Winter Challenge Adventure Triathlon
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An off-road tri in South Carolina consisting of a cross-country run of 7 miles, a 6 mile kayak, and 10 miles of mountain biking.
Jan. 24th
Race Website | My Race Journal |
Bull Run 50 mile Run
This is probably the hardest race of the year for me. The run takes place on the Bull Run Trail in Northern Virginia.
April 17th
Race Website
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White Lake Half Iron-Man Triathlon
This is my first time racing at White Lake. Race consists of a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run.
May 8th
Race Website |
White Lake Sprint Triathlon
I have formed a team for this triathlon (Professor Fluffysocks and his Gorilla Biscuits), and my part in this event will be the bike (14 miles).
May 9th
Race Website |
Seyboro Cyclist Double Century Cycle
This was a last minute ride I decided to join in on. It took us 14 hours to finish up more than 200 miles of bicycling around Eastern North Carolina.
June 19th
Ride Website |
Blood, Sweat, and Gears Bike Challenge
This will be my first year riding this brutal 100 miler with over 9,000 ft. of elevation gain.
Jun. 26th
Ride Website | Ride Results
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NC Bike Club Summer Rally
100k bike ride around Jordan Lake area (finished in about 3.5 hours).
July 18th
Ride Route |
The Duke Cancer Center Half (ultra) Triathlon
I was on the Splash Spin Tread relay team, in the
bike position. I finished the 56 miles in 2:44:53 (which works out to about a 20 mile per hour pace).
Sept. 12th
Race Website | Race Journal 2002 | Race Journal 2003
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The Blue Devil Ultra-Distance Triathlon
This should have been my third year racing in the race formally known as the Duke Blue Devil or Duke Iron Devil, but I was kicked out at the last minute. Race consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run.
Oct. 16th
Race Journal 2002 | Race Journal 2003
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Marine Corp. Marathon
This was my first year running a road marathon outside of a triathlon. I finised in 04:26:35 which was close to an hour off of my goal of 3:40.
Oct. 31st
Run Website
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27th Annual Kiawah Island Marathon
A great weekend on Kiawah Island, SC to run a marathon. I was shooting for a 4 hour finish and managed a 4:13. I took it nice and easy on this one but still managed leg cramps after about mile 22. I finished 588 out of 1035 finishers. I'm a middle of the pack kind of guy.
Dec. 11th
Race Website |
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posted Nov 4, 2008 9:38 AM by w. Patrick Gale
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updated Nov 4, 2008 9:46 AM
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| Journal |
Run Like the Wind (on a calm day)
"We are almost to the gravel road...once you hit the gravel road, they will be able to see you, so you have to run," he said. "Might as well get the legs moving," I replied. ...and off I ran.
The sun was just beginning to set as I made my way to my tent for the night. I was tired from the 3 and a half hour drive, but I knew I would have a hard time sleeping. Some of the troops were just beginning to set up camp. Others we slowly leaving the mess hall after stuffing themselves with lasagna, vege pasta, and salad. It was only 7:30, but I wanted to sleep.
I felt out of place in this sea of veteran runners. I had tried to converse with them but I didn't quite speak the lingo. I felt comfort though in knowing these guys and gals would set the pace for me the next day and all I had to do was follow. I had remembered seeing several of the troops two weeks before racing a 100 mile run in Raleigh which I volunteered for. It was here I ran my first 20 miles of the year along side a 50-time plus 100 mile racer from California. I carried a flashlight for him and he gave me running tips. I got to call myself a pacer for the first time.
Sleep, or was it? 9, 10, 12:30, 2:15...my glowing watch kept telling me. Maybe I had slept between listening to the crying child the next tent over and the snoring monster that lived on the other side of the campsite 100 yards away. The crying child only lasted for short periods, but the snoring monster captured my attention most of the night. Earplugs could not muffle the sound. I was more concerned about the health of the snoring monster than anything because it had a breathing rate of someone running up a steep hill out of breath. Tales of this snoring monster surfaced at breakfast the next morning with many of the troops.
6:15am. The troops gathered around the race start for last minute briefings. I hunkered down towards the back of the pack and rechecked my supplies and setup. Everything check. BANG! The silence of last minute stretching was replaced by the shuffle of feet, and I was swept away in a wave of moving bodies.
That's it...then I ran...a lot. I'm not sure I could compare the trails we ran along to a place everyone could relate to. We skipping across rock piles, climbed up steep dirt hills that you could barely walk up, played hop-scotch over streams on concrete pillars, crossed pools of mud on strategically placed logs... The trails were unbelievable.
We came across aid stations about every 4-7 miles to replenish our food, water, and other supplies such as ibuprofin, vasaline, antacid tablets. I'm not one to take drugs, even asprin, but that day I probably took 4-6 ibuprofin along the way just for good measure. In a way I felt like we were cheating ourselves out of some of the pain by doing this however. Most of the aid stations had fruits, crackers, chips (regular Pringles seemed to be the favorite since they went down easy and helped replenish the sodium loss), but some aid stations had SPECIAL aids. No, not cocaine, although one racer made the remark that crushing the ibuprofin and snorting it would speed the effects of it...I didn't try it. The special aid stations had such things as beer and tequila shots for those
who weren't already dehydrated enough. Needless to say I didn't see anyone take a shot and only one person running with beer in hand.
I learned a good deal by taking this challenge, like trail running is where I should be running and not on an awful paved road. But the main thing I learned was that I forgot how to run down hills as I got older. I'm sure people thought I was a goof, but no one said anything to me, probably with good reason, but going down hills, especially steep ones, I would skip down them. I remembered the runner I paced a few weeks earlier saying that I should shorten my stride and quicken my pace going down hills to take some strain off of my legs. I did this in my training runs and it helped a good deal, but the steep hills I encountered during the race were too much even for that technique. So, I tried what I use to do as a kid...skip or gallop down the hills. I was able to go down the hills faster than everyone else and by taking less steps I could plan where I was stepping better to avoid tripping. [Maybe I'll write a guide on 'Skipping Technique for Better Running']
The last hill of the day was brutal and there was no skipping to be done here. I thought it would take me 30 minutes to reach the top. I walked with a guy who had made this trek before and the heat had gotten to him as well. I checked my heart rate. I was out of breath and thought surely my heart rate was too high, but it was right in check in my aerobic range where I wanted it to be. I was loosing interest in the walking but I stayed along side my pacer at the moment which could have been an inch worm at the rate I was moving. We made it to the top of the hill and he said "Only a few more minutes." He talked about how his day had gone and how he dislocated his shoulder falling early on and I felt lucky I didn't have any injury like that. "We are almost to the gravel road...once you hit the gravel road, they will be able to see you, so you have to run," he said. "Might as well get the legs moving," I replied. ...and off I ran. I thought this would get him running but he kept his pace at a moderate walk. I reached the gravel road and recognized it from the previous evening when I had hiked along it to meet the rest of the runners for dinner. I spotted a man sitting in a beach chair on the side of the road up ahead. He held a clip board...he was checking race numbers. Up ahead I saw the race clock ticking away the seconds and realized that the time was just about the hit 10:45. A sub 10:45 finish was suddenly my new goal. I broke into a sprint and stopped in my tracks. I had crossed the finish line of my first 50 miler and was shaking hands with the race director who pointed me to my prize. A blue finishers vest.
Alright, that's it.
(Didn't think it would end like this did you?)
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| Race Results |
I placed 130 out of 262 finishers with a time of 10 hours 44 minutes 41seconds.
All in all my run went as planned. The weather was nice and cool in the morning but by after noon it became brutally hot. I was shooting for a 10 hour run but the heat of the day added an extra 45 minutes to my trek by forcing longer stops to fuel up at aid stations and slower climbs on the hills. I'll probably be back next year. grin.
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posted Nov 4, 2008 9:36 AM by w. Patrick Gale
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updated Nov 4, 2008 9:37 AM
]
| Journal |
RACE LOG:
Why I'll be back next year?
Those folks down in South Carolina know how to put on a triathlon. No swim suits, no road bike, no hard pavement to run on...just a little play time out in the country and some good ol' country cookin' at the end of the day.
This was the first 'backwoods' triathlon I have ever participated in and the first of its' kind put on by Set-Up Inc. (the race producers). Unlike the 'conventional' triathlon where you swim, bike (on pavement), and run (on pavement), in that order, this race sort of flipped things around. We started off with a cross-country run of 7 miles, next we paddled in a kayak for 6 miles, then wrapped things up with a 10 mile mountain bike ride.
The run was mostly flat with no tough climbs along dirt roads and paths which zig-zagged through the woods. I had only run on treadmills at the gym leading up to the race, so this was the first time I had run outside in a couple of months. The weather was just warm enough to get by wearing running shorts but I opted for a long sleeve shirt, light running gloves, and a light tuque on my head. I started off at the back of the pack where I should be on any run, and managed to pass a couple of runners...but it was only a few.
The paddle course circled around a shallow lake filled with Cypress trees (both standing and fallen) acting as obstacles and marking the boundaries we were to paddle within. The breeze across the water that day was in our faces paddling out from the dock where we started. The wind even managed to kick up small waves as we paddled past the docking area on each of our three laps around the lake, causing sprays of water to splash across the bows of our boats giving us a cold slap in the face.
The bike route followed some of the same trails as the run and traversed both dirt roads and barely marked wooded areas. Being that we were in South Carolina, there were many parts of the roads which had a couple of inches of loose sand causing our bikes to want to buck us off or grind us to a halt. This condition was most prevalent on corners where we had gained a good amount of speed before reaching them, catching some of the riders off guard and allowing me to take advantage of my riding sand trails in Florida years before. The hardest part on the bike was the frequent bumpy sections of flat roads which beat me mercilessly on my rigid frame pre-historic bike. I had the fifth best bike time in my age group non-the-less as a little payback to all the runners in the group.
The race was a blast and a good start to the new year. After the race we just sat around the back porch of an old hunting shed and told racing stories and feasted on home-made brownies, baked beans, and barbeque chicken.
I'm already looking forward to attending next year, hopefully with faster running legs, but definitely with a big ol' grin on my face.
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| Race Results |
MALE AGE GROUP: 20 - 39
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RUN - 1:07:54 Place - 20th
PADDLE - 1:12:03 Place - 8th
BIKE - 1:03:52 Place - 5th
OVERALL - 3:23:49 Place - 11th
OVERALL
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RUN - 1:07:54 Place - 36th
PADDLE - 1:12:03 Place - 13th
BIKE - 1:03:52 Place - 9th
OVERALL - 3:23:49 Place - 16th
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