Lake Logan 2007 Race Report

I did the 2007 Lake Logan Triathlon, which was an international distance event. It was set in the mountains of North Carolina, but the course was mostly flat because the route was on roads within the valley. I really enjoyed this race. If it were closer to home, I’d definitely do it again. It’s a 5 hour drive away, tho, so I’m not sure…

Goal: My goal for this race was to do it in under 2:45. I figured if I want to do the Duke 1/2 iron race in under 6 hours, I better be able to do this race in 2:45. I met my goal (so I have signed up for the Duke half).

Strategy: My strategy for this race was to go hard in the swim and bike, and do the best I could in the run. I was hoping to get my run under 1 hour, which would be hard for me given the setbacks I’ve had in my running this year.

Focus: About a week before the race, I watched the ITU World Cup Triathlon, South Africa, on TV. I watched how the women really went hard on the bike and yet still got off and ran hard. And I watched how the winner of the event pushed hard on the run the whole 10k. You could tell how she was in agony the whole time, but she held onto her pace and won, staggering across the finish line! When the second and third place women crossed the finish line a few seconds behind her, they collapsed from their hard effort. I planned to keep the image of how hard these elite woman push themselves in my mind during the run. You wouldn’t know it from looking at my run time, but I did push hard the whole time and staggered across the finish line when I was done.

My Splits:

Swim 1500m	00:26:51
T1	00:02:11
Bike 40k	01:15:10
T2	00:01:32
Run 10k	00:58:05
Overall	02:43:47

Link to Race photos

How the race went: Short story (long story below):

My goal for this race was to do it in under 2:45. I figured if I want to reach my primary goal of doing the Duke 1/2 iron race in under 6 hours, I better be able to do this race in 2:45. I met my goal (so I have signed up for the Duke half).

Overall, the race went well, despite that I arrived late so had a very hectic pre-race AND got a stomach cramp half way thru the bike which lasted the rest of the race. I was pleased with my swim and bike splits. My run was as good as I expected given the current state of my running (which is sucky!). I think that I won’t reach my goal of placing top three until I age up next year …the competition is just too great in the 40-45 group (or, unless I discover some magic bullet for running faster!).

I thought the water a bit warm for a wetsuit. (Or, maybe the new wetsuit I bought is too thick…?) I got a little overheated. Due to my late arrival, I missed the prerace announcements, so I didn’t hear what the actual water temperature was that morning. Still, I’m glad I wore the wetsuit, tho, as my swim time was really good!

The water was kinda creepy. It was a bit shallow, and I could see gnarly tree stumps below me as I swam, and it creeped me out.

As always, I enjoyed the bike ride. The course was scenic with mountains all around, and mostly flat, except for a nasty hill in the beginning and end. I had looked at the bike elevation, so I was mentally prepared for that.

The run was just as described in the race description: a slight incline for the first half, then slightly down on the way back. I really couldn’t tell it was anything other than flat.

I really liked how they did the swim waves, with the 45 year old guys starting after my group. I enjoyed seeing lots of buff 45+ guys pass me on the bike 🙂 I had been listening to Aerosmith recently, and had the song ?Dude looks like a Lady? stuck in my head when a guy passed me in the race. I found this amusing, so from then on, every time a guy passed me, I sung that song in my head.

How the Race Went: Long Story

Pre-race:

My family rented a cabin in Saluda, NC, which was an 1 1/2 hours away from the race site, or so I thought. I set my alarm for 4:20 am. I tossed and turned all night, as I always do, for fear of oversleeping and missing the day I trained so hard for. I was relieved when the alarm finally went off!

I wasn’t hungry, so I just ate a small yogurt, and grabbed a granola bar and a banana for later. I planned on stopping at a gas station at 5:30 am (2 hours prior to race start time) to get coffee and some banana bread. After loading my bike and gear into the car, I took off at about 4:45 am.

At 5:30 am, I got off the highway and stopped at a gas station. After filling my 20 oz cup with java, I looked for the cream. There was sign on the dispenser that said “No Cream”. I left to look for another gas station. While looking for other options, I ate the granola bar.

It was another 30 minutes before I found another gas station. So, I had my coffee and banana bread 90 minutes before race time. Darn, that’s too close to race time, and the banana bread was settling into my stomach like lead!

Check In

It was 6:45 when I finally pullled into the Lake Logan race site – yikes! I never get to a race that late and I was frazzled to say the least. I oiled my bike chain, and tighted a nut that I noticed was loose. Then I gathered up all my gear and headed to packet pickup. At 6:55, I got to the packet pickup table. There were about 20 athletes in line. All of a sudden, I remembered that my driver’s license was still in my car, a 10 minute walk away. This day was not going well. I put all my gear down. I put on my running shoes and sprinted to the car. I got back to packet pickup at 7:05. Not a soul in line now. I guess that was good. I got my packet, my chip, my body marking and headed for transition.

The rack I was assigned in transition was completely full of bikes. I had no choice but to simply sqeeze my bike in between 241 and 243. I felt rude doing that, but what else could I do?

I heard the race announcer say that it was 7:10 and all athletes must clear the transition area by 7:15. Sheesh, I hadn’t even put my race numbers on my bike, helmet, or race belt, let alone, lay out my shoes and stuff. And I had to pee really bad. I hurried as best I could to get it all set up, and then grabbed my wetsuit and Pam spray, and headed for the porta potties. It was 7:26. My wave start time was 7:38.

Fortunately, that late in the game, there’s nobody in line at the porta potty. I did my business there, and then put my wetsuit on and headed over to the swim start. I could hear the race officials barking out race instructions, but couldn’t make out what they were saying. So much for preparedness – I would just have to wing it the best I could.

The Swim

When I finally arrived at the swim start, they blew the horn for the first wave. I had about 8 minutes. I sprayed Pam on the legs of my wetsuit, and set the Pam can down on a nearby fence. (I spray Pam on the outside of legs, so that they are slippery when I peel the suit off in an inside out fashion). I asked a woman in my wave (yellow cap) if she would zip up my suit. She zipped me up, and then asked me to do the same for her.

It then dawned on me that this new wetsuit I bought also had sleeves that needed to be sprayed with Pam. I went back over to where I laid the Pam, and sprayed my sleeves.
I had about two minutes to catch my breath before starting. Phew, I had gotten everything done. Ooops, I forgot to down a pack of Gu. I had one in my pocket, but there was no time to unzip the wetsuit to get it. I would have to make due without the Gu.

I was really warm standing around in that wetsuit. I dipped my toes into the water, expecting it to feel freezing cold as I had heard. It was not cold – it was warm water. My only hope was that the water got cold farther out in the lake.

Soon enough, my wave was jumping into the water, so I followed suit. I was amazed at how much more buoyancy this new wetsuit provided as compared to my old wetsuit. I felt like I had a life jacket on – very weird feeling.

The horn blew and we were off! I was hot but was also enjoying how fast I could swim in the wetsuit. I swam as fast as I could pretty much the whole time. I did a few stints of breast stroke to gather my bearings and check my position. My left goggle was leaking which annoyed me, but at least the lake water didn’t sting the way chlorine water does.

For a long while, I was stuck behind a woman who was kicking hard in my face and I was next to another woman who kept veering to the left into me. I finally got away from them and had a nice swim the rest of the way.

About half way back after the turn around, the water got more shallow and I could see gnarley tree stumps at the bottom. Then I saw something bright orange. I was creeped out, and didn’t want to see anything else, so instead of looking down, I started looking ahead of me – toward my hands as they stroked forward. That helped.

Near the end of the swim, we passed under a bridge and into the river. I was vaguely aware of spectators on the bridge watching us swim, and I heard people cheering. That was neat – I usually don’t get to hear cheering while I swim! As soon as I went under the bridge, the water got really cold. I was actually glad for it, because I was hot in my wetsuit!

The swim ended at a dock. It was hard pulling myself up onto the dock…I was rather clumsy and ungraceful, but finally made it up and ran for T1 while stripping my wetsuit half way off. I looked at my watch, which said only 25 minutes – WOW!

The Bike

I always enjoy the bike in a race. It’s so wonderful to be able to sail through intersections without stopping to look for cars!

Coming out of T1, there was a big line of people running alongside their bikes, heading out to the bike mount area. There was no room to pass, so I could only go the pace of the pack. I would have liked to go faster! There was a bottleneck of people at the mount line trying to get on their bikes. I ran past them all and did my flying mount and sped away.

There was a nasty hill at the beginning and end of the bike route and a few rollers in between. Mostly, the course was flat and fast. I had looked at the bike elevation chart on the website, so I was expecting some hills. I also noticed how the course seemed more uphill on the 2nd half, so I had decided to not hold back during the first half of the bike. (normally, you are supposed to hold back a little and try to negative split each leg of the race.)

I had planned on setting my computer to display average speed. However, during my frazzled race setup, my cateye computer fell off my bike. I had no way to gauge my pace, other than to go by feel. I decided to go as fast as I could, without letting my legs feel burned. My hill strategy was to use granny gear and high cadence up any nasty hills, and a combination of standing and sitting for the rollers. That seemed to work well.

Alot of guys passed me, because of the way the swim waves were set up. The 45+ guys started in the wave after mine… and I rather enjoyed the view as their buff bodies sped past me. I had been listening to Aerosmith lately, and had the song “Dude Looks like a Lady” stuck in my head. I was singing this when a guy passed me on the bike. This amused me, so each time a guy passed me, I sang that song.

About half way thru the bike, I got a bad stomach cramp… sort of beneath my rib cage on the right side. I’ve had this cramp once before, when I was riding hard in last year’s Duke half. This cramp stayed with me the rest of the race. I wasn’t sure if I should keep downing Gu’s every 30-45 minutes as usual, or not. I decided I would, even tho I had no desire to eat them.

I didn’t notice any women in my age group pass me until going up that last nasty hill. A woman with “41” on her leg passed me. As we crested the hill, she started getting her feet out of her shoes in preparation to dismount. I blazed past her and went full speed down the hill and kept up until I could see the dismount line. I did my flying dismount and was off to T2.

The Run

In T2, I slipped on my running shoes which had new elastic laces on them. I didn’t waste any time tying my shoes…those things are nifty! I grabbed a Gu, my hat, a water bottle, and my race belt and was off. I was trying to hold all those things, and put on my hat and race belt. I just couldn’t do it, so I took one last swig of water, and tossed the bottle.

The run course was described as being a slight incline for the first half, and then back down the hill after the turn around. My strategy was to run the first half at an uncomfortable pace while keeping my breathing in control. I hoped this pace would be about 9:15. Then I planned on going all out for the second half.

I successfully kept up an uncomfortable pace the whole way, but couldn’t get into an all out pace until mile 5! Still, I was working hard the whole time, and kept the image of those elite women staggering across the finish line in my mind, in order to keep up my hard effort. I wasn’t exactly pleased with a time of 58 minutes, but it’s a really good for me, all things considered.

I think about 4 or 5 women in my age group passed me during the run. No surprises there!

Post Race

Usually, I am ravenously hungry after a race. But I still had this stomach cramp which was really painful, so I had no desire to eat. I knew I’d be hungry later, so I packed some one of the Subway sandwiches in my cooler for later. I saw some of the nice folks from the Sportsplex Tri club sitting at a picnic table, so I sat down with them to relax and watch the awards ceremony.

That dang stomach cramp lasted for 3 whole days! No more store bought banana bread before a race – UGH! Thank you for reading this far 🙂