After being mentally obliterated by exam week I woke up at 4 am the following day and drove the 2 hours to White Lake. It was early in the morning when I got there so my eyes weren’t yet getting enough sunlight to notice how strange of a place White Lake, NC is. I’ll spare you the gritty details and simply show you pictures of the two restaurants this fine town has to offer (photo stolen from www.whitelakenc.com. note: the next 3 pictures on this page do not get any bigger, only the last). I ate at skiburger.
So why on earth was I determined to get there so early in the morning? To cheer on Dave and some NCSU triathlon club members in the Half Ironman on Saturday. After watching approximately 900 people beat themselves up all day for the brutal 5-6 hour race around this lake I had a delicious pasta dinner at a place a little outside the town with Brad, another NCSU tri club member, and we passed out around 9 o clock for our 8:10 start time the next morning.
There were another 900 people at White Lake for our sprint race on Sunday. Easily the most serious race I’ve been in so far, at least competitors wise. The course was relatively easy: a mega flat bike ride and an ultra-mega flat run. The bad part? The swim. About two and a half times as long as the swim parts of previous triathlons I’d been in which is bad news for me because it’s where I lose the most time. It took me over 2 and a half times as long total though just because of the overall difficulty in my first open water swim race.
They start everybody in your age group at the exact same time which is insane because if you pass or are passed you immediately know where they are timewise in relation to you. It also means there are legs almost constantly kicking in my face because there are so many people. Despite the fact that I was wearing a wetsuit which should have propelled me at lightning speeds, I ended up with a pretty poor swim time of 17:45 and then a transition onto the bike of 1:58. Getting the wetsuit off in a hurry should be an event in itself, it was pretty frustrating.
The bike was next and consisted of 2 incredibly flat 7 mile loops around the lake. I cranked them out in 38:49 and enjoyed the extra bike traffic created by 900 competitors. I was cruising by people fairly often but occasionally would hear the SHOom SHOom SHOom of disc wheels as people with much nicer bikes and stronger leg muscles than I would fly by. Out of the bike and onwards to the run section with a 1:18 transition. The run started off pretty poorly with a huge cramp in the side of my stomach that was taking its sweet time in parting. Eventually I cranked things up and ended up running at a pretty reasonable rate, clocking in a 21:14 5k time. My fastest 5k time during a triathlon so far.
Overall I was pleased with things and look forward to cutting time off each section (especially the swim) and racing again next year at White lake. My overall time of 1:21:02 put me at 69th overall. My run time was 45th fastest, the bike was 59th, and the swim was 164th. I managed to get 2nd in my age group which is less impressive since my time wouldn’t have placed in any other age groups except for 10-15 and 55+ but was still cool because I got an award and got to stand on a podium for it. I’ll take it! wooo wooo! (Full results here)
I’m in San Jose, California now after a most excellent road trip which will be posted about soon. Until then, please gaze upon this single picture from Zion national park.
Oh, also, I’ll be in the Tour de Cure next weekend which is a 75 mile bike ride to raise money for diabetes research. Pretty please sponsor meee! Go here and click on “click here to sponsor me” then donate all the extra money you have laying around that you don’t know what to do with. Thanksss
1. I can’t really see the pictures.
2. Is your wet suit motorized whereby it should propel you with lightning speed?
3. Maybe that why you lost time in the transition trying to exit your motorized wet suit!
4. Good work in an exciting event. I am enjoying your picture trophy which is on the windowsill in the kitchen.
1. Only the last picture gets bigger, unfortunately.
2. Heck yes it is. pretty good mpg as well, worry not
3. Most definitely
4. thanks!
I’ve been checking up on your blog every now and then, and I have to say that this is extremely impressive - even though you were using the motorized suit. Congratulations! I hope all is well with you. It seems like you’re still doing some pretty amazing/interesting things in your free time. Thanks for sharing.