Auburn KD Shamrock 5K

Wow!! It has really been a long time since I have raced. The KD Shamrock 5K was a good way to shake the cobwebs loose before the ING Atlanta Marathon at the end of the month. I had to sign up for something to get me motivated to train hard and consistently.

My wife was a KD and 2 of our babysitters for our twins are KDs. As you would suspect, there were a lot of 18-24 year old participating in this race. It was also very, very cold for this race, and I was ill-prepared. The built-in briefs in the running shorts provide little warmth. I met up with a friend of mine, Adam, that was running in his first race ever. I signed up on the day of the race, as there was only a $2 penalty for late registration, and I thought I could manage that. It was well organized and got through the line quickly.

The race went through a scenic route around downtown Auburn, with great views of Jordan-Hare Stadium, Samford Hall, Toomer's Corner, and the new basketball arena under construction. The start and finish corrals, timing, and results were well managed, as always, by the local running club, AORTA. The route was quite hilly and offer numerous challenges for such a short course of a 5K.

I was really pleased with my results, considering the hiatus. I finished second in my age group, although there weren't a large number of runners over 30. Here is a link to the results, in case any one out there is looking for their own time in this event.

West Point Lake Triathlon Photos

Below are some photos from this last weekend's West Point Lake Triathlon that my wife took. As I have mentioned before, I did the Olympic, or International, distance. They also had a sprint distance competition going on simultaneously. It was a hard day, and it was the sorest I had been following an event since the Country Music Marathon...but I did it.

The swim was 1.5K, or .93 miles. It was very hard to pick a good line. I probably swam more like 1.5 miles with all the zig-zagging.

Coming out of T1 onto the bike leg of the event. I felt pretty good and was in & out of the transition area in 1:17.

I felt good on the bike. I averaged more like 19.5 mph, but this was cut down to 17.9 officially because my chain popped off twice.

"Now, where do I park this thing?"

Lost in a see of aluminum, rubber, and carbon. I had a very good T2, getting in and out in :47 seconds.

The run was pretty tough. I only stopped to walk for a second while getting some water near the half-way point. It was a pretty flat run, except for one big hill at about mile 4.

West Point Lake Triathlon 2009 Results

The results from today's West Point Lake Triathlon are in. Here are the results for the Olympic/International Distance and the one for the Sprint Distance. I will have more reviews and photos to share from this race, but I wanted to go ahead and let people know these are available.

graphics from www.gamultisports.com

More Ft. Benning Pictures

Here are some more pictures from the Ft. Benning Triathlon last weekend. There were some interesting signs along the course and some scenery that most people probably don't get to see.

This is a predictable sign to see during a race.

This one is not...

...Nor is this on. Don't venture to far off the roads.

The Airborne jump towers on main post along the run route.

Another picture of the jump towers along the run route with with one of the airplanes on display.

A view along the bike route back the woods.

Ft. Benning Reverse Sprint Triathlon Review

I am looking back over the results, photos, and video of the race this last weekend, and it is hard to focus on writing a review. I took a trip up to West Point Lake yesterday and biked the run portion of the triathlon this coming up. I am planning to make at least one more trip up there this week before the International Distance competition.

Here is how the Ft. Benning Reverse Sprint Triathlon broke down for me. I finished the race in 1:12:42, which put me finishing 24 out of 145 overall and 8 out of 28 in the 30-39 Age Group. The bike portion was about 4 miles shorter than the Grandman Triathlon I did last weekend. Since the race was a reverse triathlon, we went run, bike, swim as I have mentioned. I got there early again to pick-up my packet, get body marked, set up my transition area, and warm-up. I was somewhat surprised when I got my packet that we did not have race bibs. The only forms of identification were the numbers marked on our left arm and leg. The packets were average, with a t-shirt and Hammer Gel being the big items. The whole race was well stocked with water. There were 3 water stops for the run and 4 for the bike. There was water at the end of the race and some fruit but not much else. I can't complain. The entry fee was a steal at $30. There was a free meal after the race that I did not attend at the Mexican restaurant on post, but that was not really what I was craving post-race.

I ran the 5K in 19:37, placing 8th in my Age Group. This is the fastest 5K I have run since high school cross country. The course was well marked at every turn. There was quite a bit of construction near the course, but there were also many historic and interesting vistas, as well. I felt good coming into Transition #1. I was in and out in 1:08. I completed the bike portion in 37:28, averaging 19.9 mph, placing me 9th in my Age Group. The first and last couple miles of the route are pretty bumpy and much focus was given to avoiding pot holes and dips. The rest of the course was very rural and had a couple good hills. There was some interesting signage as we followed the road along some of the firing range areas. I came back into Transition #2 and dismounted. I got scolded by a race volunteer for running instead of jogging through the transition. I had my bike mounted and my goggles in hand in 1:09 and was off to the pool. We swam 11 laps of a 50 meter pool. Around lap 4, I got a huge cramp in my ribs on the left side. This is the side I breath from, and it became very difficult to take in some deep air. I tried to keep my pace up, but I know it suffered. I finished the swim in 13:23 ranking me 13th in my Age Group. At 1:12:42, I hopped out of the pool and crossed the timing chip mat.

This race is one of the best values I have found. There is not much advertising for it, not much swag, it can be difficult and confusing to get onto Ft. Benning, and the post race food is lacking. It was still a fun race with a course that will let you excel if you approach it right. It will be really hard to beat the price, as many 5K and 10K are edging their costs up to the $30 mark.

Ft. Benning Reverse Triathlon Photos

The second leg of my three week blitz is complete with me finishing the Ft. Benning Reverse Sprint Triathlon on Saturday. Here are some quick photos of the event that my wife and I took while I was amongst it.

This was the transition area, pre-race, as everyone was picking up their race packets and getting their own little slice of space organized.

As I was warming up and doing a mental checklist of how I wanted the race to go down, I got a picture of the pool where we would be swimming 11 laps. It was so peaceful then. Who could have imagined all the kicks in the face and gnashing of teeth?

My wife snapped this shot off of me coming into the transition area from the run. I felt really good the first leg of the race, posting my fastest 5K run since high school.

Here I am coming into the transition area from the bike portion of the race. The bike racks were not marked, so I had to just eyeball my towel and bag sitting on the ground. An official barked at me not to run through the transition area.

I grabbed my goggles and headed across the parking lot to the fury that was the pool and final leg of the race.

This picture does not even show the chaos of the pool swim to the finish. I am in the foreground in the tri-suit.

I have not seen the final, final results sheet. I am still waiting for it to be published before I post results. I do have some more pictures to put up here and another video of the course. I was pleased with how I performed in this race up until the swim. I posted one of my best 5K runs and averaged one of my highest mph paces on the bike, but I got a huge cramp in my side about half way through the swim that made it extremely hard to take any deep breaths.

UPDATE: Here are the links to the Overall Results and Age Group Results for the Ft. Benning Reverse Sprint Triathlon. It looks like they still have to tweek them. I have noticed some errors already.

Grandman Triathlon Review

Here are a few photos of the swim and run course that I took on Friday before the race. I did not get any shots of the bike course, but I have some lovely video to show in next post. I basically propped my video camera up on the dashboard of my car and filmed the whole bike course. I was good to have it to watch and review Friday night before the race.
This is a picture of the 1/3 mile swim course. Luckily, it was not this choppy Saturday morning. Even out the the second buoy in the picture, it was knee deep water, and we would swim a little and get up and run a little. It was not ideal.
This is a picture of the area around the final mile of the course. The first mile was all up hill, the second mile was all downhill, and the last mile of the run was flat. This part of the course followed along the shoreline below the bluffs.
We ran down the road along the shoreline to the turn around area beyond this duck pond, and it was aptly named. There were ducks and geese everywhere. There droppings were also everywhere. There were a couple on Saturday morning that did not like me doing a warm-up run around their habitat who started to charge at me a little.
This was the final stretch to the finish line. Past this straight away we ran along the outer perimeter of the transition area to the finish line stocked with pizza and beer.

Transition Area

I figured out early Saturday morning that everyone has their own way to set up their transition area. My approach was that of a minimalist. I had my helmet, race number, and sunglasses hung up on my aero bars. I had a pan of water to dip my feet in before putting on my bike shoes. Sixteen miles of sand in my shoes would be extremely uncomfortable. I had my gel packets in my rear water cages, along with all my repair tools. Other than that, it was just a change of shoes.

Here are how my transitions went. For the swim to bike transition, T1, I came into the area wearing my tri suit, barefoot, and holding my goggles & swim cap. I found my bike, clicked on my helmet and race number, and slid on the shades. The last thing I did was dip my feet in the water to wash away the last of the sand from the beach and put my bike shoes on. I fumbled some here getting the two Velcros and ratchet straps secured on each shoe. I did not change any clothing items or put on socks.
For the bike to run transition, T2, I ran my bike in to the area a secured it on the rack. On the last downhill stride of the ride, I reached down and unstrapped my shoes and pulled my feet out. I left my shoes snapped into the pedals as I ran into the transition barefoot. I took off my helmet turned my race number around. I slipped on my running shoes, again, without socks and ran out of the transition area. It took several strides to really get my feet under me, but I was determined not to walk any of the run course (not even the massive hills that started the run).
As you can see from the pictures, I was one of the first ones in the rack. It did not look like this at race time. It was much more crowded. I do like getting to races early.

By the Numbers

We just got back from the beach and a nice, long weekend. I completed my first triathlon at the Grandman Triathlon in Fairhope, Alabama. The weather this weekend could not have been any better. There were very few clouds in the sky, the water temperature in the Mobile gave us no need for wetsuits, and the heat of the day did not come until late in the afternoon.

For the race, I was signed up as a first-timer, but they also put me in my appropriate age-group division, 30-34. So, I will be giving the stats for both divisions for what its worth. Here is how the numbers broke down for my first triathlon.

I placed 154 out 530 overall.
I placed 15th out of 42 males in my age group.
I placed 7th out of 64 first time male participants.

The swim: 7:44 at a 2.6 mph pace
I placed 2nd in my age group and 8th among first time males.

The bike: 53:34 at a 18.4 mph pace
I placed 19th in my age group and 10th among first time males.

The run: 21:58 at 7:06 mile pace
I placed 9th in my age group and 4th among first time males.

I was unsure how I felt about my transition times and felt I could have done better, until I looked at the comparative results to the other racers. I was very pleasantly surprised. For the swim to bike, T1, transition, I did it in 2:54 and :55 for the bike to run transition, T2. Here are the links for the Grandman Triathlon results and Lepow Photography from the race

I have some other items to share (pictures, video, etc.) that I will do over the course of this week. I need to get everything out there that I want to publish before this weekend when I compete in the Ft. Benning Reverse Sprint Triathlon and get a whole new series of items to post.

Runner Dies After Finishing Half-Marathon

On Saturday, a 25-year old runner collapsed shortly after finishing the Country Music Half-Marathon that I was at. He had finished the race around 2:16, only a couple minutes after a friend of mine that saw his collapse. From her account, he collapsed and medical workers jumped in quick to do what they could, performing rescue CPR before taking him off in an awaiting ambulance. He would later die at Nashville General Hospital that day.

The saddest part of this story is that he was a military veteran. Army Staff Sargent Benjamin Pigman from Hamilton, Montana had served 4 tours of duty in Afghanistan and 1 tour of duty in Iraq. He was a decorated veteran with several commendations and medals for his service. The medical director of the Country Music Marathon called it a "sudden cardiac event" and said that it was not contributed to the record heat on race day. It might be the case that it wasn't heat stroke or heat exhaustion, but indirectly, the heat could bring on over-exertion and stresses to the heart. My heart goes out to his family. It is terrible to see a life cut short before it even really begins.

Photo from www.wgnsradio.com

Race Day, Part 2

Now in the heart of downtown Nashville, we made the break from the half marathoners on the circle around the Tennessee State Capitol Building. We began a long, slow climb up our next out-and-back route following Rosa Parks Blvd. heading towards the Metrocenter area. This part of the route was one of the less scenic parts of the entire day. It was very industrial and very gritty.

It was only until we were on the northwest end of the Metrocenter area that the route turned to show us vistas of another Nashville landmark…The Cumberland River. For the next 2 miles, we ran along an elevate footpath that looked to be a part of some “Rails to Trails” project. There were steep banks on both sides of the path, with one side being the river and the other being an industrial park. There was only one area on the trail that had spectators and no water stations. I just keep looking to my right, admiring the river and greenery that tried to hide the rock-faced cliffs. You could barely see the downtown area to the right. Although the area was lacking in crowds, it was nice to have a few miles without the fanfare. It was more like a normal weekend run I would have at home.

The peacefulness did not last long as we made our return trip south on Rosa Parks Blvd to join back up with the half marathoners around the State Capital. If there was a confusing part to the route, this was it. Half-way through mile 19, we were again running alongside the hoards of half-marathon runners. Over the next mile, our paths were overlaid but were sprinkled with turnoff they would take before rejoining us on our path over the Woodland Street Bridge. This is where we got out first glimpse at LP Field where the race concluded for all of us.

The half marathon runners only had1/2 mile to go, but we would have to stick it out for another 10k. The joy that I had felt when I first saw LP Field quickly dissipated as we began to weave our way through more neighborhoods to our final loop around Shelby Park. Although I was in serious pain at this point and doing an alternating run/walk combo, this was one of the most scenic parts of the route. On one side we had the Riverview Golf Course and Shelby Park and on the other side was the Cumberland River again.

Now on our final leg, we headed down Davidson Street and passed under Interstate 24. As we rounded the corner and started heading straight towards the southern end of LP Field, I got my first glimpse at my wife that I had kissed good-bye at 5:30 a.m. that morning. Her and our other friends started yelling out my name. I looked at them and all I could do was shake my head. I actually found a little kick for the last quarter of a mile and pulled into the finish area in 4:19:39.

Race Day, Part 1

There was no other word for it than hot. The official high for the day was 87 degrees, which was a record high for the tenth edition of the race. The winner, Kenya’s Amos Matui that finished in 2:13:41, could have lapped me twice. I was happy to survive the hilly course under those conditions in 4:19:39. Tragically, one young man did not survive the event (more on that in a future post).

I arrived as close as I could get to the start of the race on West End Ave. at 5:30 a.m. and kissed my wife good bye as I headed towards Centennial Park. As I walked down West End Ave., the corral numbers kept falling in descending order, 29, 28, 27, 26….so on and so on. I was in corral number 4, obviously a little optimistic after coming off a good showing at my first marathon. I finally made it down to the park to drop my clothes off, stretch, warm-up, and make one final trip to the portable toilet before the race start. The bag drop off was well organize and manage by UPS. I had zero problems with drop off or pick up. By 6:15 a.m., the crowds really began to pick up. They could have put an additional 500 portable toilets in and around the park, and there still would not have been enough. After stretching and going for a warm up run, I ended up waiting in line for 20 minutes to use the bathroom. The wheelchair athletes were taking off while I was still in line.

The enforcement of the corral assignments was laughable. There were people from every corral down the line in a group with me. I could not even actually get into the corral until groups 1 and 2 left. Then, we were able to move our way into place and make the march up to the starting line. With the horn, we headed down West End Ave. as it passed by Vanderbilt University and turned into Broadway. Along the way we passed many famed Nashville landmarks, including the impressive Union Station Building, the Sommet Center, making the turn at the Gaylord Entertainment Center and coming back around in front of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

We then headed towards and out & back route down Music Square and Belmont Ave to a small loop past Interstate 440. This was the most scenic and shaded part of the entire course. Being a builder, I enjoyed the Tudor cottages and classic bungalows that lined the streets. Large oaks, maples, and poplars shrouded the sun as best they could. This helped mask the full effect of the hills in this section of the route. There were also large numbers of fans that turned out for this part of the courses, mixed in with the variety of bands that were stationed every couple of miles. As you can tell, I was pretty upbeat during the first 10 miles.

We made our way back into downtown, along the railroad tracks adjacent to the old Union Station Building again. You could still see people on the overpasses waving us on. The aid station people were top notch. The Cyto-max was in clearly marked cups, the water in water cups, and the Vaseline-on-a-stick was ready for places that were rubbing. As we made our way up onto Rosa Parks Blvd., the ½ marathoners were still with us until they made their turn off at Harrison St. on their way to glory at mile 11.5. For the rest of us, there was another 14.7 miles to go.

Also, check out the service by Garmin/MotionBased to give you elevation charts, 3D maps, and Google Earth view.

Photo from www.cmmarathon.com

Country Music Marathon Expo

We made it back yesterday from our weekend at the Country Music Marathon in Nashville. It was a good, tough weekend. I wanted to take the next week to review a few aspects of the race festivities. Since there is no better place to start than at the beginning, I will begin with the Race Expo on Friday.

The Expo was held at the Nashville Convention Center just off the downtown Broadway Street area and right across from the Ryman Auditorium. My wife and I decided to head up there early to avoid the bulk of the crowds, and we were glad that we did. We arrived not long after they opened at 11 a.m. and found no real lines to speak of. From the way the Convention Center was set up, you could tell of what was to come later in the day, with over 30,000 runners and 50,000 total visitors expected. They had plenty of security and event personnel on site ready to help and had the entrance weaving around to manage the expected crowds.

Once you entered to hall, there was a large area just for receiving your race number. There was an area for chip solutions and changing your corrals (although on race day this was useless). From there you proceed to the next station to pick up your event t-shirts, half-marathoners to one side and full-marathoners to the other. Next, you picked up your race bag/packet and headed off to the largest single-purpose area in the exhibit hall…The Official Merchandise Zone. We looked around for a little bit, but everything was way overpriced and a little too self-indulgent for a low-key guy like me. Besides, I’ll just wait until after the event when they mark everything down on the web site.

Finally, we moved along into the vendor area. This put my, most recent, first marathon expo to shame. My first marathon expo was held on the ground floor of the local Hilton Garden Inn in Albany, GA. With a higher caliber event, there comes a higher caliber expo. Just about every major shoe and clothing manufacturer was present, including Asics, Brooks, New Balance, Mizuno, Sugio, 2XU, etc. There were also numbers of vendors selling discounted clothing, nutritional products, running accessories and everything else under the sun. We ingested our fill of the samples, got some cards and flyers for items I want to check out online when we got home, and slowly meandered our way through the maze. All in all, there was little I couldn’t live without.

We made our way towards the exits and headed to Broadway to eat at a Bar-B-Q place there called Jack’s that a friend recommended. It was very good, as we should have known by the long line to get in the place. Without our bellies full and our feet tired, we went back to where we were staying to cat nap and watch some NFL draft previews.

Graphics from www.cmmarathon.com