Stuff Can Go Wrong- Another Sprint

 

Eastside Triathlon

 

June 29, 2008

 Baytown, Texas

 

500 Yard Swim-16 Mile Bike-3 Mile Run 

This was a small race for a good cause.  The little transition area was more than adequate.  Good talking to folks in a sort of laid-back atmosphere that you get sometimes with the smaller events.  The swim was in two –what I call- ponds.  Oh, they were large enough for the 600-meter swim.\

 

  We all had to go down to the lake (pond) to begin the swim.  The water vegetation was thick, and the disturbed vegetation and the swimmers wading in the mud roiled the water to the color of chocolate milk.  Bam! We went off, slinging weeds and trying not to put our heads down in the muddy water near the shore.  Finally, out a bit, and the water cleared, and we looked for the first buoy.  The course was a sort of serpentine affair back to the boat launch and transition area.  However, the struggle through the weeds had dislodged my timing chip strap on my ankle.  The loose end flaying in the water with every kick made me worry about losing the timing chip, having to pay for the thing, and messing up my event time.  Stopping, I reached down to my ankle. That slight touch freed the strap, and it came off my ankle.  By some miracle, it fell in my hand.  Grasping the strap and chip in my tightly clenched fist, I made my way through the course.  Swimming with one open hand and one clenched fist was not my choice of swim form, but it was all I could do at the time.  During all this chip grabbing, I lost my bearing on the course and ended up cutting the course without realizing it. When I did see what had happened, I swam back and made the course correction.  This was a rocky start, right then.  Finally, I made it to the boat launch, and a volunteer helped me up the slippery boat ramp.  The timing mat was right there on the slope and I told the volunteer to get me clocked in and tried to hand him the chip with my free hand.  He was lost.  Finally, he got it and waved the chip over the mat and it made that telltale “beep”.  Ah, thank God, I got the swim.  That was touch-and-go for a while. 

After all that, I wanted to make up time on the bike. Hurriedly through transition, get my bike to get on the road.  My brake was dragging. What else?  I got the brake aligned right and moved through the transition area with my bike toward the exit.  There was my Pat at the exit, patting her head vigorously. What? I could not imagine why she was doing those weird head-patting movements.  My helmet!  I did not have my helmet on! I was about to leave on the bike without my helmet.  I would have been disqualified for that stupidity.  Back to my transition spot, get the helmet. Ok, what now?  Am I dressed?  

 

 

My Pat was laughing as I left on the bike. Standing, I built speed immediately.  I was ready to get on the road.  Everyone was getting passed. I was on the move.

 

 

 Then this young lady in her thirties came by on a quick pass.  As the bike leg wore on, I continued to pass folks and then up ahead was the young lady who had passed me so vigorously earlier.  I passed.  She passed back.  Speed built. I passed. She passed back.  Every time I passed, I would say something to the effect that she wasn’t going to let an old man pass her up, was she?  That usually did it.  I would soon be passed. It was fun.  Near transition, she made the final pass and we ran our bikes together into transition.  I came out first and later saw her on the out and back course.  She was done.  She won an award for her age division.  It was a great effort on her part.

 

 

I finished well and got second in my age group which was five years younger than the age group I should have been in.  It was just that I was the oldest man at the event and rather than putting me in my age group by myself, they put me in with some younger guys.

It was a lot of fun despite the early troubles, and I smile when I think about this day.

A DAY UNLIKE ANY OTHER DAY by Marvin Dittfurth

Another Pool Swim Sprint. Athens Again

 

Athens

 

March 10, 2007

Athens, Texas

300 Yard Swim-13 Mile Bike-5K Run

 

So far, this was my best performance at this event. Not too much is recalled and is amazing how these same events blend over time and hence, I am glad I am doing this triathlon scrapbook.

 

 

 I do remember it was a little chilly getting out of the pool.  My bike was good and in fact, was a PR for this course.  It would have been better if I had not dropped my water bottle in the last mile of the bike leg and gone back to pick it up.   The run was nothing special, except I did not die out there on it. 

 

 

 

Exiting the Swim and My Pat - Always There

 

 

A Cold Sprint - A Frigid Bike Ride

 

Texas Sprint

 

April 13, 2008,

Aquarena Springs, San Marcos, Texas

 

500 Yard Swim-14 Mile Bike-3 Mile Run

 

I wrote an article on this one: A Good Day, which more fully explains the setting and events.  But the endgame is that it was 40 degrees with a north wind at the start.  The constant water temperature of Aquarena Springs of seventy-two seemed like it would be cold as I thought about it the day before.  Now, in the cold wind, it sounded pretty good just to get in the water.  I was right. Seventy-two degrees felt like hot tub water.  The swim was amazing.  The water was more than gin clear.  As I looked down into the deep water during the swim, it seemed as if I were suspended in air rather than water, that I might fall from whatever was holding me up there. 

 

It was a muddy swim exit and a long run on bare feet, over a rock-strewn driveway and parking lot.

 

The bike course headed into the cold north wind going out on the bike. Being wet from the swim I, as well as other participants,  became very cold, very quickly. 

 

The run was a curb jumping, limb dodging affair on an unspectacular course. The people putting it on were students in the local triathlon club and I think there were doing the best they could at the moment.  It was a relatively small event and I won second in my age group.  (see A Good Day)

 

           

 

 

Going to the Race Without My Sherpa...Not Advised

 

Athens

 

March 11, 2006

Athens, Texas

300-yard pool swim - 12-mile bike - 5K run

 

My wife had to take care of some medical issues with my aging mother and could not go with me this time.  It put a cloud on this event, a kind of strange, silent emptiness.

 

 I did fine on the pool swim (never liked pool swims), and the bike was going well, though the wind was in our face going out on the out-and-back course.  That was when  I really began to miss my Pat.  I reached down for a drink from my water bottle only to find that instead of mixing my sports drink powder in the bottle, I had poured in salt. In the dark of that morning, fixing my drinks, somehow, I had picked up a plastic bag of salt rather than one containing my recovery drink.  My wife would have never let that happen.  

Now I was really thirsty.  The turnaround had an aid station, but all they had was a shot of water in those ridiculously small cone cups.   Thank God, the wind was at my back going in because, after that shot, I was quite thirsty.   It could be that some might have been in my head just knowing I did not have any water.  Maybe I was being a baby?   After drinking copious amounts of water at transition, I had a fairly good run, though I did slosh in my stomach quite a bit while running.    I did not stay for the awards ceremony as I was anxious to get home.    I think I placed in my age group, but I cannot remember what.  I just know it was not the first and I was ready to be home.

 

A Bike Event One Day and a Triathlon the Next

 

Burnet Tri-Hard

 Sept 16, 2007

Burnet, Texas

 800 Meter Swim-16 Mile Bike-5K Run

 The day before this event, I did a 64-mile bike event in the hill country (The Hill Country Century Challenge).  The swim was marked too long as usual, but I didn’t feel any effects yet of 4 hours in the sun, riding the hills the day before.  Even on the bike, I did OK, but toward the last, I did feel a little undue fatigue. It was surprising that I felt this good after the event the day before.  

Even on the run, it was OK until the turnaround to come back to the finish.  The bottom fell out, and the effects of the ride the day before settled in on me hard. I had to walk/run, but I got through it and was proud that I could do back-to-back events like that…and I even got 3^rd place in my age group…Can you imagine? A great day.  My wife’s orthopedic surgeon and his two sons did this one with me, and that was fun.  A good day.  Thanks God

 

 

 

A Good Sprint Triathlon But No Trophy

 

CB & I Triathlon

 

Woodlands, Texas----May 5, 2007

 

(500-meter swim-15-mile bike-5K run)

 For some reason, I had reservations about the event and prayed a lot pre-event about the outcome.  However, once that was done and my mind and spirit put at ease, I gained a sense of calm.  And when I did the practice swim, the anxiety seemed to dissipate. 

 It was an unspectacular, uneventful swim and perhaps that is the best kind.  But those kinds of swims do not make for many look back and smile memories.

 

The bike was a different matter.  The pavement is smooth in the Woodlands and the terrain is flat.  It was soaring time.  I passed so many riders I worried that I was going to bonk somewhere down the road, but I didn’t.

 

.

 The run was as unspectacular as the swim but hotter and more boring.  The course had lots of turns in and around the mall area.  There was an area of sidewalk running that left me wondering where I was.  Finally, I heard the finish line. Finally, I could see it.  Thankfully, this treadmill with curbs was about over. 

My bike split became my PR for average speed at that time.  For that, I was proud.  However, there were a lot of tough old triathletes there, and though I had a good overall time, I was still only fifth out of seven participants.  A good experience, especially on the bike. A good day overall.

 

A Really Tough Event

 

Wool Capitol

 August 12, 2007

San Angelo, Texas

 1500 Meter Swim-40K Bike-10K Run

 This was a hard event for some reason, and my time reflected that.  It was hot; miserably hot. The swims were getting easier in my triathlon career by now, and not much is remembered about the swim up and down the Concho River.

 

 

The bike was the same out and back with little or no traffic and I believe this is the bike ride where I saw the large rattlesnake on the road.  Thankfully, it had been just recently run over and was dead.  The run was the killer.  I had to walk early. 

 

 The Marines at the aid stations were most friendly and accommodating.  Ambulances came on the “dirt road from hell” running course to pick up a man who got crazy in the heat and just went off the course and fell.  I believe quick action by the Marines saved this man’s life. I had worn this cap with a neck protecting flap on the back:  bad idea.  It was miserably hot on my head. Wetting it down at the aid stations was the only way I could tolerate wearing that thing.  My time was a full seventeen minutes slower than the first time I did this one five years before and the difference was in the run.  I was spent when this was done.  One of the toughest I have ever done.