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!

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!

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!

Results:

trainer with bike

trainer ride by jennks68 at Garmin Connect – Details.

here is the climbing block I also got at the REI garage sale!

trainer test – fail! by jennks68 at Garmin Connect – Details.

This will also be Melissa’s first triathlon!!!

They have posted the bike (Melissa and I previewed the bike course a few weeks ago) and run courses on their website, copied below:

To any of you masters swimmers out there – what am I doing wrong?

Click here to watch video: swim movie

*note, video has been compressed for viewing.  camera films much higher quality video than what you see here.

This touches close to home to almost any cyclist because we either know of or personally know someone who has either lost their life or been seriously injured while cycling on our roadways.  Distracted drivers or unfit drivers (the same thing?) have caused more heartache than I care to think about for too long.  Those drivers coupled with poor funding for adequate space on the roads to share with drivers have caused these incidents to escalate.

And it is not even those situations that make up the whole of it.  I read an article recently that described a local incident with teenage boys having “fun” and actually shoving a cyclist off of his bike.  Luckily (if there is a good side here) the cyclist rode with a camera for just such incident and captured their tag number.  The boys were charged with felony assault.

One rider I will be remembering in particular will be Dylan Mitchell.  He grew up in the same town I did; we graduated from the same high school.  I did not know him very well, but I have several friends that were close to him.  He was an avid mountain biker prior to going to college in Columbia, SC where he started road cycling.  He quickly advanced to a competitive cyclist and joined the USC cycling team.  He tragically lost his life while riding home when a car struck and killed him.

The point of this post and of this ride is to raise awareness.  I know that non cyclists think that we are a nuisance at times, but we love what we do and we will not stop anytime soon.  All we can do be respectful to drivers and ask the same of them.  And also hope that the lives are not lost in vane and the laws are strengthened and funding is made available to widen roadways to allow more room to share.

Let me tell you it was wonderful.  Sort of the feeling I get at a race when I see so many others out early on a weekend morning for some exercise.  This was different, though, because it was not a competition.  100% friendly and fun.

Scott made sure that we could choose our distance along the route which was confirmed and we set out.  I am not sure what point I chose to definitely do the 40 miler, but I think I wanted to all along.

We saw some great scenery and I met several new friends (although admittedly I will have to refresh myself on all their names!).  In fact, I had so much fun that I decided to buy a uniform and join the group!

You can see my stats as recorded from the Garmin 310XT here.

Oh, and did I mention that I burned 1,852 calories on the ride?

At a stop along the 40 mile bike course with MojoRiding Cycle Team

Of course, I bought them at my favorite running, cycling, swimming, triathlon store, TrySports.  Melissa has written on her blog several times about how great they are at TrySports.  Yesterday’s purchase experience was no exception.  Once I walked in, Jenn (an associate that has been there since I have started shopping there) recognized me, said hello and asked how I was and asked how Melissa is.  Now that is customer service!  Keep in mind too, that it has probably been 2 or 3 months since I have been in there.

Once I told them that I think I needed new shoes, they started their fit process.  They put me in a pair of Brooks, had me run on the treadmill to analyze how my feet contacted the treadmill when I ran.  They determined that I still needed a neutral shoe so she got a few out for me to try on.

I ended up deciding on a pair of Mizuno Wave Creation 10’s.  They have a different feel than my old Saucony’s.  Not that I didn’t like them, because I loved them, I just wanted to try something different to see if there was something possibly better out there.

After my first run, I still like them.

They are interesting because the cushion is really different than that of a normal shoe.  Instead of cushion all over the bottom of the shoe, your foot rests on a sturdy foot-bed and the ankle area is supported by several cushion “points” so-to-speak.  I will show the picture so you can see what I am talking about.

Of course, I had them put a pair of Yankz! in for the ease of use that they offer.  When they asked me what color, I said “white, I guess” to which they promptly told me that was boring so we compromised and I ended up with reflective white.

After getting the shoes, I met up with Andrew, Breanna, Chad and Stephanie at REI to get some food for Mitchell & Beyond coming up memorial day weekend!  Two of my favorite stores in one day woohoo!  Oh, and did I mention that I was able to convince Jenn to join us this time for her first backpacking trip!?  So excited!