The Red Hills Triathlon

1/3 Mile Swim 16 Mile Bike 5K Run

Well with much anticipation and lack of sleep, the day has finally arrived. My first triathlon of the season and with great competitive spirit against by friend Rob, head-to-head for the first time. This has been the much touted best friend rivalry for quite a while and now we are to actually go at it together, and in the same wave no doubt. The wave is the 40+ men and women. While I give Rob alot of credit for being and awesome runner, he is actually NOT 40 yet, but due to USAT rules he has to race in the age group of the year of his birthday. HA! An official "cheater"...LOL

So, there is much of a bragging right to be won here today. Rob with his 20 something 5K time and me with my 21+ mile per hour bike speed, it will all come down to the swim and transition times, or so we think anyway.

The Red Hills triathlon gets it's name from nothing else but the hills from around the Tallahassee area. They are not monster in nature, but they are hills none the less. For some good reason, I LOVE hills and Rob hates them. So I plan to take this to my advantage, if I can that is. I know that Rob can blow me away in the run, so this is my only advantage and I will have to capitalize on it.

Well it is Friday, April 3rd and I am heading down to Tallahassee early to get there before 6 so that I can get my race pack and possibly go over to the race site and check things out. I get there around 5:30 and pick up my race pack and head over to MaClay Gardens State Park where the race will be held. Luckily the park rangers are leaving as I pull in to the gate and I don't to pay the $4 entry fee. I am only going to be there a few minutes anyway so why should I have to pay, right? So I scoot on in and follow the signs to Lake Hall where the race will start. As I pull into the parking lot, I see quite a few people there and some of them are actually swimming in the lake. The water temp is supposedly around 70 degrees, so that is pretty cold to me. So of course I have to go down to the lake to check it out and feel the water for myself. It is actually not as bad as I thought it would be.

So I am standing around admiring all of the people and the beauty of the park when I guy comes up putting his wetsuit on. Aha, what a great idea! I will go get mine and hit the water for a quick swim. Couldn't hurt to get a little head start on the competition, right? So I head back to the car and get my stuff and go change. I hit the water running with the intent to just swim out a few 100 yards or so and come back. The water is actually perfect for me and I cruise out like a battleship, armed and dangerous. This being the first time I have actually swam with the wet suit on, I am totally amazed at how buoyant I am. This is awesome!!! I am going to tear up the swim so I think. As I am swimming back to the boat ramp, a small group of 20 somethings have arrived to check things out and are now watching me. Me? Why me? I am nobody. They are curious on how the water is, so I tell them that it is wonderful. The only problem that I had was my goggles fogged up a little.

So I am now off to change back into my street clothes and call Rob to see if he brought any anti-fog stuff for our goggles. He does have it! YAY. No problems. Well I am starving now and I really need to go check in to the motel. So I head over to it and check in. I ask the clerk where a good seafood restaurant was. My traditional pre-race meal is grilled fish, rice, and steamed veggies. So I have to find it somewhere in town. The clerk highly recommends that I check out Barnacle Bills. It is about 2 miles right down the road.

So off I go to find the local treasure. He is right and it is packed. It is Friday evening so it is normal. I go in and it just like I though. A hole in the wall with great food. Just like I like it. So I head right over to the bar where I am going to eat. It looks as though there specialty is raw oysters, but I don't know if that is a good choice for a pre-race meal so I ignore the temptation. I really need carbs and protein, a complete meal in other words. I choose the grilled Salmon with some kind of Greek sauce cooked on it. It is very good as I expected and so was the sweet tea, rice and veggies. I am stuffed, especially after 4 glasses of tea!

So I now head back to the motel to check out my emails and the latest news online, which usually takes all night. I do need to try to get to bed a little earlier than normal though. Rob and Lisa are leaving late and won't arrive until around 1:00am. So I check out my online necessities and head to the room. It is now 11:00pm and I decide to try to go to sleep. Well after much brain activity, I am unable to fall asleep and before I know it Rob and Lisa arrive. It is now 1am and we have to get up at 5:45 to get ready and get to the race and set up.

So we chit-chat a while finally go to bed. I think that I got about an hour to sleep before the alarm goes off. So I hop up and hit the shower.
My nerves are starting to get cranked up, but I don't feel nervous. This is supposed to fun! Rob says that he is getting a little nervous too. It is going to be a great head-to-head race between us. I am really stoked to finally see how it goes too.

So now we are at the race looking for a place to park. We finally end up about a mile from the starting line and we have no lights to see what we are doing! GREAT!!! Well everything is OK because we have plenty of time. We gather everything up and ride our bikes to the transition area. It is already packed, but the excitement is filling the air. Not to mention that there are lots of pretty girls to look at! LOL Tallahassee being the home of Florida State University has plenty of them. I figured that some of them would be in the race too.

So I set up my transition area and put on my wetsuit halfway.
The race director comes on over the megaphone and says the they are going to play the American flag song. So we listen with anticipation with our hands over our hearts. We now head over to the lake and get ready for the start. There are 5 waves and we are in the last one. Which is good for me because that means there is less people behind me to run me over!

Well the gun finally goes off and we are running in the water. I dive in and start churning it up. I think that I am going at a good pace, but I can feel my heart rate starting to climb rapidly. I am not in MY pace so I start to back it down a little. Well I immediately start to get run over, bumped, and everything else that can be thrown at me. If I was only a little faster this all would go away. I wish!!! So I have to deal with it for a while until they all pass me. LOL I am now not feeling good and I feel as though I can't breathe. I am starting to panic and am trying to decide what to do. I can't stop, so I look over at the safety crew that is all around to assist us. A girl spots me and asks if I am OK. Of course not! Can't you tell that I am about to drown? I refuse her help and flip over on my back to try to take a break and catch my breath. I do this for probably 100 yards and start to feel alot better. I am now at the back of the pack and the water is not as rough and crowded. I am at the second turn so I flip back over and am going to try to make all of the way back without stopping again.

This works great and I am back to full steam ahead.
Maybe I need to start in the back next time?!? So I finally arrive at the boat ramp and walk out of the grueling water. I finish the swim in 12:31, 9th in my age group. Lisa is standing right there and is taking my picture. She tells me that Rob is just in front of me and of course I don't believe her. But she is right and he has just entered the transition area. So now I am pumped and run to get on the bike. Rob is only about 10 seconds ahead of me and I know that I have the advantage on the bike. It is now my time to shine.

I head off up the hill and start looking for Rob. There he is and I catch him around mile 2. He knows that I am coming and is dreading it too. I pass him going up the first hill, but he gets me going down the next one. The battle is on now!!! The next hill is mine and I am not going to let up. I smash the hill and never look back. So now that I got rid of my nemesis, I have to concentrate on passing as many people as I can. I loose count at around 30 as this 59 year old man passes me like he is on a mission! Damn it! Who does this old man think that he is? He can't do that to me. So now I have another mission, To keep up with this guy and not let me beat me.
Well that is all fine and dandy until a 60 year old guy passes me! What the hell? They must have taken a double dose of Geritol this morning. I am in dead trouble now. Push, push, push I keep telling myself. These guys really know what they are doing, which is kicking my ass! I hang with them for quite a while but they eventually drop me. Oh well. What is a young pup like me to do in this kind of situation? Take it like a man and just hope that I am still alive and able to compete when I am their age. LOL

So on we go. I am maintaining a good pace and averaging 21 miles per hour. I just wonder how much of a lead I have on Rob? Where is he? Do I have enough lead so that he can't catch me in the run? I hope so because here it is. I finish the bike in 45:35, which is 21.1 miles per hour. 4th in my age group too! I have not finished the bike section of any tri lower than 5th in my age, ever; and I am proud of it too.

So I fly into the transition area and throw on my running shoes and take off. I see Rob coming in as I am leaving out and know that he is going to be about 2 minutes behind me. I know that he will catch me somewhere on the run, but don't know where. I am still stoked that I am leading him at this point and give it my all. I have been wearing my heart rate monitor the entire race and it gone off a couple times during the bike. It sounds an alarm when my heart rate gets over 180. I look down at it and it is reading around 176. I am running a good pace for me as I don't want to burn myself out trying to stay ahead of Rob.
If he passes me it will be OK. So I am about half way into the run and I turn a 90 degrees corner to the left which gives the chance to look back for Rob. SHIT, there he is about 100 yards behind me and he is coming strong! Oh well, I will just have to eat it and mess with him as much as I can.

I hear him running up behind me so I holler back at him to slow down. There are a couple of other guys close by and start laughing at us. We start yelling at each other in a friendly way and I try to block him. LOL My heart rate monitor is now freaking out as I am talking while running and also trying to mess with Rob. I look down it is says 196~! SHIT, I am going to die...I have to slow down. So I say good by to Rob and he is gone. I keep going and now my heart rate is saying 201...OMG!!! I have never seen it that high before. What the hell is going on? The beeping is loud and it never stops until I finish the race! I finish the run in 27:01, 2:21 behind Rob.

Well he got me this time! So I am heading back to the pool and with the wetsuit this time. LOL Although I won't be using it again until August, I still need to get used to it. Maybe I can go to the lake and swim there before the water gets too warm. Only time will tell.


So in conclusion, Rob ran a 1:25:29 and I ran a 1:27:50. Here is the breakdown:

Swim Adv T1 Adv Bike Adv T2 Adv Run Adv
Rob 11:54 +:37 2:03 +:10 47:08 2:00 22:26 +2:23
Scott 12:31 1:36 45:35 +1:23 1:10 +2:13 27:01

For the official results go to Results