Today was my first venture into the world of multisport racing. Erich, Hekman and myself had all decided to do the race without really the aid of doing any real semblance of training for the running portion of the race. I knew before the race that I am a fairly one dimensional athlete in that my only real strength comes in the form of riding a bike. With temps in the mid 30's and a steady slow rain falling we toed the line with about 120 of our friends. Once the promoter said, "go!" it was on. My goal was to hold onto the fast runners as long as I could and try to enter the woods on the bike in decent position. After about two minutes of running I was becoming acutely aware of my face being melted off by the pace, so I had to drop off a bit. Into the first transition I was probably in about 35 or 40th place...definitely not where I wanted to be with the trails being very muddy.
I knew that from my truncated career as a horrible XC mountain bike racer that riding singletrack in the mud gets everyone all kinds of sketchy. I was able to pass about five or six in the woods on the first lap, then maybe another five or six on the little paved section.
At the start of the second lap on the mtb, I heard someone call out that I was in about thirtieth position. I caught up to about another five or six in the woods. On the paved section towards the end of the bike I passed Erich (he was on the second run and in fifth place). He heckled me to get me going a bit faster and I snipped off a couple more riders. I was really hoping that I would be able to muster a top ten, but quickly realized that this was out of reach, but that I was likely now in about 20th place. I transitioned to the run pretty quickly and got going as best I could. The feeling of going from riding the bike into a run is next to indescribable. For the first quarter mile it was miserable, my legs felt like iron, foreign almost. I saw a few runners off in the distance and made a goal of picking off all that I could see. By the end of the lap I passed all five of the runners and came into the finish in 15th.
Mark and Erich both put in impressive performances and finished in second and fifth respectively. The bikes were in dismal condition, in fact, I may just throw mine in the trash on monday. seriously, in the trash. I was half tempted to take it down and rinse it off in the lake, but that would have required some effort....perhaps I'll just leave the bike on the roof of the X and wait for the next thunderstorm.
Mud Butt
Erich and I cheesing it up after the race, something about riding a bike in the mud makes you feel like a kid:
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