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)