Through The Lens:

Chattanooga Waterfront Triathlon:

Despite only having done two races so far this year I couldn’t pass up the allure of an Oly distance tri an hour and a half from my house. I knew my run wasn’t where I needed it to be but I gave it a go anyways.

Despite it being 1.5 hours away I had to leave at 3AM because Tennessee thinks it should be in the Eastern Time Zone. I pried myself from bed, cranked on the Radiohead in the car and battled through.

I arrived in plenty of time but had to do some fancy re-routing at the last minute because of how the course blocked traffic and then I had to dodge more idiots riding their bike in the dark without helmets riding against traffic to get to the race.

I signed in and was a bit taken aback that my number was 130 out of over a thousand folks.

I got my transition all set up, no surprises other than it being wicked dark. I was able to do all of my “business” because there were plenty of restrooms. Then I hopped on the bus to ride up to the swim start. We were all coralled on a practice field and I was a little nervous becuase I had to start so early and I couldn’t see the water. Eventually we all got started and they lined u up and slowly shuffled us onto the dock.

We hopped into the water and slowly made our way to the end of the dock, then we were told to go and off we went.

The swim wasn’t miserable for me, but it was hard. I am always afraid to push too hard on the swim because I don’t want to cramp up or get too tired, but then i end up too slow. There were a couple of moments where I was able to follow feet, but then I drifted off to the side and lost them. I decided to wear my Garmin during the race swim and all, and while my heart hate didn’t register during the swim it did confirm what I felt, I zig zagged all over creation. I must have gone well over a mile with my corrections and subsequent overcorrections.

After passing all of the bridges and swimming past the big steps on the river i made it to the exit and there were folks grabbing your arms to help you out of the water, it was big help to start getting up the submerged stairs.

My T1 wasn’t too bad, and I made my shoeless mount pretty easily. We had some quick hills on the course and that put a hurt on my legs. Eventually though I got into the groove and started making time on the course. We merged onto a highway which was a little odd, but it didn’t seem nearly as dangerous as I expected. for most of the race I was stuck in the same ballpark as about 5 other folks. None of us drafted, but we spent a lot of time making passes and getting passed. The course was rather hilly so I was able to drop them on the climbs, but once we got to the downhills they would zipp by me on their fancy tri-bikes with full aerobars, disc wheels and aero helmets. C’est la vie.

I made a really good turnaround and got back up to speed quickly (again thanks to the road bike as opposed to the heavy tri bikes) II was able to drop a couple of folks for good. I did get passed on the course several times, but I think it mainly had to do with starting so near the front. I had one bottle of carborocket on the bike and one gel. I felt ok stomach wise but because of the length of the race I wanted to get food in me early.

I made my now comfortable flying dismount and had a nice quick t2. Then things got bad… cue ominous organ music.
I started running and got that typical heavy leg feeling. I managed to make it through that and pick up my pace only to be slammed with cramps, side stitch at first then whammo stomach cramps. I had to walk for good chunks of the course and stop and stretch. The course was a nice out and back with plenty of water stops. I also had to take a quick leak, but i couldn’t shake the cramps. I ended up picking up the pace on my last mile. I even passed about a dozen folks there including a little sprint with a guy in my age group.

When I finished I found I had a ton of bloody blisters on feet, i guess the cramps were so bad I didn’t notice all of the blood.

Not a bad race overall but it hurt. I realized I have been focusing on shorter workouts and just need to add some length.

Times put me the bottom half of my age group by a skosh. I am not happy about that but. I am done and on to another race!

57 out of 93 in AG
Eric Wright 30:04 2:01 1:17:19 1:45 59:11 2:50:19

Decent food afterwards but I couldn’t eat… I was only blocks away from the Mellow Mushroom too, so sad!

It took me awhile to get written but here goes.
The Buster Britton Triathlon. What a mess.
Firstly it is a Team Magic event- an event put on by a professional race directing company.
I met Scot and Athena at their house in Southside and rode down to Birmingham with them. Scot was racing, Athena will bothering a nagging hip injury.
The race was a sprint distance tri- 400 yd swim / 13 mi bike / 3 mi run
Nothing too taxing but one of those races you had to push the pace the whole way- you can recover when you are dead/finished.
Really even eating wasn’t terribly necessary since finish times were so close to an hour.

Scot and I had been mentioning the weather to each other through the week, spotty storms but a whole lot more “not storm” than storm.
As we rode down the interstate we played the typical game or, “hey it looks like are going to the race too/ wow they have more money to spend on a bike than I would know what to do with.”

We got to the race in plenty of time- paid our three dollars (each!) to enter Oak Mountain state park. The course information suggested that the bike lanes would be cleared and swept before the race but it was not done. I was not planning on riding by racing clinchers on my race wheels while in aerobars putting out serious watts dodging that trash.

We pulled up to the parking area and went and signed in and got our packets, and went to find the bathrooms. The pre-race coffee was taking the short route south. I was surprised to find no port-a-potty clusters but just one set of locker rooms.

We set up our transitions and ran into a few Friends from the Anniston Runners Club.

We went down to the swim beach would looked great and did a warm up swim. The water felt nice, warm and fast.

As we go out of the swim for the meeting i ran to the showerhouse again to do what i needed to do and found a line 30 deep out the door.

I poked around and found a go ed bathroom- multi stalled- being used by a pile of girls. I had to man up and use it… awkward.

I stood with Athena on the pavilion waiting for Scot to finish his warm up and we noticed the scary storm clouds moving in fast- Scot soon found us. We began to see lightning arcing among the clouds. The clouds opened up and began to rain and we ran for the shelter of, well, shelter houses along the beach. I was sure they would post pone the race but as soon as the rain stopped the race announcer lined us up and assured us that it was lot lightning that we were seeing, merely camera flashes.

liar liar pants on fire.

Before the start one of the buoys floated away and they changed the course. I think it shortened up the course, but I won’t complain about that. (I’m too busy complaining about everything else)

The swim was pretty uneventful. I passed a few people, was passed by a few. i was kicked in the face, I kicked some people, I drank quite a bit of lake water. The swim did get a bit hairy as I rounded the last buoy, I’ll be the first one to tell you, in fact I already did a few sentences ago, I drink a lot of water during the open water swim. I don’t like it but it happens. The source of the water is usually the body in which I am swimming. As I rounded the last buoy the sky opened up and i began to take on water… from the sky. That was no fun. I finished the swim though and didn’t stub my toe on the concrete ledge. One leg done.

I ran through transition passing walkers.. what the frak? I made it to transition grabbed my trusty velocipede. I tried the flying mount after discussing technique and borrowing some rubber bands from Scot. As I got towards the mount line I saw bad news standing a few feet past the line. About a half dozen triathletes were trying to mount their bikes on the uphill out of transition. You may be thinking… “Eric, but you love uphills, you do well on the hills, how can you complain about the hills?” To this I must explain the magic of the flying bike mount. You see your shoes are already clipped in to the pedals and attached in an elastic and easily breakable method- read rubber bands so that they don’t drag on anything. You run along the bike and leap on board landing on the pedals rolling and then you begin pedaling breaking the bands, sliding your feet into your shoes and off you go. This works well on a flat bike course start- it works even better on a slight downhill. It gives you more rolling momentum and therefore more time to get your feet on the pedals and all. Well the uphill start has a reverse effect. You stall out very quickly meaning you need to put power to pedals PDQ.
It wasn’t super steep but the other folks struggling and stalled on the rise blocked my path. I was able to execute a decent mount at slow speed and avoid everyone else, I just wasn’t able to get the cleanest line and the fastest start.

Well as I noted before it rained before and during the race. This race was billed as a good one for beginners. There were a ton of people there and I saw a lot of Bs on legs beside ages, which denote a beginner racer. I was rather nervous riding around a bunch of beginner triathletes with aerobars on a hilly course on wet narrow roads. Triathletes are not known amongst cyclists as good bike handlers and the other factors accentuate that fact. To top it all off– the course was not closed to traffic.

The course profile was pretty hilly but a few short climbs. I saw quite a bit of drafting, but I managed to get past those bunches on the hills. I looked at the results and saw that several folks got busted.

I made it back to T2 without ever seeing Scot, and as I racked my bike I realized it had rained even more. IT took me a few extra seconds to toss on my water logged runners and hit the course.

As per usual I felt like a robot Frankenstein zombie trying to run. I was very stuff and very slow. It took me a mile or so into the course to really run and by that time it was almost too late. The course was wet and plenty of fallen leaves coated the ground making secure foot placement a little tricky. Oh I did I mention that the first half was ll up-hill- ugh it was a course custom built for slowness for me.

When I crossed the finish line I went to look for Athena. Since I never saw Scot on the course I assumed the interval in our start times had just put him significantly behind me. When I found Athena she was rather shaken. She hadn’t seen Scot come in for the bike. I was rather worried as well since he should have at least finished the bike by then. I walked up to the side of transition and looked for his bike- I couldn’t find it but finding it would have been like a needle in a haystack. We kept waiting, I checked the medical tents as I was fearing some sort of crash. I eventually made my may to their car and to my suprisee found Scot’s bike loaded on the car and his helmet and glasses sitting on the bumper.

I eventually found Scot and we changed clothes as it started to pour. He told us of having two flats in a row. We had to walk most of the way back to the start before a private car picked him up. There were no SAG vehicles!
It rained unmercifully as we gathered our gear out of transition and packed up the car.
. We went and got a bit of food in the food tent. The food was a disappointment as well. Small proportions and little to drink. We quickly drove on home in even more rain.

I survived and had a decent race, but the organizers were utterly irresponsible and I wonder where all of the money i paid for the race went. This was a poorly put on race. It was billed as an excellent beginner’s race, however the only part that was good for beginners was the distance. Overall I give it a solid thumbs down- but as they say- that which does not kill you only makes you stronger.

16/46 In the 25- 29 Age Group
229 Eric Wright Swim: 6:30 T1: 2:20 Bike: 40:20 T2: 1:17 Run: 26:12 Total: 1:16:36

(ed. note) This post is late, but not backdated – so deal with it
Well the race didn’t go as well as I wanted, but I finished. I started off the day before getting sick, bronchitis and cold type stuff- Val kept telling me to just decide that I wasn’t sick. But you know its not going to be ideal when I don’t even eat dinner the night before.

The day of the race I took a bunch of meds so I could sort of breathe. My swim went well in the muddy river, we had a current which helped. I think my swim was 22 minutes or so. Normally on a 50 free in the pool i take around 50 seconds at a distance pace- and a 22 minutes 1.5k ends up working out to about 45 seconds. I didn’t have the best strategy though. Because I was unfamiliar with the course I stayed about 75M out from the shore. I didn’t see until later but most of the swimmers swam out to the center of the the river to get the most current. dumb on my part.

I did well on the bike averaging around 22mph. I didn’t get cramps which I attribute to the 4 endurolytes that I popped before the race, but I made another mistake. I didn’t want to wear my Garmin Forerunner in the water so I bought a cheap timex to keep my lap splits. I didn’t think about the fact that I had pulled my cycle computer off my bike so I on a course that involved several laps I didn’t know how far I had gone. I had a gu packet that I ate too early so I kind of bonked on my run.
I had great transitions between the segments, but my run was deplorable. 6 miles of slow running in hot and muggy Louisiana I was passed so many times on the run it wasn’t funny. I finished 35 seconds off my goal pace of 2:30:00 but my run was over an hour. an hour 10k is pretty bad, even for me.

I didn’t run the race I wanted to but I did it despite not feeling well so I am not too disappointed. I finished 4th in my age group so no hardware. Then I had to drive 8 hours home through the night and I lost my voice. I had to stop and take several naps at rest areas but I made it home in one piece and in time for work the next day.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/08/health/nutrition/08BEST.html?_r=1&ref=fitnessandnutrition&oref=slogin

Now normally I am a big fan of the Times, as they indirectly pay me, and I think the national and international coverage by the Grey Lady is some of the best in the world- but this article–defines stupid.
I appreciate that they are trying to cover my sport and they spoke to some sports medicine types but come on. Did they miss the whole point and ethos of the sport? Triathlon is hard, really hard and it takes balance or some sort of strategy involving playing to your strengths. A world class swimmer can’t come in and win a race on the strength of their swim leg.

I really think that the premise of the story is rather obvious. It likely doesn’t reach to the same depths of the sky and its blueness or the obviousness of gravity but come on. Specialists in … anything are going to be better than generalists. I live with it everyday in my career, I am not the best sports action shooter in the entire world, but I do a pretty decent job balancing sports with news, portraits, wild art and all of those things my situation calls on me to do.
I encounter the same thing in training for a triathlon. I realize that I have three disciplines to work on. While I am swimming at the pool I realize it isn’t helping my my bike or run splits, and when I am running I am fully cognizant that it isn’t helping my bike speed or my stroke technique. grr maybe I am just taking out my training frustrations but does anyone question why world class marathoners don’t ride bikes for 6 hours each day and why world class swimmers are pool dwellers-they . . . wait for it. . . ride their bikes.

Frank Maples Memorial Triathlon Race Report, originally uploaded by erictwright.

So I forget to bring my camera- and guess what I win a race-well not the whole race- I was 22nd overall but among all the 20-24 year old guys in this particular reverse triathlon in Scottsboro Alabama- I apparently was the fastest,

This sounds so bizarre to me. There have been a few times in my life where I have been the best at something, but a race-not so much.

Scot and Athena told me about this race-and they told me it was fun early season race with a pool swim-no open water-woo-hoo. What I didn’t realize however was that it was a reverse triathlon-we had to do the hold thing backwards, backstroke, reverse pedaling and running backwards— just kidding. The events were in reverse order instead of swim bike run it was run bike swim. Only one word for it, “bizarre”

I rode up with Scot and Athena-after having to turn around halfway to Southside as I realized that I left my seat and seat post at the house and not on my bike-I am an idiot. I nearly made us late (sorry Scot)

We arrived and signed up and I got lucky number 110.

I checked out the course set up transition ad we ran a little warm-up.

We all lined up and the competition looked pretty tough- lots of really skinny dudes in skin suits with aero bikes and disc wheels. The run was only a 2 miler-but I got my good ol’side stitch. My goal was to try and use Scot as my rabbit for as long as I could- since he was planning on running a 7 minute pace. I didn’t wear a watch and at the last minute ditched my garmin b/c I was afraid of trashing it on the swim.
I ran blind so to speak and had to burn a lot of matches to keep pace with Scot.
I followed him right into T1, where all of my crazy transition practicing in the driveway helped out and I left a bunch of folks in the dust. I saw Athena right as I was leaving so she was about 30 seconds behind us.

The bike course was good-but rather windy, deceptively windy. I felt absolutely no wind through the run but on the bike I felt like a kite. I was nervous for tiny Athena on her Zipp 404s, but after thee race I think I was the only one who felt the wind. Though I had a decent ride it felt terrible, I felt like I never got everything all the way spun up and that I was never able to get up to speed. We didn’t really have any big hills to help me gain time on the aero folks, but I passed several people in the opening five miles and I was passed by 1 guy and I had to burn match after match to keep him in my sights. I also had some of the worst cramps of my life. My calves felt like they were seizing in the last five minutes of the ride and I am not sure if the liquid running down my face was sweat or tears-pretty sure it was sweat-it just hurt like the dickens. I felt like someone was bearing down behind me during the whole race- but I don’t feel comfortable looking back while in the aero bars so I don’t know.

As I came into t2 on a whim I decided to try a flying dismount, something I had never done successfully. I think the adrenaline aided in the irrational decision making but I undid my shoes and pedaled on top of the shoes and hopped of the bike into a run in an uncharacteristically graceful manner. Seriously, like a gazelle ballerina hybrid, not sure how that works-but trust me it was awesome. I had a great t2 and I bolted off to the pool-but I was wearing my shirt still. I realized it after I had my goggles on and I handed it to some lady near the pool, in a USAt race this might be a no-no called equipment abandonment-but it wasn’t a big deal in this low key race.

I leapt into the pool and immediately panicked. I had no air, for me cardiovascular effort on the bike is deceptive. Only on the steepest climb or longest sprint where I am pegging my heart rate up towards 200 do I feel that I am in oxygen debt. However when I jumped into the pool my brain was trying to cash checks that my lungs weren’t good for. I took three strokes and tried to breathe and realized that I wasn’t going to sprint this incredibly short 200M 8 lap swim. I just tried to hang on maximizing my breathing trying to pull and glide as hard and as long as I could. It was ugly.
As I trudgingly made my way down the pool I was looking at the people on the deck-hoping and praying that they wouldn’t get out the hook because they thought I was drowning. It was that ugly. On my next to last lap I saw Scot and Athena get into the pool and I was passed by a few other swimmers. I was slow-but I gritted and finished. They gave me a card with my finish order in it and I went and cheered on my compatriots. Athena who had been chasing Scot for the entire race passed him the last lap.

Athena was the second woman to finish, the overall female winner finished a few places behind me.

We packed up everything and headed to the best part of a triathlon-the food. All sorts of goodies you don’t have to feel bad about- I meal of guilt free eating.
I was joking with Scot, I said “ All these people and their fancy tri suits, I guess if I place I’ll have to buy one.” Well I didn’t just place – I won first in my age group I finished at 59: 30 I think not bad for the first tri of the year. Athena won her age group as well.

Well I guess I am in the market for a tri-suit-any recommendations?

Well when I was considering doing the T-Town tri race I was a little worried about the open water swim- so I managed to con some friends into doing the race as a relay with me. Paige and Susan, each agreed to do a leg of the tri-Susan swam and Paige ran. that way all I had to worry about was the bike-a veritable walk in the park.
I originally heard that the swim was not going to be wetsuit legal- but I think a chilly spring kept the water temps down so I needed to find a wetsuit- I borrowed Athena’s (Thanks Athena!) but the wetsuit was an extra-small and Susan was just too tall. Luckily the girls managed to track down a wetsuit at the last minute.
So we met over at the race start early Sunday morning and I heard them calling our race number, 401, and our names over the PA-just what I need something to exacerbate my usual pre-race butterflies. Well they decided to change the swim course and use only two waves to start so no biggie. It turns out our relay entry was extra super duper complicated because the twins were in the collegiate/female category and I was in the men’s 20-24 age group category-but we were all in a relay-and I think the only co-ed relay.
Anyways- we got started and Susan fought through the giant mass start in the chilly water. Her big goal she said was not to drown, but she did much better than that-she opened up the throttle after getting past the first buoy, and summarily was the first relay swimmer done with the 750 yards.
Our transition was a little clumsy having to take off and switch the timing chip but I managed to get on the bike and pull my weight.
I was expecting a hilly bike course-but they kept us off the big hills the Olympic trials got to use. I put in a 21.5 over the course of 12 miles. I was expecting a longer course-so I wasn’t able to empty the tank. I sprinted in to the end- and had trouble getting off my bike. This is a frustrating thing because after passing tons of people and never getting passed-sprinting towards the end at 30mph I stumbled in transition and get passed. My legs just locked up shaking and trembling. I made the hand off to Paige who I could hardly find in my oxygen deprived state.

She took off like a woman possessed and ran with the other fast relay team runner for quite a while-but he managed to open up a little gap. Paige had a great pace at 7:30 and ran her own race. (the guy later on said he had to dig deep and sprint to get away and had to slow down towards the end to keep from blowing up) It was a cool running course as we got cheer on our runner twice as she came round the circuit.

We finished second-which I was rather pleased with- and it was a pretty low key way to open up the season.
Whitt, Wright, Whitt :401 1 14:56 1:16 2 34:37 21.5 0:46 3 24:18 7:50 1:15:51
Then we ate enough Chinese food to last a whole week- I’d say I had earned it after a grueling 35 minutes on the bike

( Thanks Bonnie for coming to cheer us on and to shoot the photos)