Frank Maples Memorial Triathlon

In April, I was able to find a triathlon near Colette’s parents, so I was able to combine a triathlon with a trip to visit them. The Frank Maples Memorial Triathlon took place in Scottsboro, AL on an absolutely beautiful morning. The weather was perfect, and one of the rec center employees sang an awesome National Anthem right before the starting gun.

The race was a reverse triathlon, so it started with the run. This was fun for me because the run is my weakest event by far, so normally the run is filled with people passing me. In this race, I was able to get behind early, and then have fun passing people on the bike and the swim. The reason that the event worked well in reverse was how they did the pool swim. As you finished the bike, you would enter the pool in on lane, swim down to the end and then cross over to come back down the next lane. With the swim at the end, people were all spread out naturally from going different speeds in the first two disciplines. As opposed to a similar approach of time trial starts with a pool swim at the beginning, which can take hours. I did that once this year, too, so you’ll get that story soon.

Anyway, I completed the two mile run in just over 16 minutes, so most people were ahead of me getting on the bike. I passed some of them on the 15 mile bike and more in the 200 yard swim, such that I finished in about the middle of all participants (65th out of 139) and about the middle of the pack for Clydesdale (9th out of 20). Everybody came to watch, and there was a park right there for the kids to play on while they waited for that few minutes where I was actually visible during transition.

I would love to do this race again if it ever works out that I'm visiting Alabama on the right weekend.

The kids enjoying the playground right next to the transition area while I enjoy the race.

Dad keeping my splits with the timer on my phone while the kids push all the buttons in his truck.

Re-racking my bike to head to the swim.

A look at the lanes as I complete a lap and I'm just about to turn around.

Coming down the last lap.

Close up right before a turn. The water was too shallow and crowded for flip turns and I'm not very good at them.

New Types of Races – Summary of 2010

In 2010 I did my first half-marathon, my first reverse triathlon, and my first 52 mile bike ride. Each was a lot of fun, and each had different challenges. I also did two other triathlons and another 10k run. More on those later... let's start with the 13.1 mile run.

I ran in the Texas Half on January 30, 2010. It was COLD. I had been running quite a bit in preparation for the half, as opposed to my normal workouts that are usually designed around variety. I had cut out some biking, rowing, and lifting to fit in more running. Good thing, too, because the race still felt long.

It was about 28 degrees and windy. Waiting for the race to start was really cold. After the first few minutes of running, it was pretty comfortable when trees were blocking the wind. The race course was around White Rock Lake, so part of the course was sheltered from the wind, and part was not. My legs felt pretty good up to about mile 8 or so, where it started getting tough. Speaking of tough, don’t try to carry chewy candies for carbs when it is below freezing—they get rock hard. Anyway, I did some walking in the last few miles and finished in 2:32:52. The time is not impressive, but hey, I was slow when I was in peak condition in high school, so at 32 I’m happy with just finishing.

Near the end of the race it seemed really cold again. Sweat had soaked through some of my clothes, so when it got exposed to the wind… brrrr… Colette and the kids arrived at the race just as I was about to cross the finish line. I guess it is good that I was not any faster. This also means I don’t have any pictures.

I felt good in the days after the race. Even though I was not too sore, I did have trouble motivating myself to run again for a while. I logged only about 8 miles in February. I have definitely learned that I need to keep a future race scheduled in order to stay motivated.

Obviously not blogging

My last post seems to be about races in the fall of 2009, so I guess I have not been into blogging! I have a few posts in mind, as I have continue to run, bike, and swim, and we added Piper to our family, and I got an iPad. Piper has obviously been the most significant change since my last blog post. You can find recent pictures of her and the latest happenings of our household at ameybc.blogspot.com

Since fitness and iPad apps have dominated my discretionary time, stay tuned for some posts on those topics. I'm posting this from my iPad, otherwise I'd start with something longer. While the iPad is a truly amazing gaming platform and media consumption device, it is less than ideal for media creation.