After some recruiting, I got Mike Keefe (long time swim buddy) to sign up for the Houston Woods Triathlon. For preparation I kept in the same routine. I would swim Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at Xavier and on Tuesday and Thursday I would go out with the Resers crew. I would sprinkle in running and stadium stairs after swimming at UC. Then on Saturdays I would make a day of it at Gettler Stadium with a track workout then do two laps of stadium stairs at Nippert.
Things we gong great, I was getting stronger on the bike........I was able to hold 1:25/100m in the pool with consistency and I wasn't walking as much on the steps. At this point I am down around 210.
Segway: About two weeks out of Houston Woods (occured at the end of August), I was chatting with my cousin Sue on FB and she invited me to do the Escape to Miami race with her. After some thought, I decided to sign up. This race would occur at the end of September.
Back to Hueston Woods.........
A week out I decided to take my efforts for long training day up at Hueston Woods.......oh soo many fun memories there.
Segway: When I swam for Miami we would often venture up there for our annual "Tour de Chimps"......a bike ride that would start at the Rec center......go out to Brown rd to Hueston Woods......do the loop there and circle back. We would also do trail dogs (trail runs) there as well. It is so beautiful and peaceful there.
Anyways, I went out there and checked out the bike and run course. Thank goodness I did........I would have had a rude awakening if I had waited till race day. The bike course proved to be very hilly and technical and it was good to get a practice run in. As for the run course, the map online did not do a good job with the exact location....so I ended up jogging around the lake. Once the day was complete, I rewarded myself with a Wamo from Bagel and Deli.
Race Day......
Mike Keefe and I got up there about an hour before the race. We got checked in, got dressed, and downed some coffee/food, hit up the facilities and we were ready to go.
We decided to swim in the lake to get warmed up a little bit. The freaking lake very warm, almost like bath water. Mike and I started looking around and we couldn't believe all the people that had on wetsuits. There is no way it is Wetsuit legal. Immediately my suspicions rose against HFP.......
They are the directors of the race. The only thing Mike and I could think of was that they didn't want to deal with anybody drowning. With that said, I am under the opinion, if you can't swim, you shouldn't be doing the race!!
Anyways, Mike and I are in the second wave and we watch the first wave go off. These soo called Pro's start running down the side of the beach, damn near 200 meters before they start swimming. I asked the announcer if they were going to DQ those people and he just shrugged his shoulders. I told him that was Bullshit. So, before my wave he made the announcement to swim out to the deeper water. Nice try trying to save face.
Apparently this didn't sink in........athletes in my wave did the same thing. Oh well..........I ended up swimming with Mike and we caught them about 5 minutes into the race and dusted them. I ended up having a good swim and was 2nd out of the water behind Mike in around 19 minutes. Not to shabby for being out of the water 6 years. We zoomed through transition and started on the Bike. The Bike was freaking brutal........the course goes back into Oxford and circles back out to some country roads........then back to Hueston Woods. What makes this course hard is that there are tight turns at the end of each downhill; so you can't use your momentum to go back when there are rollers.
See Bike Map: http://www.hfpracing.com/images/stories/09_maps/09_crs_hwtd.pdf
Hills are not my strong point and a bunch of people ended up passing me on the bike. By the end my legs were gassed and the run proved equally as challenging. The run begins with a 45 degree trail run and tapers off to some rollers. Needless to say, my run was more of a walk.
I ended up finishing the race in 2 hrs and 52 mins......and surpassed my goal of 3 hrs.......I was psyched. Exhausted and overheated I collapsed into the lake to cool off.........
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