or it could be that I'm running 15 miles in 98°F heat. The road we are on runs along the lake and the water looked very inviting. Now that I was running I'm thinking, "I wish I was back in the swim." I keep running lots of guys have already started to walk, but I just keep putting one foot in front of the other and run. I'm not going very fast and I'm getting slower each mile. I can't do an inverted split since if I go any slower I will be running below my fast walk pace. I decided to run the whole way not because I don't think a walk/run strategy is better, but because if I stop running I won't be able to start again. I'm running and pass a guy who is walking, then in half a mile he passes me running, then in a mile I pass him as he walks. He is looking at his watch adjusting his pace. I have no idea what my pace is so I just keep putting one foot in front of the other. I wasn't stopping at the aid stations either just grabbing some water and spilling half of it down my front as I struggled along. At the turn around point I started to stop and drink the full cup, put more ice in my hat and was off running again. I was down below 5 mph for my run. If I was a runner I could tell you the pace that equates to, but then again if I was a runner I wouldn't be running at 5 mph. I walk around the neighborhood at 4.5 mph so I know it's pretty slow. The guy that's walking/running passes me and I never see him again. I don't know if he ran the last 3 miles or if I was now running slower than his walk/run. I finish the race and I'm dieing to get out of my shoes and get to a restroom I'm not sure which urge is stronger. I put on my sandals and see that my toe is swollen, very painful and pretty badly bruised. I grab some ice and head to the restroom. I eat a couple of slices of pizza, not my best idea, but that's what Jack provides at his races. I'm pretty sure I'm not in-line for any award except for the "Finisher" cup which means more to me than the GrandMaster award I got. I pack up my bag walk my bike out of the Transition area, put on my helmet and ride my bike back to the car. It takes me awhile to get everything loaded with a lot of groaning and moaning. I get lost on the way home. I'm having terrible cramps the pizza was definitely not a good idea. I rush in the house to a chorus of " How did you do?" My hurried response is lost behind a locked bathroom door, "I'll tell you about it in a little while. I'm a little dehydrated I can tell because I'm pretty thirsty and my urine is fluorescent, which I'm pretty sure isn't right. I pull off my Tri-suit and notice that I now have a wife beater tan line, plus after I shower I can make out the number 10 in white against a pretty red shoulder. The body marking is the only part of my shoulder that didn't sunburn. They don't post the race results until noon the following day, but no one is more surprised than I am that I came in second in my age group. I guess a lot of the guys that passed me on the swim and the bike where doing the relay, the Aquabike or were younger that me. I was looking at the Monster Triathlon that afternoon and thought, "I should do another Triathlon." I responded with, "Sure that sounds like a good idea." Race Results for 2009/2010 |
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Symbiotisches Veröffentlichen |
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