HITS Olympic

Don't wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.-- Mark Victor Hansen

On April 28^th, I participated in the HITS Olympic Triathlon in Marble Falls. My original plan for that day was to ride the Red Poppy century with Carl, since I couldn’t be there in Tahoe for his 5-year remission ride. But that ride fell through when Carl got scheduled to work. Bummer – so then it was a choice between the Marble Falls race and the No Label Tri in Katy. I just couldn’t bring myself to wanting to drive all that way for a sprint in a pool, so I looked at the Marble Falls race.

HITS is a new race organization that has scheduled a number of sites across the country. Their concept includes scheduling sprint and Olympic distance races on Saturday, and the half-iron and full-iron distances on Sunday, at each site. I opted for the Olympic distance this time around. My only other Olympic-distance tri was in Waco last year and that was no fun, so I thought I would have another go at it.

I drove up to Marble Falls Friday night after work to pick up my race packet, check out the race site and hear what they had to say at the athletes’ meeting. Turned out to be a good decision, since they told us the swim course had changed from a straight out-and-back swim to a two-loop triangle (pretty evident once I got there, since the buoys were already set out) and the run course had been moved, since USAT doesn’t allow courses to cross. And the Age Group start had been pushed back to 7:40 for the Olympic men. Oh well, it is what it is. Interesting note, though: I had never seen stools included in transition, nor had I seen the box-type bike racks rather than the usual pipe-bar racks. And my spot was at the very end of transition – but what you don’t see in the pic is that the bike out/in was just to the left of my stool! No running with the bike this time!

Saturday morning I was up at 3:30. I had packed most of my stuff in the truck after I got home Friday night, so there was not a lot left to do. Mixed my Infinit, grabbed the PB bagel and water, and off for the 45-minute drive. I got there a little after transition had opened but there was not yet a crowd. Got my bike checked in, transition laid out, and went back to the truck for a nap.

We watched the Sprint swim. For the Saturday races, there were one men’s wave and one women’s wave 3 minutes later for each of the sprint and Olympic. We were a couple minutes late starting, waiting on the last of the sprint swimmers to finish. In-water start, and we were off!  I was glad I had decided to swim in the sleeveless wetsuit, because the water temps would have made the sleeved suit a bit hot. Almost exactly 38 minutes later, I was crossing the mat coming into transition; ran the length of transition in the wetsuit, on the stool to peel, and into the bike shoes. T1 time was decent – 4 minutes.

Out of transition to the bike – you had to be careful here, because there was a bit of gravel at the first turn, and it was a bit crowded with the first sprint riders coming in. There was a short section of road under repair, which the race director had said would be hard-packed, but the construction crew was out there and had wet the road base so it was slick in places. Fortunately I did not see anybody go down on it. The course was 14 miles out and 14 back on the same route. The first half went pretty well, but there wasn’t a flat spot in the ride. I realized I probably should not have even bothered to put the race wheels on, since there was so much up and down, curves in the road, and speed changes. I don’t think I gained anything with that choice – in fact, I realized at the turnaround I had made a mistake because I spent the ride back just trying to stay upright with all the winds! I would get gusts hitting the wheels from the side, and you could feel the push to one side. Whenever I was passing somebody on the way back in, I made it a point to be in the left half of the road, rather than anywhere near the other rider – I didn’t want to risk getting blown into them!  1:32:46 on the bike; 2:21 in T2

So I felt pretty beat up getting off the bike. About that time, it started getting pretty hot. So I knew from the outset the “run” would be ugly. The run course had been changed to be the same first 3.1 miles of the bike course, and back – which, again, was not flat! I did a lot of walking, and I knew that I had not hydrated very well on the second half of the bike (I didn’t want to risk taking my hands off the bars!), so I carried one of my bottles with me on the run. that turned out to be the right thing to do, because there were only 2 aid stations on the run, and they ran out of ice and water on the second one. I couldn’t stomach the Gatorade at the strength they were mixing it, so I drank my Infinit and got water when I could. Suffice it to say, I was happy to be done with it! 1:30:32

3:47:40 total

Not my best performance on the course, but I was approached by a number of folks at the finish line, inquiring about my jersey. I explained my story, and was humbled by a number of those sharing their stories with me. I met Paul, who is a few years older than me…he is doing 2, and maybe 3, Ironman events this year! He has lost one kidney, has had colon cancer and continues to fight some medical issues – if there ever was a poster boy for determination, this is the man! He did tell me he was racing Ironman Texas, so I hope I get to see him since I will be there.

Maybe the best part of this day was the crayfish boil at my favorite vineyard, Perisso’s out by Inks Lake. I first met these folks when a number of us did a wine tour which included Perisso’s as our first stop. We ended up talking to the owners for a bit, as it turned out the two guys were getting into triathlon. Extremely nice people – and great wine! I also had stopped out there for a glass of wine when I was out on the motorcycle checking out the wildflowers this spring. Seth, one of the guys, actually did HITS sprint that morning. I had a blast that evening, and even noticed that the malbec grapes were doing fantastically well, so I will be looking forward to that come early next year.

Not a bad way to end a race day, huh?