Parris Island Triathlon

As in previous years, we enjoyed a kickoff to the triathlon season at the Parris Island Marine Corps Training Base. Christi, Hunter and I were competing along with 6 other triathletes from our Lexington group. This was my Grandson Hunter's first sprint distance triathlon. He and I have had 5 or 6 swim training sessions, 3 bike rides and 3 or 4 runs in preparation. Team Whetstone was able to observe each of us swim from the pool deck and were all impressed with Hunter's newly obtained swim technique. He and Christi started the swim separated by only 9 other swimmers. My swim time was 10:02 Hunter's was at 11:12. Pretty darn impressive!! Overall I was within 22 seconds of my time last year and we had a pretty tough headwind on the return leg of the bike course. After I finished I went out and helped the team cheer on Christi and Hunter. The rest of the Lexington group were already through. The benefit of having a late swim start time is you are able to have more cheerleaders. I ran the last 0.7 miles with Hunter and the last 0.2 with Christi. Hunter's finishing pace was very taxing to me. Christi bettered her time from last year by several minutes. Evidently she had a successful surgery. Mike Nininger impressed us all competing in his USMC recruit t-shirt, which was a little faded and worn out. Good thing that he could still fit in it. Tim Eichstaedt placed in his tough age group. I was also able to place as the senior member of my age group. Hunter overcame a spill on the bike and finished 3rd in his age group. Not too bad for his first event! Shall I predict that it won't be his last!!

More pictures on Mary Beth's blog

Wake Up!

Picked up Hunter at 6:10 this morning to go to our swim workout before school. He forgot his breakfast and his watch (proof that he's Kenny's boy). I explained on the way to the gym that I lay out everything the night before these early workouts cause I'm only half awake when I get to the gym. We pushed on a few weights for 15 min. And returned to locker room to get goggles and shed long pants for the swim. I noticed one guy looking at me funny before I realized that my trunks were on inside out. Note to self: turn swim trunks right side out, the night before.

Myrtle Beach Marathon

 

I set out to achieve four goals at the Myrtle Beach Marathon 1) Beat my last marathon time at Kiawah Island by 30 minutes, 2) Run the entire marathon, 3) Finish where I didn't "look like I got hit by a baseball bat at the end", 4) Have Fun.

1) Kiawah in December was my personal worst marathon time (not preceded by a 112 mile bike ride). Saturday's 4:12:30 was almost 35 minutes faster than Kiawah.

2) With no runs longer than 12 miles in preparation for Kiawah, the last 6 or 7 miles were filled with walk breaks. With exception of the 5 or 6 steps required to get a Gu and a cup of Powerade down and kiss my bride, there were no walk breaks.

3) After Kiawah my good friend Rick Rikard told me that I looked like I had been "hit by a baseball bat". I may have to wait for the finish line photos for proof but I felt like that was not the case.

 

4) Have Fun. I had the best "Team" support of anybody on the course, my daughter-in-law Jessica was out there running her first marathon, we all missed the sub 20 degree wind chill weather by 14 hours, my plantar fasciitis was being held in check, I was also experiencing this event with a dozen great training buddies and another marathon was in the bag, how could I not have fun.

 

Since I only managed only one 20 mile training run in preparation for Myrtle Beach my biggest concern was establishing a marathon race pace. I took the long runs done before my last 20 marathons and figured the pace for that run and compared it to the actual race day pace of the associated marathon. There were some great race days and there were also a few poor performances. So, I deleted three each of the best and worst ones. The ratio of the long training run pace to the marathon race pace worked out to be 0.97. Using my only 20 miler this time multiplied by this factor determined that I should run 9:38 miles. I wasn't happy with this slow of a pace, so I used the best case result and decided that I would shoot for a 9:10 pace. However, as early as mile 3 I realized that that was going to be too fast and settled into a more comfortable 9:20 pace. At mile 18, I recorded my first of four 10 minute miles. I sat down tonight and calculated my overall marathon pace. Unbelievable as it is, it was exactly 9:38 miles!!! Every now and then we ought to pay attention to history.

 

After heading back to our hotel, we enjoyed playtime at the indoor waterpark, naps and showers.

 

 

 

Then we went to Outback - now there's a good sized dinner table! After outback we used our free coupons (from the race) to go each get a doughnut at Krispy Kreme