Another great trip with the Adkisons. Triple T is such an awesome
experience I may have to turn it into an annual pilgrimage. Race, eat,
recover, sleep, and repeat. Who could ask for more?

Temperatures got into the 80’s and water temp about 68. Last year the
water was a very chilly 58 and almost everyone opted for a wetsuit
even for the 250 meter swim during the prologue race on Friday
afternoon. That cold water last year made Rodney wobble like a top
when he exited the swim. No problems this year. Even less leg cramps
which are notorious in race number 3, an olympic distance race that
starts in the 3pm heat with a 40K bike followed by the 1.5 K swim.
Race organizers always strongly suggest that competitors don their
wetsuits for that swim in spite of the hassle of trying to squeeze
into them when you’re already soaked with sweat. I ignored their
advice confident that I wouldn’t drown when my quads and hamstrings
decided to cramp. After having experienced that every other time at
Triple T, I knew that I could expect it when I stood up after the
first swim loop and again when I ran to transition. No big deal. The
water feels so refreshing after burning up on the bike that cramping
muscles seem like a small price to pay. After analyzing my results,
however, I should have taken a sleeveless wetsuit for that race
because I swam the same 1500 meters about 5 minutes slower than I did
in the morning race.

The prologue is an exciting super sprint Friday at 5pm. 250 meter
swim, 5 mile bike, and 1 mile run. The winners take just over 20
minutes. If you want a 30 second time bonus, you shoot for top 5, but
over 10 hours of racing it probably won’t matter. And you have to
assess the risk of bombing down a 2 mile hill on the bike, and the
possibility of a crash ruining your whole weekend. They told us to be
cautious all weekend long but I still crashed in race #1. Luckily it
was at a u-turn and not on the screaming descent. My tubular tire
rolled off the rim and down I went. A little lost skin and pride
followed by quickly rolling the tire back onto the rim and I eased
slowly down the hill to the run. I probably lost about 2 minutes due
to that crash but was glad that Rodney had brought the Specialized
Tarmac for the sprint race providing us a spare set of wheels for the
weekend. Rodney and I both chose to ride flat pedals instead of
clipless to shave seconds in transition and he still had the 10th
fastest bike split. His transition into the run was seamless, hardly
breaking stride as he slipped his bike into the rack. With his bike
handling skills improving on the descents he’s becoming even a bigger
threat at that race. He did have a problem during the swim though.
When you’re as highly ranked as he is, you get to start ahead of some
very fast, young swimmers who apparently have no qualms about
sprinting right over you. He had to swing wide to avoid the pummeling
and that cost him several seconds.

Both Rodney and I thought we would sleep so much better this year
since we were finally successful at reserving a cabin for the race.
However, whether it’s a single day of racing or several, my nervous
and gastrointestinal systems react the same way. I can’t sleep and I
spend a lot of time emptying my bowels and bladder. I don’t think I’d
be any good at stage racing because eventually you have to get some
rest. And of course I kept Nicole up so she decided to sleep in the
other bed for the rest of our weekend.

Nevertheless, Saturday morning I was psyched up for racing. The
morning olympic race is an individual time trial, no drafting with
your teammate. But since I know that Rodney and I can work together in
the afternoon race, I usually don’t conserve any energy in the
morning. And the bike course is tough. Thompson Hill Rd. is an
infamous 18% grade. Some of the twisting descents can throw you right
into the guardrail if there even happens to be one and you fail to
heed the warnings painted on the road. I was worried about Nicole and
Dianna, but then I had forgotten that they are naturally smarter than
I am and rode quite safely.

The run starts off on flat grass and some pavement for the first half-
mile and then turns to dirt fire road and climbs. It’s a 6.55-mile out
and back that you run 4 times over the weekend, so you get to know it
really well, and you may even get to hate it. My first 2 trips (one in
the morning race and the other Saturday afternoon) felt awesome. The
results of my training were beginning to show and the hill repeats at
Rock Bridge were paying off. Rodney had started the race before me
(time trial starts based on your USAT rankings and prior results at
TTT) so I didn’t see him until he had turned around on the run. As he
approached me he told me his hamstring was killing him but he was
running well and moving up amongst the first 10 race leaders. However,
the hamstring failed him on the downhill. When I caught him I knew
something was wrong (you try catching Rodney on the run when he’s
healthy), but didn’t stop to check on him. I just yelled at him to be
conservative and that I would try to make up for lost time. Teams are
scored by adding up their individual times for each race. For the
final 2 races, teammates start and finish together, drafting as much
as possible. But teammates are on their own for the first two.

I watched Rodney finish and it didn’t look good. He was hobbling in
and was obviously frustrated. We were hoping to place high overall
this year instead of just dominating the masters division (combined
ages 80-99 years). Ironically I’ve been training so hard these past
few months so that I wouldn’t let him down like I did last year. Now
he had to decide whether he could continue to race or not. I thought
if he did he would just jeopardize the other big races he has planned
for this year. So he sucked it up, turned into the best support crew
we could have had, and I continued the race in the solo division.

Somehow, knowing that I couldn’t count on Rodney to pull me through
the last races gave me a renewed sense of purpose. I started race #3
like I was on fire, blasting off on the bike and quickly catching
teams ahead of me that were drafting. I really like that bike course
because it’s out and back, has long hills that don’t slow you down too
much and fast descents that you can carve without braking. I heard one
team say as I passed on a hill, “That’s just demoralizing,” which just
fueled my aggression. Another team rode side by side forcing me to
pass close to the center of the road, and I did so like an angry
motorist on Rangeline Blvd. trying to get home to an ice cold PBR on a
Thursday afternoon.  Like an idiot, I let them get by me on a hill
then had to repass them, this time on the right because they were too
far left. We made a little contact, everyone stayed upright, then I
turned around to yell at them not to block the road and found myself
heading off the road and into the gravel. Most of you have probably
not seen that side of me … but yes I admit, sometimes I can be an a-
hole. I like those moments though, because they force me to struggle
to stay positive and focus inward instead of getting sidetracked by
the actions of others. I like it when I can remind myself of that in
the heat of a race. I was really looking forward to jumping in that
lake. In fact I would love to do more triathlons that start in the
afternoon with a bike/swim. Of course it seemed like everyone was
passing me and I couldn’t swim fast enough to draft any of them. My
legs kept reminding me that they would really love the opportunity to
lock up and drown me, just waiting for that extra hard kick or just a
little more bend in my knee. But by the time the run rolled around,
they felt good again and I clocked the 3rd fastest run.

After wolfing down a couple bbq pulled pork sandwiches I checked the
results and started adding up race times to see that I was neck and
neck with David Cascio another solo masters racer. We were one and two
and I led by less than 30 seconds, with one more race to go that would
be at least five hours of “anything can happen”. David is from Reston,
VA and he must weigh less than 120 lbs. He swims like a fish but
Rodney and I noticed I was out-biking and out-running him. And with a
half ironman coming up on Sunday, his chances of beating me were
slimming. Nevertheless, I couldn’t take him lightly, with a 2008 USAT
ranking of 5th among 45-49 year olds. (Rodney was ranked 15th last
year in that age group.)

Rodney and I waited for the girls to come in and cheered them through
the finish and then we were off to enjoy steaks, potatoes, roasted
apples and onions, risotto, beer and ice cream sandwiches, all
courtesy of Rodney’s hard work while we were racing. We invited Jerry
Donohue and Joel Zucco to eat with us and had a great time visiting.
Then Rodney put us to bed telling us not to worry about our bikes, and
that he’d have everything ready to go in the morning. What a guy!

Rodney gave me plenty of coaching for the last race and we decided I
would take it easy on the first lap of the bike and try to negative
split it. We also decided I would just try to hold a steady pace on
the run with unlabored rhythmic breathing. I planned my nutrition to
consume 60 oz of fluids and a little over 600 calories during the
bike. I don’t like to take anything on the run except enough water to
wet my mouth. After an uneventful swim, I kept hoping I would catch
David on the bike because if I headed out of T2 first, I thought I
could break his spirit. I did catch him toward the end of the second
lap but I was working pretty hard during that lap. And to complicate
matters I felt like I would be lucky to make it to the portajohns at
transition. But I had a plan. I had to put on socks because my feet
were blistered from race #3 so I decided I would grab them and my
shoes at transition, run to the john and put them on while in there.
Rodney was excited to see me and was telling me how many were ahead of
me and then he started yelling at me to squeeze it off and get going.
I thought he might try to tip me out of there so I did as I was told.
The run didn’t feel so good as it had on Saturday though. The legs
were heavy, hills had grown steeper over night. At the first
turnaround I got a sighting on how far back David was and it looked
like he was running strong. This scared me a little but I decided to
just stay steady and see if he burned himself up trying to catch me.
If he caught me, I hoped to have reserves to keep up with him and
still beat him since he started ahead of me. I kept pouring ice down
my shorts and water over my head, hoping that I would start feeling
better but never did. I tried not to walk any of the hills because I
knew it would be a downward spiral if I did. That worked up until mile
10 and then I started to fall apart, getting chills and feeling hungry
and overheated. Later I would realize that I needed more fluids and
calories on the bike. And I probably needed to take it easier on the
second bike loop too. I rode 2 minutes faster than in 2007 but I think
my run suffered by about 13 minutes (a minute/mile.) Oh well, in the
end I would finish 10 minutes faster than 2007 over all 4 races, win
the masters division, and go 5:16 in the hardest half I’ve ever done.
It made me feel ready for Redman in September.

And I got to be there to see Nicole complete the hardest 3 days of
racing she’s ever done and with a smile on her face after each race.
In fact, I got to watch her sprint 100yds at thenvery end of that
whole weekend, looking fresh enough for a Wednesday night track
session. She’s definitely got that finish line sprint mastered. And
she keeps making me believe that she is truly capable of anything,
especially with the support and love of her training partners.

Well, since Rodney had a bum wheel this year, we may have to go back
and try to beat up on some young guns next year. I think I’ll make our
team name a little more colorful. We saw some good ones this year,
like “Big Test Icicles,” and “You’ve Been Chicked.” That second one
has inspired me. How’s this sound? “You’ve Been Geriatricked”

It may sound like a hard race but I’m sure there are many members out
there who can complete it and even enjoy it. And it sure would be nice
if we had about 5 or 6 teams from our club doing this race together.
I, for one, much rather prefer to race with my buddy than to race
against him. If you don’t want to give adventure racing a try, here’s
another way to get that team race experience in a format that most of
us are already comfortable with. And here’s another way to look at it,
what a great training weekend and catered getaway. If you’re training
for a half or full ironman, this weekend will definitely give you the
mental confidence and physical stimulus you need to succeed.

We’ve got a cabin reserved for next year. You can book one now or even
a room at the lodge. They will sell out. Any questions? I’d love to
answer them.

andy pele