South Carolina Half

First of all let me say that Mark MacLachlan is freakin’ fast. I was thinking about his performance after the race was over and thought of how hard it would be to do a HIM (Half Ironman) with a large bag of dog food or a large bag of cat litter strapped to my back. Mark MacLachlan manages to be competitive in the open division while sporting a very muscular physique. He ain’t fat by any means but this dude’s shoulders are as wide as two of most of us. If you want to see what it is like for him to race a triathlon I suggest this…on the swim push a 2×6x30 inch board in front of you in a swim (6″ side facing the front), then when you get to T1 grab 2 sacks of potatoes…no not the grocery store bags, the Costco bags and throw ‘em on your back. Head out for the bike and push your tail off, then when you get in to T2 just slip into your shoes, keep the potatoes with you, and run sub 7 minute miles…I don’t care what distances you do, just try it. Mark manages to do this in a HIM event. I can’t even imagine doing that without the potatoes. Maybe I could squeeze out one sub 7 mile without the spuds but 13.1…no way.

I hope Mark doesn’t mind me saying these things but I am truly dumbfounded by his amazing abilities. Check out the race results by clicking here and scroll to the bottom.

OK…back to the race.

The South Carolina Half is a well run half distance event (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run) that is fun and true to distance. I entered this race after a poor performance at the Steelhead Half Ironman lead me to wanting revenge on the 70.3 distance. This is my first year competing at HIM distance races and SC was to be my 3rd. My first two had lead to a poor run leg in both races and I needed a good solid race to take with me mentally into next year’s events. South Carolina Half seemed like a good race and I had some friends doing it so I signed up.

The swim leg (1.2 miles, open water, lake)
The swim starts out right in to the sun so make sure your goggles don’t fog up like mine did. Spit works great…most of the time. I couldn’t see anything until I made the first turn and due to some foggy goggles I was still in a haze. The swim swings wide around a tear drop shaped point basically going from cove to cove in the lake. The water was “73 degrees” at the swim start so it was wetsuit legal. The water is clean and there was a bevy of swim support in the water.

The bike leg (56 miles, single loop, road)
You leave T1 and head off on the bike out of Lake Greenwood State Park. The bike course is flat to rolling and has good support and direction as long as you aren’t one of the leaders of the race. I’ll leave that story to Mark. There are a few rough roads that feel like your fillings are getting knocked loose but if you push hard through there your speed will help smooth out the ride. Don’t forget you are in the country so if you aren’t around anyone else try and take in a few of the farms and tell the cows you’ll see them later (on your plate).

The run leg (13.1 miles, two loop, road)
Again you head out of transition and out of the state park to the main road leading to the entrance/exits of the park. The run inside of the park, both at the start/turn around/finish and at the loop on the far end of the run are mostly shaded by tall pines and other forest foliage. The main road is wide open and hot in the sun. Fortunately the run is well supported. About every mile there was water, Gatorade, hammer gel, and endurolytes. Towards the end of the race I heard a few calls for coke and I did see coke at one of the aid stations. The support at the aid stations was fabulous not only for what they had to offer the runners in nutrition but there was a lot of cheering coming from them as well. That is a huge help.

As I mentioned before the race is a lot of fun. The finish line sits atop a short steep hill that will test your determination to run through the finish line. I would recommend this race to anyone wanting to do a HIM event

Chicago Triathlon Race Report

After over two months of rehab on a pulled calf muscle, I am finally healing. This is my third year of doing the Chicago Triathlon (Sprint). The race is well organized and has the big race buzz. The entire race takes place right downtown in and along the lakefront. While rehabbing my calf I have been working on my swim and bike. My goal was to PR both and run well on less run training than I would like. I did PR my swim and bike while averaging 22.9mph on the bike (I have a goal of averaging over 23mph on the bike this year). Going out on the run I was a little over a minute behind first place in my age group. Unfortunately, I just couldn’t reel him in and lost by 32 seconds. Still, it was just nice to run pain free.

USAT Nationals Race Report

First, I would like to congratulate Jason Schott, for being top dog (1:54:08) at the USAT Age Group Nationals in Portland. He had a great race on a very tough course. Steve Chapman also raced well wearing the All3Sports colors and placed 20^th (2:26:45) in the M55-59 age group.

I had an OK race placing 12^th (2:32:53) in the M60-64 age group. My swim was strong and I had a good bike. However, my run was pretty slow. I pulled a calf muscle in June at the Escape from Alcatraz race and spent the rest of June into early August rehabbing it. Then one week before the race I pulled the muscle again. If my bike wasn’t already on it’s way to Portland I probably would not have gone. The day before the race I didn’t think I would be able to run at all. On race morning I discovered that if I took a very short choppy stride and didn’t push off from my right leg I might be able to run some. In the race I just stayed very conservative in hopes of finishing the run. Fortunately I was able to run (kind of) and finished the 10K. To my surprise that was good enough to qualify for Worlds next year in Australia.

If my leg had been OK I would probably have moved up a few places, but not too many. There was, as always, some incredible talent at Nationals.

2008 Triathlon National Championships

I want to start off with saying this day was a long time coming for me. Almost 15 months to be exact. Many of you already know that June 30th 2007 in Portland Oregon at this same race, a female swimmer from the wave ahead of me punctured my eardrum with her fingernail. She was swimming off course and how she managed to get her finger perfectly into my ear I will never figure it out. (I bought a lotto ticket that afternoon thinking freaky luck was on my side…oh well) I was still able to finish the race with some serious setbacks along the way. I had to tread water several times to get my bearings, my transition from swim to bike was one minute slower than it should have been, and I fell off my bike the first time I tried to get on it. I finally walked to the fence, held the bike with one hand and the fence with the other and away I went. The rest of the race is history. I finished 11th OA and 2nd in the 35-39 AG. The distance was a 1.5k swim 40k bike 10k run. My time was 1:59.18. As soon as I finished that day, the only thing on my mind was to return the following year and get redemption on this course. Oh yeah, and secondly, get my punctured eardrum fixed!

Fast forward to September 20th 2008 because talking about 15 months of training would be extremely boring. Everything felt good race morning. I slept well on the nights leading up, I ate and drank well, and my taper seemed perfect. It was time to take the test. There were a lot of fast guys, especially in the 25-29 AG, many of them with intentions of turning pro at the end of this year. I knew to win the race overall, a time of around 1:55 or below would be needed. Last year the winning time was 1:57. Many people knew what to expect from this course because they did it last year so I felt times would be faster.

For those who don’t know, we start in 5 year increments so no one knows the full results until all racers are finished. The gun went off for the 35-39 AG and I was able to get out front on the swim quickly. I was caught by a guy halfway through and we traded the lead from then on in. I was out of the water in 18:02. I felt great, quick transition, then on to the bike. The bike was hilly which was great. There was really no opportunity for drafting/cheating. I traded leads with the guy from the swim for approximately 15 miles then he dropped off the pace. I came in to the second transition feeling great and had another good transition. Bike split was 57:41(25.9MPH) I got out onto the run and I felt great. I was clicking off 5:50 miles over a hilly course. I got to mile 5 and realized I was going to be well under an overall time of 1:55. I picked it up all the way to the finish and was able to run a 35:55 10K and post an overall time of 1:54.08. This was good for an overall victory of 50 seconds.

If you have read this far then thanks for taking the time to read about a day that meant a lot to me. It was also a day I was out to get for 15 months due to a freak ear puncture. I have a few people below I would like to thank because I feel they had a part in my success.

Maria Thrash, Chris Weissman and Marcus at Dynamo Swim Club in Atlanta. Maria because she is a great coach, Marcus because he was always there to duke it out in the pool and stay past the normal practice for extra misery sometimes. Chris because he is 9 years older than me and still whips my #%$ in the pool….Motivation! Knowing these people would be there at 5:45 am made it easier for me to get out of bed and make the trek down to Dynamo.

On the bike I owe thanks to several people. Dan Moss for literally destroying me on the bike in an early season Sprint Tri. I out swam him by a minute and I ran 16 something for 5k but he put 3+ minutes on me over a mere 16 miles. He went through 16 miles in something like 36 minutes, well over 27MPH. A good kick in the pants is always good.

The EMR’s. (Early Morning Risers) Russell Lipscomb, Peter Coblentz, Jeff Field, Eddie Bobbitt, and John Mangum. A bunch of psychotic triathletes from the 90’s who would get up and ride at 4:30 or 5:00am with headlights and taillights. Sounds crazy, but with families, jobs, etc… this is the best time to squeeze in a 2 to 2.5 hour ride. It is a little lonely in Dahlonega by myself in the dark, but still worth it.

KIRK CORSELLO! Did I mention Kirk Corsello? This guy would show up at Stone Mountain Park for some of my 40k time trial sessions rain or shine. He would ride behind me for the entire 40k and talk/yell/scream at me about form, cadence and anything else I needed to change. He has a lot to do with why I had the second fastest bike split of the day.

The run is the run. It is the last of the 3 and can be the most difficult mentally and physically. I train alone 100% on the run and the only explanation I have is the fact that I enjoy suffering through descending mile repeats once a week by myself.

Other people who contributed by being friends, supporters, competitors, plain motivation, or all four. Andrew Johnston, no explanation needed here. If you need an explanation http://www.livingiswinning.com/ Marc Bonnet Eymard, he won Nationals and World’s at age 35 in the year 2006, just a kid back thenJ. Jeff Boyd, Dan Moss, David Silver, and Zach Winchester. I trained and traveled on and off with these guys over the last 5 years and they all kept me young and on my toes throughout. By the way, the oldest of the gang is 28 now, keep an eye out for all of them. Tim Yount, Jeff Dyrek and all the staff at USAT for putting on a great race. From the day before the race, to the challenging course, to the awards. First class all the way. All3Sports.com in Atlanta GA. for their sponsorship and support on gear, service, and anything else I needed, whenever I needed it over the 7 seasons they have supported me.

There are many other great people I have crossed in this sport at all levels and I try to learn something from each one of them. Thanks to all of you.

Most of all I want to thank my wife Janet who has supported me for 19 seasons of triathlons. I remember one Friday night back in 1990 while we were still dating. I told her I was thinking of doing a triathlon the next morning and she said I should do it and that she would go. It was an interesting morning to say the least, but she was extremely supportive then and she is the same way today! I would never have accomplished this amazing feat without her!

Jason Schott is our National Champion!!!

Congrats to Jason for taking first overall at National Championships. His time of 1:54:08 over the Olympic distance course, put him 50 seconds faster than the second place guy who was 10 years younger.

Thanks Jason, for setting the bar really high for everybody. Great Job.

Pictures to follow shortly.