Spirit of Morgantown Olympic Tri Race Report

By Shawn

This was a much better lead-up than the last one. My training was going well, I worked on some of my weaknesses, did some very long workouts, including a 50-mile bike ride, and several targeted swims over a mile in length, all in an effort to fix some of the problems I had at the Mooseman. I also remembered to bring everything with me this time. I brought my homemade handlebar water-bottle, good nutritional options, and all my regular equipment. The Ramada Hotel was relatively close and of an acceptable quality and, at 72 bucks, hard to beat.

Headed to the race site at 5:45, I ate my breakfast consisting of 2 Go-Lean Crunchy bars with 2% milk. Matt was appalled as a non-dairy kind of guy, but I normally would eat cereal, so this was a pretty close approximation. I ate a Powerbar with some Gatorade at a half hour before the start. I realized at this time that I had not been given my timing chip, so I headed back to T1, which was now closed. I found someone and they gave me the strap. Thank goodness I noticed that was missing. I walked back to the top of the dock, tried to stretch out, did some calisthenics, though not enough, and headed down to the dock. We were the second wave.

The start seemed to go pretty well. The wave was small enough to avoid too much abuse, though I did get kicked in the eye, dislodging my goggles. I put them back in place and then I think I got a little overly excited and tried to sprint again. Well, that caused a bit of trouble with the HR and breathing, akin to what happened at the Mooseman, so I set about to nip that in the bud. I did flounder for a little bit, did some kind of breaststroke, trying to catch my breath, which I soon did, and then began crawling again with a particular focus on not moving my legs. This turned out to be pretty effective, and I began to feel quite good, so I kept accelerating through the rest of the swim, even kicking in the last couple hundred yards. I ended up coming out of the water about two and half minutes after Matt, which was very inspiring to me.

33:59 – 98th overall in the swim. Woohoo, I cracked the top 100!

I ambled up to the bike and got going. I came out of the transition into a wall of people trying to mount their bikes exactly at the yellow line, so I ran through them about 10 yards ahead and mounted there. Since I was feeling so peppy, I just gunned it. I felt like I was really moving for the first 10K, maybe averaging over 20 or even 21 by my speedometer, spurred on by the delicious healing power of the elixir in my oh-so-convenient handlebar water-bottle. That thing is a Godsend. But then came the long climb capped by a fairly sharp final ascent. I was reduced to 7mph there, and some people passed me. I should add that not a single person passed me before that hill. Not much to report for a while, though I eventually saw Matt coming toward me as I approached the turnaround, and I wasn’t that far behind, so I was once again inspired. I must be doing okay, I thought. Made it to the turn-around, and headed for the second big hill. I saw Craig coming toward me, which meant he wasn’t far behind. But the hill loomed. This is where I was passed by many people, including a rather rotund XL3 who toodled past me like I was sightseeing. I couldn’t do a thing about it. I thought for sure that Craig was going to catch me here too, but he hadn’t quite made it that far yet. Just as I made it to the top of the hill, the rain started, but I had my shooting glasses on, so I wasn’t deterred. I set a blistering pace down the hill, and indeed all the way to the finish from there. I passed a lot of timid people being pelted by the huge raindrops and got into a crowd at the bottom of that first descent. I set up behind a very fit woman in a pink bikini who was going pretty much exactly as fast as I was all the way home. At some downhill spot further on, I caught her, looked over and said “How’s it going?” Not a flinch. No look. Was she deaf, I wondered? A ripped deaf triathlete in a pink bikini. Ah well, not everyone has the ability to chat it up while riding their fastest like Craig and I do. She got away from me on the next uphill. I came into the transition still feeling good. I’m pretty sure I could do another lap at that pace. Whoever thought running should be in a triathlon was obviously skinny.

1:25:16 – 17.5 mph pace. 123rd overall.

Anyway, my T2 was quick, thanks to my trusty Sambas, and on my way out, Craig came jogging in with his bike. I knew then that I would be seeing him within two miles if not sooner. It turned out to be about one. I think I was doing pretty well on the run (for me) for the first three miles, probably averaging somewhere between 10 and 11 minute miles. Then I started to really feel like this running stuff was a dumb idea. Shortly after that, I encountered Devil’s hill, which is pretty dang silly. I walked, like everyone else we know. After that, I had to pretty much walk up every uphill for the rest of the race. As I came up the second sizable hill, I saw a pretty big guy behind me whom I thought just might be an XL3, so I tried to kick it up a notch. No one can pass me. Well, all those Half-Iron people can pass me, that’s fine, but not that big guy. I plunged down all the downhills with abandon, and slogged up the ups. I stayed ahead of that guy for the last mile, and just as I was coming into the finish, some little woman came up behind me, and I decided she can’t have me. So I sprinted to the finish and beat her through the gate. Whew, it was over. At that moment, I felt as if I had run a very good race for me. My body wasn’t hurting too much, yet I had done everything I could.

1:18:47 in the run -- 12:02 pace (although this is somewhat skewed for the worse due to T2 being lumped in there)— Total time for the race: 03:23:48

We were about to go pack up the cars, when someone thought to look at the results. Well, as it turned out, there were only two people in my age and weight class, which meant I was getting some hardware! More looking and we discovered that Craig was too. So now we couldn’t leave. We had to get the podium shot. I will grant you, it may not be that impressive to get second place in a field of two, but imagine all the fat guys in the world who are afraid to try! I beat them all.

So we waited, and waited. We called the hotel to extend our checkout. Finally, after literally hours, they gave out awards. No podiums to be seen. They called out the winners and a guy passed out the plaques. When we go up to him to get ours, he says “What place did you get?” I was tempted to say “First,” but I didn’t. The funny thing about the plaque is that there is no other information on it other than Second Place, Spirit of Morgantown Olympic/Half Distance Triathlon. Fine with me. Looks good.

Finally we got to leave, and had a wonderful post-race feast at the cabin home of Tamara’s parents. It was a great day and much more satisfying of an experience than my first attempt. I’m ready for more.