My posting has been somewhat sporadic lately and I know, you will accuse me of being lazy with it and you’re probably right. Truth is, I have been pretty busy all around, but unfortunately I have not been busy enough with triathlon training.
Reasons:
I have been struggling with pain in my left leg/foot and if I stand for 5 or more minutes, my left foot will become numb and start tingling/stinging and is very uncomfortable. For a while this was just a nuisance and didn’t affect my training, but a few weeks ago about an hour after a 4 mile run, my left foot hurt so bad, I could hardly put any weight on it. After a few days with no improvement, I went to my doctor. He referred me to an orthopedist who has diagnosed me with mild sciatic compression. The sciatic nerve is the big nerve that runs from your spine all the way down your leg and into your foot. Apparently mine is being “compressed” in my hip area for some reason and is causing the pain/numbness. He told me that since I experienced the pain in my foot after running and there is nothing wrong with my foot, running is aggravating the condition, so to not run for a few weeks. He also put me on a round of prednisone to help with any swelling that might be going on and to come back in a couple of weeks if it is not better. Well, it has been a couple of weeks and if anything it is worse. This is frustrating to say the least, but I will do what I need to do.
Remember the problems with my bike that I got from TrySports last year? Well, I am still working with them to find out when the fork that has been recalled will be replaced. I rode the bike course of what is supposed to be my next triathlon, Assault on Cherokee, last Sunday. I took a chance riding the recalled fork, but I don’t want to have to do that anymore than I have to. Speaking of that ride, it was tough! I must have had better bike legs at this point last year. I actually had to walk up a few of the hills. Good thing it wasn’t a race! The course is a little different this year. Check out the map below:
I hope that I will be able to race the triathlon, but I feel I will have to listen to doctor’s orders. This is to be my longest race of the year, but it is not the most important. I need to get myself healed so that I can focus on training for my big event this year: Beach 2 Battleship Half Ironman in Wilmington coming up in November!
This triathlon was unique as it was my first as part of a relay team. My sister, Melissa, and I decided it would be fun to participate in a triathlon with her running and me cycling and we happened to find out that one of her friends, Sally, happened to be a skilled swimmer, with competitive swimming a part of her past. So we had the idea out there, then we had to convince everyone to be on board and commit. Long story short, we did and we even came up with a clever team name to acknowledge our inexperience as a relay team and 2/3 of the team inexperienced with triathlon overall (Melissa had since raced her first triathlon before competing in the relay, but Sally had never taken part in a multi-sport event until race day). Team “So that’s what you meant by tri…” was formed.
We staged a couple of informal swim practice sessions prior to the event, but overall, everyone was on their own. In fact, we never practiced the transitions prior to race day and even then it was just a verbal communication of how we would pass the ankle strap (that held our timing chip) in the transition area.
Going into the days before the race, we learned that there were 12 relay teams that were registered to compete in the event. Normally there are only a handful, so I was secretly (or not so secretly) hoping for a chance for our team to place in the top 3 for an award. Now that we had 11 others to race against, our chances went down. Not to worry, we had a decent enough team, and who knows how good the competition would be?
Also in the days leading up to the race, I learned that my bike (Felt B16) had been involved in a recall. Apparently there have been 7 problems with the fork (the part that holds the front wheel and goes through the frame and holds the handlebars) that involves a construction flaw with the carbon fiber and has caused the fork to crack. If this happens during a ride, a crash would be imminent. I had been in communication with TrySports several times to get the fork replaced, but it wasn’t going to happen before the race. I spent the last couple of weeks training on the trainer to prevent a crash, but I had to take my chances with the race. Hopefully this issue will be fixed very soon so I can get back out there!
Other things special to this event were the many friends that had chosen this race to be their first triathlon ever. Chris Bugart, Wendy Arias (both friends through Melissa) and Melissa McConnell (Melissa’s neighbor) all were racing their first ever triathlon! And Scott Helms came out to race the event as well. Scott made it his personal goal to beat our relay team by himself. I also knew one other competitor, my chiropractor, Dr. Adam Cooper!
This was a first year race and apparently they had expected around 200 participants. When the registration numbers reached 380, they were forced to close off the event. The problem with this many racers in a triathlon with a pool swim is that only one swimmer can start at a time. The first athlete entered the water at 7:00 and the last one not until 8:52!
I look a little evil this early in the morning!
Wendy, me and Melissa after setting up transition
Scott and I doing some "trash talking"
chilling before the race
transition filling up
Sally was fast, so she was seeded towards the beginning of the race, so we were to start our race at 7:20:30. Scott was 1 minute behind us. I knew that Scott’s goal was to beat us, so I did not want to let him catch me on the bike.
ready to go!
Melissa and I waited in our transition area until 7:24, when we expected Sally to come out of the pool area. Once we saw her, I was ready with my bike and Melissa switched the ankle strap from Sally’s ankle to mine. I ran out of transition area, mounted my bike and took off. The course was fairly straightforward early on the course with some flat spots and some downhills. I was able to pass several people, but there were a few that passed me as well. Around halfway, the one I did not want to see on the course appeared and blew by! Scott had made up the minute difference and was now gaining time on us. I pushed to keep up with him, but to no avail.
I arrived back at transition area where Sally transferred the ankle strap from my ankle to Melissa’s. She took off for the run course and I was told Scott was only a couple minutes ahead. Fingers crossed Melissa would have a great run and Scott might hit a wall.
Our star swimmer having fun!
Melissa & Sally waiting in T2
T2
T2
Scott ended up finishing at 1:10:12 and Melissa came across the line with 1:13:36 for our team. 3:24 faster. Well done Scott!
Melissa heading for the finish!
doing damage for next time...
doing damage for next time...
We saw the preliminary results with 6 relay teams finished and we were in 3rd place. We were hopeful to hold onto that placement. Unfortunately for us, a team came in 31 seconds faster than us and bumped us to 4th.
After all is said and done, I am extremely happy with 4th out of 12. And with zero practice on transitions, we tied 3 other teams for fastest T1 and we had the fastest T2 of all the 12 teams. Great job Melissa and Sally!
Oh, and Chris Bugart finished his first triathlon with a time of 1:49:47 (he was worried they would pull him off the course if he didn’t finish in 2:30!). Great job beating his goal time by over 10 minutes!!!
Go Chris!
Chris heading for the finish!
Melissa McConnell finished with a time of 1:24:23 (she was worried about a 2:00 penalty for forgetting her race number on the run, but it doesn’t appear to have been assessed) and Wendy Arias finished with 1:35:49! Great times and not just for first timers!
Dr. Cooper did great too, with a time of 1:14:46!
We capped off the morning by meeting up at The Flying Biscuit Cafe in Ballantyne, NC for food. Jenn, Mia and Sadie met up with us for the delicious meal.
Mia at The Flying Biscuit
Next up is Assault on Cherokee International Triathlon and I am a little nervous. I have not been swimming as much as I should be and I have having problems with my Sciatic nerve that is causing pain and numbness in my left foot and leg. This is aggravated when I run, so I am under doctor’s orders not to do any running for a while. This could get interesting and hard!
This race was my second triathlon of the year and it was a special one. It was Melissa’s first triathlon and I had convinced her to race it. I wanted her to have fun and be proud of herself. And I wanted to be there!
I came off almost a week of illness and the thought crossed my mind not to race it, and my wife even suggested that I shouldn’t. I got so sad at the thought of not racing with Melissa, that I told myself that I didn’t have to be fast, just be there and finish.
To add to my troubles, I was up until midnight the night before trying to fix my bike. You see, after I installed my bike on the new trainer, I realized that my rear brake was rubbing. I tried everything that I knew, pulled the crank (with the hidden brake on the Felt B16, the crank has to be removed to fully access the rear brake) I had the rear tire removed, etc. I should have taken a picture; this was a mere 6 hours before I had to be there! Well, I didn’t get it perfect, but I thought it would be good enough.
5:15AM-
Wake up time. Hit snooze.
5:24AM-
Getting up now (so I thought), turned off alarm.
5:35AM-
Jenn says, “Get up, you’re going to be late!” I went into the bathroom for a quick dressing with tri shorts and top under “street” clothes. Good thing I had prepared everything the night before. I went downstairs, grabbed a granola bar and went to the car where my bike and all my gear were already waiting.
6:10AM-
I met Melissa and Jeff at the race site. Melissa was already setting up and she did a great job. I guess the practice and the REI workshop paid off! I got my transition area set up and we went to get body marked and get our timing chips. We saw Scott and then Alex arrived after that. We then went back to transition to check over everything and grab our swim gear. We went to the bathroom and then to the pool for a little warm-up swim. This is the benefit of arriving early. We were able to take our time and get comfortable.
ummm?
someone's missing something
Scott giving last minute advice
The Swim:
Once it was my time to get in the water, I was feeling pretty good. The swim went well and I felt I seeded myself correctly. I passed the person in front of me and I allowed two people to pass me. The short distance of 300 meters was nice!
getting in the pool
starting the swim
on the swim
almost done with the swim!
Melissa, ready to go!
go machine!
The Bike:
As soon as I started pedaling, I realized that I had not fixed the brake as well as I had thought. The brake was rubbing a good bit. This not only slowed me down, but I realized it was a big mental hurdle as well. It was very frustrating to have to give more effort than I was getting out of it. As I made my turn around at the halfway point, I started to look for Melissa. She was not far behind! And she looked great! About 3 miles before the bike finish, I saw Scott walking his bike. He was not hurt, so I did not stop. Apparently, his chain had problems and he could only coast down hills and was forced to walk up them. This did not stop him though, he still finished strong!
out for a ride with a rear brake rubbing!
heading out on the bike
Melissa in T1
back from the ride
Melissa is all smiles!
The Run:
After a frustrating ride, I was tired and a little annoyed. It was hot and I was not feeling well stomach-wise. I ran and walked the entire 3.4 miles and made for a VERY slow run. Scott passed me first, then I heard Melissa’s voice not too far from the finish say, “Don’t let me catch you!” That was enough motivation to run the rest of the way, but I knew she already had me beat; she started 1:40 after me. There was no way for me to make that up at that point. Congratulations Melissa! Next time, though, I will be better prepared! Speaking of, Melissa had a great time and is hooked! What’s the next race, Melissa?
Jenn and the girls ready to cheer us in
Sadie's having a blast!
starting the run
heading out for the grueling run
melissa's smile is bigger than mine at this point!
Melissa on the run
Scott passed us both on the run!
that's the smile of finishing with my girls cheering me in
finish
pain!
I am hurting!
Melissa finish - she actually beat my time with the delayed start!
congratulations, TRIATHLETE!
the trio
It was a great race and a fun time with family and friends. Melissa got hooked on multi-sport and Scott, Alex and I fueled our fires. My bike is now in the shop at TrySports, so hopefully I will be back in the saddle next weekend without a rubbing brake. I did actually finish 3rd in my age group, but I can’t really count it since there were only 3 of us! Next up is the Ballantyne Triathlon, where Sally, Melissa and I are racing as a relay team. Should be fun and we should be pretty fast!
When a trip starts off with blue lights, things could get interesting…
Friday:
Jenn called to tell me that she unfortunately would not be able to join us on the trip. She was sick. Huge bummer! She told me that she still wanted me to go and have fun, so I decided to stay with her Friday night and head up with Althea on Saturday morning.
Saturday:
I left the house about 10 til 5:00, about 5 minutes late. I was to meet Andrew (who was driving Karen, Chad and Stephanie) at some point on I-485. I called him to let him know that I was a little behind, and after a little chastising from Andrew, he told me he would stop along the shoulder of the exit for Tryon and I would flash my light when I saw him. Well, the boys in blue beat me to him. When I arrived, there were blue lights ablaze, so of course, I did not stop and let Andrew deal with that. I got off onto Tryon and figured once Andrew got out of jail, he would give me a call. Just kidding no jail time, but they were most interested why someone was stopped on the shoulder at 5 AM on Saturday.
After the excitement, we headed on.
We decided to stop at Waffle House along the way, of course.
We arrived at Mount Mitchell State Park parking lot about 30 minutes late of schedule, but not too bad. We decided to summit Mount Mitchell first since the clouds were all low in the valley and there was a good view. Also, there were very few people on the summit at this early hour. 1 down, 8 to go.
Next, we headed south to summit Mount Hallback. This consisted of a bushwhack through relatively thick forest up a fairly steep hill about a 1/4 mile off of the trail. There happened to be a sign (albeit a little loosely anchored) to mark the summit. 2 down, 7 to go.
After we returned to the trail, we continued on where we hiked past the first gate to the park, a few miles from the summit of Mount Mitchell. We could tell at this time that the park we getting very busy as the weather was still nice on a Saturday of a holiday weekend. Several motorcyclists were riding on the scenic roadway.
From there we hiked up a long gravel roadway that led us near to the summit of Mount Gibbes. This was a slight bushwhack that took us near some very creepy buildings (some abandoned) that apparently were used at times by NC State University. We found the summit that was not marked, but we are certain we were there. Snapped some pictures and headed back to the parking area. 3 down, 6 to go.
Along this stretch, Karen, Andrew’s wife, let us know that her knees had been bothering her a good bit all day. The terrain we were covering is very technical, especially for someone that has had a couple of surgeries and zero cartilage in one knee. By the time we got back to the cars, we all needed a break.
We ate lunch and rested up before packing our overnight packs to head in the opposite direction towards Deep Gap for the night. We got about 1/2 mile in and Karen was not doing well. We could all tell she was in a lot of pain and we decided it would be wise to turn around before it got worse. The last thing anyone wants is for someone to be 4.5 miles into the back country unable to walk.
We headed back to the cars and decided to still camp in the area so we set out to find a place.
All of the campgrounds we came to were full. Apparently we weren’t the only people who decided to go camping in the area for the long weekend. We finally came to a trail head where, after hiking along the trail for about a 1/4 mile, we found a decent place to make camp. We headed to the cars, packed what we needed for the night and returned to set up.
We got a fire going and made dinner and told stories for a while before turning in.
The next morning we took it easy for a while before breaking camp. Little else happened, but we did stop to eat at Sonic (since Zaxby’s wasn’t open yet) before heading for home.
All in all a great trip, but we will be back for the remaining 6 peaks! Get well soon Karen!
P.S. The special places ended up being in restrooms, so nothing to note on that here.
Tonight, Jenn, Althea (Diego would not want to come…) and I will travel to Mount Mitchell State Park to be ready to start our hike to climb 6 9 peaks on the South Beyond 6000 list (SB6K). We will meet up with Andrew, Karen, Chad and Stephanie tomorrow morning to start the hike.
First, we will head south to climb Mount Hallback (6320 feet) then on to Mount Gibbes (6560 feet). From there we will return to Mount Mitchell State Park to eat lunch. After lunch, we will head north on the Black Mountain Crest Trail to visit the peaks of Mount Mitchell (6684 feet), Mount Craig (6647 feet), Balsam Cone (6611 feet), & Potato Hill (6475 feet). After we summit Potato Hill we will arrive at camp for the night. We will camp at Deep Gap, where we hope to find a water source.
Sunday morning we will set out for more peaks on the trail which will include Winter Star Mountain (6212 feet), Gibbs Mountain (6224 feet), & Celo Knob (6327 feet). We will return to Deep Gap to camp again on Sunday night.
Monday morning we will return to the parking area and make our way back home. I am sure it will be a fun and exhausting weekend, but I am so excited to be taking Jenn on her first backpacking trip! I hope it is a great one and she will get hooked like the rest of us!
If we have views anywhere close to this, I will be happy!
In a little less than a month, I have my next race, Tri at Baxter, and I am really looking forward to it. It is a first year event, but put on by Jim Martin who directs Tri the Rock and Assault on Cherokee, both well run events.
I got a new camera last weekend and I like it! It is wearable, waterproof and shoots in HD. Check out my first swim in Melissa’s pool. Scott filmed me as a swam half a lap.
To any of you masters swimmers out there – what am I doing wrong?
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