This was a fun event. I raced with a good friend of Marilupe's. Her name is Elisa Uribe and she is from Colombia. VERY strong Runner. Last fall we were both in training for the Houston Marathon which took place in January 2008. There was a 1/2 marathon, a 20k and a 25k race in the lead up to the marathon. At each race, we finished within 5 or 10 minutes of each other. (I was faster....)
Well, Elisa has been training and has been running with a strong group recently. So for the last 2 weeks in training, we'd take off through the trails and y the time we were finished running for 2o-40 minutes, I'd be about dead and my lungs would feel like they were going to explode.
That's good information to have when you start thinking of strategy for a race. Elisa is new to biking and neither of us are really any good at paddling. So I knew that if we were to excel in this race, we'd have to do it on the run.
Come race day, we were ready. We had our Transition Area (TA) set up and were well-rested and fully hydrated. The the order of events was this: 3-4 mile run, 100 meter swim, 30-40 minute paddle around a couple of buoys, and an 8-10 mile bike. The gun went off and we took off. We were weaving between folks and making our way to the front of the pack. After about 10 minutes, I realized that I was running too hard because I could barely breathe, but I didn't stop. This is where we had to do well. Elisa was right behind me. We went from trail, to a rocky/sandy slope on the edge of the lake and had to scramble to keep footing and to keep passing people. By the time we got back into the woods, we were at the front of the pack. Definitely top 20, maybe even top 15. As we came out of the trails in back to TA for the swim one of the marshalls told me we were the 3rd coed team. Second place was about 20 meters in front of us. Well done, I guess.
The swim was really a walk through shallow water. You only had to swim the bit in the middle and it was just to get everyone wet and hopefully spread the teams out a little. We sprinted through TA to get out seats and our secret weapon. We made it to the sevys (inflatable kayaks) and attached the secret weapon. I brought 2 come-alongs with me and attached them to the middle of the boat so that it would keep the sides stiff and not give so much as we paddled. It didn't help much because we both stink at paddling. 30 minutes or so later, we were in 6th place. I was counting the coed teams as they passed us. No matter how fast we paddled (literally how many paddle slaps per minute) or how hard we paddled (by digging in and trying to get good forward motion) we were getting passed. We even resorted to using our abs to do crunches and propel the sevy forward by rocking back-and-forth every time we dug in with the paddle. Steering was fine. (Thanks to Weihan Lin, HART team member and a certified paddle instructor.) We went in a straight line, we just didn't go fast.
So we were down to the bike stage and it would be beer:30. We came into transition, popped on cycling shoes and a helmet. Took my first drink of water from my pack and took off running. You are not supposed to ride your bike in TA. Probably because if everyone did, we'd all run over each other. At any rate, Elisa got on her bike and I heard 3 or 4 people shouting "Get off your bike," and "No riding in TA!" I turned around and saw her and screamed "Get off the bike! GET OFF THE BIKE! GET OFF THE BIKE!" As we took off I realized that it might registered a little faster had I yelled to to her in Spanish. It could have saved a second since it wouldn't have had to have been translated by her to be understood faster. Then I realized that I would have had to have translated it, so we would have lost the second there, so net/net, it was a wash. She hopped off almost immediately. We came out of TA and were off down a dirt road. The course became a single track climb about mile after the start and we were like a lone line of ants rolling through the sand and smooth pebble trail carved out between the mesquite and cedar trees. I came down one descent VERY quickly looking to gain speed for the following climb. When I got to the bottom of the transition, it was all sand. My front tire came out from under me and I went chin-first to the ground. The first thing I did (after spitting out the dirt) was to lick my teeth and make sure that they were all there. They were, so I was good to go. Elisa had stopped so I hopped back on and we were off again with a trail of people behind us jockeying to pass. Shortly thereafter, I felt my back end getting squishy and sliding all over the place. FLAT TIRE! So I stopped, pulled out a CO2 canister and was hoping that it was a slow leak. I aired it up and we took off again. Withing 3-5 minutes, I was flat. So I stopped, flipped the bike upside down, pulled out the tube and replaced it. I aired it up with my last CO2 canister and as I flipped the bike back up, the rear wheel rolled around a bit and mu pinkie got caught in the disc brake. It sliced right into it and was stopped from taking the tip of it off by my pinkie nail. So now I am bleeding all over the place. What do they tell you in first aid? Apply pressure. So I hopped on the bike and SQUEEZED the handlebars as hard as I could and we were off again.
Some lady was behind Elisa shouting at her, "Rider back... RIDER BACK!" But Elisa didn't move. When we stopped to deal with my tire, this woman shouted something like, "Are you deaf or stupid! Why don't you listen?" Here's my take on it. If I am on single track, I will pull over for you when there is room and when it is downhill. I will not stop mid-climb to make room for you. As our coach always says, "Rubbing is racing." If You want to be in front of me on the last stage of an event, you had better make sure the first 3 stages were better for you. Part of our plan was making passing us on the bike stage difficult for other coed teams. Not intentionally and not to be a bad sport, but there was no way in hell I was going to slow my progress to help you with yours.
Anyway, that's neither here nor there considering what Team Flatlanders had to deal with. You guessed it, my rear tire went flat again. Let me say that it is CRITICAL to check the inside of your tire for debris. I didn't do it. I am not certain that in my haste, I didn't twist the tube up or have it pinched between the rim and the tire. There are a number of things that I could have done wrong when I changed my flat. At any rate, I did one of them. So 3.1 miles into an 8-10 mile bike stage and I was bleeding and without an extra tube. Patching it would be an option, but I had already seen so many coed teams get by us that I knew there was no way were were going to do anything in this race that would contribute to the point-standings for HART. So with that, I began running as I pushed my bike. We came out of the single track and crossed a park road. The odometer said almost 3.5 miles. In light of having a flat, a bloody hand, and no real prospect of finishing the race in any position that would benefit my team, I decided that we should follow the sounds back to the lake and find the finish line to let the race director know that we were going to DNF.
So with that I asked Elisa if she was OK with not finishing. She agreed, so we walked back, checked out of the race. Packed our gear in my car and hit the cooler full of beer. We had a great time at the HART tent with Marilupe and Ann, who is the wife of my college buddy, Dave. We had our little boys out there and they had a ball watching the racers come and go. They even did a kid's race afterwards. It was about 200 meters down to the edge of the lake and then back to the finish line. All of the kids got a race bib and a medal. Nicolas asked me, "Papi, why did we only run? Why we didn't go on the kayak or on the bike, too?" Needless to say I am very proud of my future mutli-sport enthusiast.
From there is was BBQ at Opie's on Highway 71 in Spicewood and then back to Dave and Ann's for an afternoon in the pool. The kids slept for like 3 hours. I should have joined them!
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