Mountain Lakes Triathlon Race Report

Aug 6 - Aug 12
S:  12,597 yds - 2hr 54min
B:  121.45 mi - 6hr 29min
R:  27.78 mi - 3hr 38min
Total:  13hr 1min

On Friday afternoon, I headed up to Guntersville, AL for one of my favorite races of the year: the Mountain Lakes Triathlon.  I headed straight to packet pickup, got my stuff, and then the weather was so awesome outside I decided to take a quick nap in the shade of a monster tree down by the lake:

"nap time"

After a short nap, I headed to one of my favorite out of town home-stays; the Gibsons!  As usual, they provided me with a huge home-cooked meal of spaghetti and a fabulous cherry pie for desert.  Thirty minutes after dinner, I was in bed dreaming of big things.  4:45am came early the next morning.  After the usual breakfast of coffee, bagel/peanut butter/honey, and a banana, K & S and I headed to the race site.  The race was a "600 yd" swim, 16.2 mile bike, and a 3 mile run; here's how it unfolded:

Swim: 10:22 (23rd)
While warming up in the water before the race, I noticed 2 things: 1) the course was wayyy longer than 600 yards, and 2) the last half of the swim was going to be impossible to see anything, as it was straight into the sun.  At least I knew what to expect.  Luckily, I was with a small group of swimmers on the way back in, so it seemed like we were swimming somewhat straight.  Coming into T1, I saw Kendrick and Sara 10 seconds in front of me.  They are both pretty good swimmers and had started 20-30 seconds in front of me, so that was a confidence boost.

Bike: 37:47 (1st)
Coming onto the bike, I knew what I had to do; be very aggressive and try to make up as much time as possible.  Although there were a few others in front of me, I was only really worried about 4 guys: Huntsville pro Andrew Hodges, Bruce Gennari, Jonathan Krichev, and Jacob Shults.  With the swim being slightly long, these guys (all superb swimmers) were going to be even further ahead so I had my work cut out for me.  I settled into a rhythm quickly and things were feeling good.  At the 8 mile mark I caught Krichev but could not get rid him (which is a problem because he is a great runner).  2-3 miles later I caught Shults.  After doing so, I tried to push it pretty hard and drop them, but they hung with me.  Coming into 2 miles to go, I still could not see Hodges or Bruce, which is not good because Hodges is an excellent runner.  The rest of the bike played out with me leading Shults and Krichev in not far behind Hodges and Bruce.

Run: 18:09 (12th)
After a quick T1 I was out on the run course.  10 seconds later, Krichev BLEW past me.  It was pretty impressive.  10 seconds after that, Shults did the same thing!  I could not find my run legs.  Mile 1 was a pathetic 6:23.  I was pretty mad at myself, because I know I can run faster.  Then, all of the sudden, things started feeling better.  Shults had established a lead but had quit gaining on me and I actually started reeling him in.  close to the turnaround I could see that Hodges had a pretty good lead.  Bruce was not too far ahead, and Krichev was likely going to catch him.  I then focused on catching and dropping Shults.  Since he started 30 seconds behind me, I knew I had to pick it up.  After the turnaround I had almost made it up to him.  Mile 2 clicked by in 6:09 right as I caught him.  I went by and tried to pick it up but he stayed with me.  A couple minutes later I was able to finally establish a gap and then just went as hard as I could to the finish.  Mile 3 clicked off in 5:48 as I crossed the line.

finishing the run

Total: 1:08:22 (5th)
I ended up 5th overall with a consolation prize of fastest bike split and 1st in my age group.  It wasn't a perfect race, but I definitely left it all out on the course.  Hodges cleaned up with Krichev a little bit behind him for the top 2 spots.  Bruce took the 3rd spot (43 sec in front of me), and Shults edged me by 13 seconds for 4th.  In general, I just need to swim faster if I want to have a chance at any of these races.  All 4 of these guys hung 1-2.5 minutes on me during the swim.  My training is on track, it's just that getting faster at swimming is a long progress.  I'm headed int he right direction, but it will take time.  I also need to be more consistent with my run.  Starting off with a slow first mile in a sprint tri is NOT going to win you anything...although I *may* have left some run speed on the table due to an aggressive bike. 

All in all, it was a great day with great friends.  Although competition is pretty important to me, there's a lot more that draws me to triathlon than that alone.  It was great to see the host of Birmingham athletes up at the race, and crushing it at that!  Walking around and seeing familiar faces after the race - rehashing the race play-by-play - that is almost more fun than the race itself!  It was also superb to share the M25-29 podium with 2 of my fiercest competitors and also 2 of my best friends.  I have gone head to head with Kendrick and Jeffrey at least 20-30 times during the last 5 years.  We have had epic battles and we have all been at the top and the bottom multiple times.  Also, props to Sara for bringing home the overall female title, and congrats to my mom for 2nd place in the F55-59 age group!

sharing the M25-29 podium with Jeffrey and Kendrick