race report 07/15/2010
 
This will wander.  Get over it.

The week leading up to July 9th was too hectic.  The 2 week taper was going fine for week 1 and I had just finished a perfect little training weeked over the holiday break.  Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday were a wash.  Too many logistics to be finalized, too busy at work, too much groveling to Sheri for her patience,etc.  Decided it was better to focus on getting some sleep, eating right, and conserving the energy that I could heading into Friday. 

I could feel the anxiety in some of conversations that I was having with my friends and family.  But, I felt we had done about as much we realistically could do to prepare for this.  I knew it would never be completely perfect, so there were some loose ends that I chose to leave hanging.  It was time to let this super crew just do their thing.  I was as ready as a busy husband/dad/worker could be and I felt very confident with all of the folks who would showing up to help.

Spent most of the evening packing the truck.  Evan and I mixed the bottles (Gatorade/CarboPro/HornetJuice x 24, and water/nuun x 24),  Sheri worked with the car markers and getting the other stuff that I take for granted ready.  Didn't even print the maps til 10pm the nite before.  Brett rolled in from work at about 11, earlier than I thought.  We spent a few minutes talking trash and we all hit the sack. 

I woke around 6 and woofed down a couple of eggo waffles/pnutbutter/banana/honey and sport drink for breakfast.

Start time had moved from 10, to 7, now to 8 (couldn't drop the dogs off til 7:30), and by time we picked up some b'fast for truck, got Keith, dropped Avery off at Isabelle's, we rolled out of the park at Lake Lanier right around 8:40.  All times are unofficial.  I was nervous at this point but was trusting in the foundation laid over the last 9 months.  Not just pounding out miles, but rehearsing the weird situations like dark/heat/lack of sleep, etc.  And SO many people were pulling for us, it would have to be REALLY bad for us to stop.  Though, Sheri had the power to call it at any time if it looked too bad.

Riding by the lake for the first 5 minutes was beautiful.  Knew it would change quickly.  Riding out of the Buford/Dacula area went much smoother than I expected, lots of support on the roads.  The whole journey nearly came to a crashing halt when I looked down at my computer and nearly ran a red light.  If it weren't for the honk from Sheri/Keith, this whole thing would have stopped before it began.  This, actually, pumped me up.  I knew I could trust them to watch over me, I could now concentrate on riding/running.  They weren't going to slack on the job.  We had rolling hills and the sun started beating down.  I didn't want to think about what I couldn't control.  All I could control was execution...fluids, pace, discipline.  Monroe comes and goes, thank you Monroe for letting me clog your roads, my apologies.  Before I knew it, we blew by the goal mileage.  Good or bad?  Easier than I had expected, but was I pushing it harder than I thought?  I was open to nailing the 4 bike stretches so that I might get to Tybee before that 4th run.  This first bike stretch had me thinking this would work.  We stopped in Mansfield and turned left on a newly paved Hwy 142, silky smooth, Chris Hart soon found us and we discovered that he has the ultimate pacing auto.  His FourRunner allowed Sheri to sit in the back with the hatch window down, just 5-10 feet ahead of me, as we roll between 18-21 mph!  Perfect for my situation.

After 4 hours, roughly 75-80miles, we found a shady driveway, had a quick meet & greet, and transitioned to the run.  This was, by far, the quickest transition of the day.  I underestimated the value of a slow transition.  I remember Brett warning me that this coming stretch looked like a roller coaster from Six Flags.  I chose not to look. I kept looking at Evan to see if he was miserable, surprised to see he was doing ok.  Everybody looked good.   I warned them 'here comes the REALLY slow part'.

Immediately, my left hamstring tightened up, and I hit survival pace up those first few hills.  Knew it was gonna be a long day, and going too slow now may be the difference later.  It was hot and grueling, hot and hilly, but I was surrounded by great friends and family, just keep moving forward.  The hills started to level out and my run actually started to look like a steady run, huge confidence boost.  Zack and Lauren showed up, suhweet!  He wants to ask Sheri how to help so he jumps out of Lauren's car and goes running by me in his Sperry's, like a day at the beach.  He may have run circles around me, don't remember.  I think this is where Zack started driving Hart's car and he hopped out and joined me for the rest of the run.  Big Help.  Don't remember much about the chatting, just that it felt like a normal training run out in the boonies.  Sheri, Evan, and Keith kept giving us fluids and hitting us with the sponges.  These ice cold soaked sponges were a lifeline.  I looked forward to every 15 minutes when I would get one of those gems!  Finally, we found a small shady spot on the side of the highway to change to the bike.  I sat down and could feel some cramps thinking about popping up in my hamstrings.  Had a few bites of a sandwich, bottle of nuun, and just cooled off for a few minutes.  The crew did a great job having the bike ready to roll as soon as I got up.  Not too bad, ahead of schedule even with the late start, survived the hottest run, and now back to my favorite part.. the bike.

I was happy to get on the bike, I didn't feel bad at all, I swear.  But, let's cut to the chase...roughly 30 min in and my right calf cramped, teaser, worked it out while still pedalling.  No prob.  Better slow down if this is happening.  A little work on some graded inclines in Milledgeville and, KABOOM, cramps like I've never had.  Both calves, both quads, both hammy's.  At the same time.  Clipped into the pedals, I couldn't break free, traffic everywhere, hollering at the truck for help, coasting, Keith (?) hops out and grabs the bike, easing it to a stop while I'm locked in a standing position waiting for the cramps to subside.  Doc says we need shade, cool down and IV.  Legs working again, I offroad my tri bike to this Flash Foods Gas station about 100 yds away, hit the shade right by the side of the road.  The cars pull up, get all of the med stuff out, and within a few minutes Hart has an IV in my right arm.  Then, more cramps.  Sorry about the cussing, guys!  Tried to keep it G-rated.  Ice under the legs, Brett stretching them out for me, Evan about to pass out from the IV sight.  What a sight the passing cars must have had!  Thanks Dutch for the fly-by donation!  45min to an hour later, we're rolling.  Feeling better, we believe nutrition was pretty close, counting on those being heat cramps, time will tell.  Felt pretty good through the next few towns,  getting soaked on the bike as well now.  I had a blast getting the rolling handoffs from Evan and Keith.  They did a great job.  Can you believe we didn't have a single dropped bottle/sponge on any of the bikes?!


Still working on this..stay tuned....


aaahhhhh, forget it, this is taking too long! see the 
 


Comments

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Fri, 12 Nov 2010 19:39:13

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