Anthracite Triathlon

A couple of weeks ago my friend emailed me asking about an Olympic dist. triathlon she found up by our lake house. I hadn't ever heard of it, but figured since it was within an hour drive of the house and in a beautiful area, we should support the local race. So, on Saturday afternoon our friends came to our house and we took them paddle boarding for a couple hours and then did a swim in the lake as a warm up for the morning. Since the race was an hour from the house and started at 7am, we were up at a ridiculous time.

Every race I ever sign up for, I dread on race morning. Maybe it's just because I'm not a morning person, but I seriously hate life while I'm still laying in bed at 4:15 on a Sunday morning knowing that I'm going to jump in a cold lake and work my ass off for a few hours. Ughh, I wish I could wake up excited, but I never do, no matter how excited I am the night before. It did help a little knowing that Doug and our friends were all going through the same thing...misery loves company I suppose.

Once we made our way to the race site, my whole attitude changed. Check out the sunrise with the mist on the lake, how can you have stank face in this place?


This dude with the medal detector was up to his neck in the water searching for gems.


See, the smiles started peeking through


Kind of...


The race itself was a bear. If they could have made the swim uphill, I'm sure they would have. The swim was really nice and the water temp was a surprisingly toasty 77 degrees, I actually got warm, which never happens to me in the swim!

Next up, the bike. At mile 3 in the bike we hit a 10% grade that lasted just over 2 miles...really good way to start. I was feeling pretty crappy the whole way up with all kinds of stomach problems. Luckily I started feeling better about halfway through the bike so I was able to take some gels and pick up a little energy. The rest of the bike was rolling hills with a few big ones in the middle. My legs were pretty pooped at the end of the bike which leads me to believe that I think I need to pace myself a bit more instead of just ride balls out.

The run had the allure of being a beautiful, flat, fast run but that notion quickly deteriorated. After running on a perfectly tree-covered trail for the first couple of miles at a pretty good clip, I was rudely surprised when I turned a corner, hit a paved road (in hot sun) that went straight up for 1 mile. For pride's sake I didn't let myself walk, but I'm pretty sure I could have walked it faster than I was chugging...it was ugly. The turn around point finally came and then it was a downhill bomb that was a little too steep to actually enjoy and then we hit the trail again for the final few miles of the race. I soon figured out why I was feeling so great the first couple of miles into the run, it was a slight downhill the whole time...which meant it was a slight uphill the whole way back. I totally bonked at about 4.5 miles and then just tried to drag my sorry ass to the finish without walking.

I made it to the finish and immediately laid down on the cement for a good 5 minutes to recover...I was spent. The rest of our crew did great. It was the first tri for one of our friends and the other scored a 3rd place AG finish! Dougie finished as well, but didn't feel so hot. I think he'll use it as good motivation to get into shape for the NYC Tri we have in a few weeks.

I ended up first in my age group and got a sweet piece of coal as the prize! I mean, it was the "Antracite" Triathlon, so it was only appropriate!


I always like a challenge, but this might be one that I only do once:)