His Flag Was Still There - A Rainy Sprint

 

Rose City Triathlon

 

Sept 12, 2009

Tyler, Texas Lake Tyler 

650 Yard Swim-14.5 Mile Bike-5K Run

A light rain began when we pulled into the parking lot.  It was still dark at the Rose City Triathlon race site, and we were some of the first participants to arrive.  While I was getting set up, getting body marked, and all that, the rain increased incrementally.  It did not look good for the home team.  Daylight ebbed damp and gloomy upon the scene but spirits would not be dampened.  This was a triathlon, and the others and I were ready, rain or shine.

Finally, we participants huddled at the swim start on top of the lake dam.  On a pole stuck in the ground atop the dam was an American flag waving bravely in the breeze.  I talked to a participant about my age, a genuinely nice man wearing a chain with a cross on his bare chest.  It was cold in the rain and breeze but the good conversation with my new friend kept it warm. Then the national anthem was played, and we winced into the rain and put hands to hearts, and watched that waving flag.  The wind seemed to pick up during the anthem, and the flag fluttering loudly in the wind and rain.  Then a low hum could be heard, louder, louder still.  The low hum turned into audible words of song as we gathered ourselves to join in singing the anthem too.  A swell of pride rose in my heart, and a mist came into my eyes, unnoticed in the rain.  Then came the verse, “Oh say does that does that star-spangled banner yet wave------,” and the wind gusted in response, making the flag flap violently and defiantly against the wind.   As we cheered and clapped our allegiance, I thought that after this opening, the event might be anticlimactic.  I was wrong.  There was more to come. 

The swim went fine, and the water was not that rough at all.  It was pouring rain as we exited the water and ran perhaps a hundred yards to our bikes in the transition area.

 

My cross-carrying friend was already there, smiling at me, wishing

me well.  The rain was coming down hard as I left on my bike.

It was not too bad at first, squinting into the rain to see where I was going then came the short hills.  They were steeper than I anticipated, and my speed got out there more than I felt safe with on the wet roads.  As I squeezed the brakes to slow down somewhat, nothing happened.  Squeezing harder, still not much was happening. I was flying down that hill in the rain with limited vision and essentially without brakes.  I would have never thought I would be glad for a hill to climb so I could slow down.  The next hills were taken very cautiously, and I kept riding the brakes to get whatever film might have been on the pad that made them ineffective when wet.  Needles to say, this was not one of my best bike legs in an event.  But I was just glad to be back safely to transition.  The run was sort of out in the open in the blowing rain.   Our running shoes squished loudly on the wet pavement.  At a turn, I saw someone limping badly.  It was my friend with the cross around his neck.   Stopping, to walk with him, I noticed a large tear in his cycling shorts.  He had taken a bad spill on his bike in the rain.  He showed me his hip and was a large, deep abrasion.  It looked almost like you could see the white of his hip bone.  He was in pain, but he urged me to go on, but he was hobbling so I wasn’t sure he could go much farther.  Still, he urged me on, and I agreed but I said I would be back.

 

 Surging on to finish, I quickly found an official and told of my injured friend.

We left to run back up the course to find him.  He was not hard to spot with that bad limp, but he told us he wanted finish this race.  So, we watched as my friend dug down for those last few hundred yards to hobble painfully in the pouring rain, to finish the course.  There would be no accolades, no loud announcer calling his name, only surety of being the person God had called him to be in all circumstances and seasons.   What else is there?  He made me proud. I was the lone spectator cheering as he hobbled across the finish, where he was helped away into an ambulance which took him away.  I thought of that Star-Spangled Banner we had sung a short time ago.  He had finished and in doing so, he had confirmed to himself and to me that his “flag was still there.”

Another Sprint - Triathlon Is Not For Everyone

 

Couples Triathlon 

July 12, 2009

Walter Long Lake, Austin, Texas 

800 Meter Swim-11 Mile Bike-5K Run

 

I did this one with my old friend, Gary. 

He had done marathons but no triathlons until the event. He bought new equipment and trained in areas he had never trained in before.  Though, I am not sure how easy he thought this was going to be, to put all three disciplines together. He seemed to enjoy the training and the disciplines, but I wondered how he would like an event.

The swim went well, and the dreaded bike course seemed to be easier than I had imagined.  However, the first “killer hill” almost stopped me cold.  Then loomed the hill named “quadzilla.”  This bad boy almost broke me last year. Steep and long, it is just an incline without let-up.  Truly, this hill is a lung, heart, and quad buster. 

Surprisingly, though, it was not as hard as I had anticipated.  I had been doing more hill work in my training, and it seemed to have paid off.   Once over the bad hill, I started rolling.  After that bad hill, it was not far to the end of the bike leg.  I was going so well that when I turned the last corner to sprint to the transition, I turned too sharply.  The road had a steep edge to it that led down into a deep ditch.  My front wheel got past the point of no return and I went off the road.  Stopping was out of the question. I was on the edge of a steep, weedy incline and headed into the ravine.  The best I could do was stay up and ride it out if possible.  Thank God, I made that bumpy ride to the bottom of the incline, from where I got off the bike and walked it back up the incline to the road.

That cost me some time, but I had not wrecked, and my overall bike time was considerably better than last year.

The run was hot, and I had probably put out too much on the bike.  I had to walk once to get my breath back.  After finishing, I waited for Gary as I wanted to cheer him in for his first triathlon.  He was over fourteen minutes behind me and really looked bad coming in.  After he finally finished, I tried to console him by telling him I had had to walk once.  He said he might have run once.  I believe this was a lot harder than he ever imagined.  Years later, he has never done another triathlon, and as far as I know, has not ridden the bike again.  He said he would never do another. This is not for everyone.

A DAY UNLIKE ANY OTHER DAY by Marvin Dittfurth

Another Good Burnet Moment

 

Burnet

 

September 21, 2008

Burnet, Texas

 800 Meter Swim-16 Mile Bike-5K Run

My time was OK.  As usual, the swim was laid out far too long and the swim time could not be compared to other years.

 

 

The bike course was the same hilly affair, but went all right.  I died on that run.  However, I got 2^nd place in my age group.   We called my son, who lived in Kansas, and told him about all the goings on, and we bought him a race shirt.

 A Day Unlike Any Other Day by Marvin Dittfurth - Ironman Story   https://booklocker.com/books/12152.html

A Really Good Event- The Most Applause for the Last Place Finisher

 

CB & I 

May 3, 2008

Woodlands, Texas

500 Yard Swim-15 Mile Bike-5K Run

I was up for this one.  Instead of getting off to the side and the back of my swim wave, I got right in the middle, ready to rumble.  And I did.  Arms, legs, elbows, people swimming over me, and me swimming over other people.  It was an aquatic wrestling match, and I remember thinking, as I was right in the middle of it, “Goodness!  This is fun.”  I guess you never get too old to be a child if you don’t let yourself get too old.  When the violence cleared out and I was on the return portion of the loop. I saw a man just floating face up.  People often do this when they run out of gas on the swim, so I thought it was fine and swam on.  Later, I was to learn that a man in his fifties had died during the swim, and just about the time I would have been in the water. Did I pass him up? Could I have done anything? Hmmm

I went on to have my screaming bike ride – I look more vicious in the photo because I forgot my sunglasses in transition.  I had a decent run.  In all, it was good enough for second place in my age group.  At an event of that size and caliber, that means something.  I won an entry to the next year’s event too.   

However, the most impressive thing was that they gave an award to the last finisher.  A heavy girl stepped forward to receive her award and received a huge round of applause.  In fact, she received more applause than any of the winners.  To me, that says something about the personal quality of triathletes.  It was a good day.

 

 

Then Came Quadzilla - Good Sprint Event

 

Couples Triathlon

July 13, 2008

Austin, Texas, Walter Long Lake

 

800 Meter Swim-11 Mile Bike-5K Run

 

Energy, youth, noise, and a great venue.  Parking was right there at transition- really convenient.  Participant friendly is a rather good description of this event.  For the first time ever, I was allowed to pick up my packet the morning of the event.  Sure made things nice. 

 

The swim was 800 meters in Walter Long Lake.  Nothing spectacular but I did have a good swim. 

 

 

 

 

 

The bike was surprising to me.  Couldn’t seem to get going.  The hills were a steeper incline than I thought, and one came at the bottom of a hill after a sharp right turn. There was absolutely no momentum going into this hill.  I barely kept my bike upright getting over this bad boy and I was winded severely. 

 

Then came Quadzilla, a long and steep hill.  I was more ready for this one, but the result was the same. As slow as I was moving, I still passed lots of folks on this hill.  Several participants walked their bikes.  Some were wobbling all over the road, trying to stay upright.  I thought it would never end…but soon thereafter was the transition. 

 

The rest of the race was easy in comparison to the bike leg.  The run was some on pavement and some in the park.  The course doubled back close to the race area and they had people squirting water on us there as we made a turn with the crowd all around.  That was a nice touch.   It was hot.  I passed a young couple who were toast by this time.  When I got a short distance ahead, I heard the young man say, “We must really be in bad shape.  Did you see his age on his leg, and he is passing us?”    I did not feel complimented at all being considered to have some sort of age-induced disability.

 

The finish line could be seen from a distance, and I kicked in what I could.  The finish line chute had a few people in it, and they cheered.  The loudspeaker announced my name and said, “he’s 65 years old.”  Then I heard a murmur of people seemingly impressed and surprised.  I was the oldest person at this event of a thousand participants.   All in all a good event.

 

 

 

 

https://booklocker.com/books/12152.html   A Day Unlike Any Other Day 

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 on Booklocker and Amazon

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