Let's get the results out of the way: 2:20:08. He was 17th out of 33 in his age group and 8th for the swim, 26th bike, and 9th run...what needs work?
Now...about the day...yesterday we left the house at 5:15am to drive the 25 minutes to Longview Lake. As we approached we found a long line of red brake lights. That's never a good sight. But, we stayed in place and slowly rolled along to the parking. When we got within sight of the turn to the lake, I watched as the man in the Camry in front of us reached to the passenger side...maybe he double-checking that he had his bib? As he continued to reach and dig around, I started to worry...he was rolling, slowly, but rolling...but the car in front of him was not. "Oh crap...stop!" Too late, all we could see was the Felt Tri bike swinging from its hitch mounted rack.
"Oh crap" again...Camry guy got out of his car and then Felt guy. They checked it out, shook hands, and returned to their cars. Whew! crisis averted...for both guys: Camry guy who could have ruined a nice bike and the Felt guy who didn't have to return home before even starting the race. It was very cool of the Felt guy. Luckily the little bump didn't cause too much of a delay in our effort to get parked.
Once parked, Ri-guy pumped up the tires and we made our way over to transition. It was chilly and I was not prepared; I was just wearing my TriSupporter t-shirt. I need to get a sweatshirt. But this is the last Tri around here for the season.
As we entered the transition area, Coach Ken was there was his headlamp shining like a beacon...he was volunteering. It was my first time meeting him...finally, right? I mean I make sure this guy gets paid every month and I'm only just meeting him??? He was funny...he did a 'we're not worthy' bow to Ri-guy's new bike. Actually, I think Ri-guy was happy to see him. He's been so pleased with his coaching and impressed with how hands on he's been. We'll owe him a lot when Ri-guy finishes Ironman Wisconsin.
After getting set up at an end spot of the rack (lucky find), I took some pictures of the bike and his set up since it was Lola's first race (yeah, I think he's naming the bike Lola after the Kinks song but it is still to be decided). I went and filled his water bottles and saw that Epic Bike Shop was on site--you may recall that's where Ri-guy got Lola. It was so nice to see Scott and his guys there. We went over to say HI and they wished Ri-guy luck.
As the crowd grew (900 participants), the first five heats lined up. Ri-guy was in heat 2 which was huge as usual. Heat 1 took off at 7 am and as the group swam past the third buoy, a guy started running towards the water...he was late. The other guys were giving him some grief. Not only was he late, but then he started swimming to the left of the first buoy - getting more grief from the crowd. He finally got straightened out but I'm not sure what happened to his time. It had to throw him off cause he was working really hard to catch up to his heat.
Tip: don't be late for your heat.
As Ri-guy entered the water, I heard someone call my name--that never happens...we hardly know anyone here. I looked over and saw Carlene and Carl...and he was not racing! They came out to cheer on Ri-guy. They really are great couple and huge supporters of the triathlon community.
As Ri-guy came out of the swim, Carlene got some pictures...she has a great camera and a good eye...she even got Ri-guy smiling. We saw him take off for the bike but didn't get to see him try mounting the bike with his shoes clipped in. He's never done that before and so we tried the rubber band technique - he tied it the loop on the shoe then hooked it to the quick release on the left and the bottle rack on the right. We hoped it would break off. The report from Ri-guy - it worked! Snapped off no problem.
As Carlene and I made our way to the bike route at the u-turn point, Carl left for a 7 mile run...impressive or crazy...you decide. We saw Ri-guy twice and Carlene got more pictures...he sure looked happy to be racing Lola for the first time. Finally we waited on the run course but we were on the short run course so we never saw Ri-guy...oh well. We rang cowbells for a lot of other people. After estimating that Ri-guy had been running 5 miles in 50 minutes...I finally went to look to see if we missed him...sure enough he was changed, drinking water, and talking to a triathlete (Trish) that is also coached by Ken. We found out he'd been done for quite awhile Oh well...we tried!
It was a great day...beautiful blue skies, cool breeze, lots of happy people, good result, and I had fun hanging out with friends. And now, it's just 13 days to IMoo...I think we're ready!!
Nice photos! And great tri!!!
My bike split usually looks like that compared to my other splits too... maybe we need to work on that...
;)
Posted by: Steve Stenzel | August 27, 2008 at 04:09 PM
hmmm...why did you photoshop the above photo? you took out my 6-pack abs. what's up w/ that.
Posted by: rian | September 26, 2008 at 09:56 AM