2010 Triathlon Season

The 2010 Triathlon season started with a bang for Michael. He got to enjoy wonderful weather, a faster than anticipated time resulting in 4th in his age group half of Team Whetstone cheering for him and Mary Beth joining in for her first triathlon.
After getting the packets, Michael and Jackie walk with Maizeigh (Team Whetstone member #16) back to the car


Michael giving Mary Beth some pointers


Michael with members of the LRC

(Mike 9, Tim, Michael, and Mary Beth)

Michael during the swim, getting cheered on by Team Whetstone (this happened EVERY lap)


Michael's run finish


THE KISS

(notice in the background, Emma, Team Whetstone's newest member, #17)

After Michael finished, he took Jackson to see the soldiers.


Michael running in with Mary Beth on her last 3 blocks


TRUE aero position (Jackson, Team Whetstone member #14)


Michael, Mary Beth and Maizeigh waiting to hear the results

(the last man to finish the race, won first in his age group, 80 and above - Michael expressed desires to still be doing triathlons when he's 80)

While visiting Parris Island, Michael was able to show Jackson and Maizeigh some jets.


80 MICHAEL 116 00:10:13 00:01:34 99 00:33:38 00:01:08 66 00:20:58 01:07:28
95 MARY BETH 80 00:11:41 00:02:20 100 00:43:17 00:01:01 99 00:29:09 01:27:25

Patriots Half - Michael's Story

I originally signed up for the Patriots Half Ironman in 2008 and traveled to Williamsburg, Virginia only to have the race cancelled due to a little storm called Hurricane Hanna. To avoid reimbursing our entry fees, Setup Events allowed us credit towards this year’s race. So, I enjoyed an abbreviated tri season with the Patriots Half as this year’s ultimate race. Our 6.5 hour drive on Thursday afternoon seemed pretty long, but we arrived in time for dinner and a good nights rest before a day of sightseeing in historic Jamestown and Williamsburg. I took every opportunity that I could to get off my feet, but there wasn’t an abundance of those. As we toured the docks of Jamestown, I noticed the dark brown white-capping river that I would be swimming in at 7:00 the next morning. What a fearsome sight it was. For weeks I had hoped that the water temperature would drop below 78 degrees so we could enjoy a wetsuit legal swim in that rough water. It did. The announced water temperature was 74 degrees.
The swim was an inverted U with a 0.6 mile leg down the river. My swim time and comments from other swimmers exiting the water led me to believe that the swim course was long (or at least the course that I swam). The first leg of the U went fine with three orange buoys on my left before the turn. I only remember seeing two buoys on the long leg of the swim. The last leg of the U had us heading right into the rising sun. I never saw another buoy even though I paused twice to search for one. So, I relied on the follow-the-leader method of course navigation. Evidently the last turn was rounded off pretty bad and we got caught in the current that pushed us down stream, which stretched the course out. Well, that’s my theory and I’m sticking to it. I enjoyed several cheers and high fives from Team Whetstone members spread out over the long dash from the river to transition. The bike course was relatively flat so I enjoyed my fastest bike ride ever over 50 miles. I was impressed by the consistency of my bike computer with the course measuring device. There was a painted mile marker on the road every 5 miles. I was consistently 1/100th over. At their 20 I had 20.2 and at 50 I had 50.5 miles. All of the turns were well marked and monitored so I became worried when I had reached 57 miles and had not seen the last two turns. I ended up with 58.3 miles on my computer.
This was my longest event with no clothing changes. I wore my new tri top and a pair of shorts with a heavy pad under my wet suit. The soaked pad proved to be a handicap and made my afternoon walking tour of Williamsburg quite uncomfortable. Not having to put a tight top on a wet body probably saved a minute in T1. I forgot how good of a job Body-Glide did protecting the back of my neck from the wetsuit in a long swim. Learning lessons again can be quite painful. Note to self: please don’t have to learn that one again. I have signed up for the Swim for Drew at Lake Murray this weekend and need some healing time. My bike computer displayed a 19.0 mph average when I hit the transition area again. I began the run with a kiss from my bride. That should fuel me for a while. I started the run feeling pretty good and vowed no miles over 9 minutes and no walk breaks without a cup, from the aid stations, in my hand. The run course was beautiful. They had to reroute it after a boat recently damaged a bridge on the Colonial Parkway. There were only two half mile segments on a road. The majority of the run was on a paved bike path and the balance was on a raised gravel path through a wetland forest. This kept us protected from the afternoon sun. We had several loop-backs and got to see each other a number of times. Out in the middle of the course there were a couple of girls standing on a bench at the edge of a corn field cheering us all on. I thanked them each time that I passed. My splits were close to what I had predicted and my leg pain was near the “I’m-gonna-walk” level. So, I knew that I was on the edge. If only I had known that a new PR was only a minute and half away. My final dash down towards the finish line was met by the gang lined up beside the road, with hands out, ready for one more high five. But, another runner happened to be there on the road’s edge blocking me from the kids. Jackie said he got high fives from them all and ran on by with a big smile on his face. I am grateful that another runner was able to benefit from the boost that comes from having such great support. At the finish I was greeted by the whole gang. Jackie, Kenny, Jessica, Christi, Joe, Chelsea, five of my grandchildren, Preston (Chelsea’s brother) and his wife Leslie were all there braving the hot sun wishing that I would hurry up. We missed having Tim, Mary Beth, Kevin, Jackson and Maizeigh along but our schedules won’t always allow us to be together. After a few waters, Gatorades, a plate of bar-b-que, a sprinkler shower followed by a changing of clothes in the Porta-John, I was ready to hit the sites of Williamsburg again. I’m grateful for the way this entire weekend turned out.
With the completion of what I consider a successful season, I’m now ready for the November 8th sign up day, Ironman Florida 2010!

Patriots Half

This year I didn't make it to the swim start in time. I thought I was going to, but I ended up at the swim finish instead. Luckily, I got to walk onto the beach and was able to see Michael's heat start!

It was quite a little run up to transition.

Coming out of transition, the triathletes had to cross onto a road that had moving traffic. There was a police officer holding up traffic, but it still made us nervous!


The grandkids caught Michael for high fives coming out of transition.

Speeding down the home stretch.

Another runner benefited from our cheers and high fives too!

Another different view than my usual. We stayed at our spot up on the road and watched Michael cross the finish line from over the transition area.

Some extra fans from Joe's wife's family showed up to get a taste of what triathlons are like!

Don't know what these kids find fascinating about taking Michael's sweaty socks off for him!

A nice, cool sprinkler shower.

Jackie wanted a picture of Michael holding his medal, but he didn't want to be in a picture by himself so he just stood in the middle of our group. Some posed (Olivia), some didn't...

The effects of wearing a tri top under his wetsuit without Body Glide.

Tri the Parks

Elberton, Georgia
(We'll call this one a training event)

After watching the first half of the triathlon season pass by while I rehabbed, I considered Tri the Pee Dee last month as an initiation back into the sport. This weekend's event will have to go down as a training event in preparation for The Patriot Half in three weeks. The Richard B. Russell state park was a great place to hold an event such as this. It had no auto traffic to worry about except for the middle section of the bike and the area was so secluded that I didn't see a single car on the entire route. They had a calm cove of the lake for the swim, a white sandy beach, that my grandchildren just loved, and showers with changing rooms to make that ride home comfortable. I had only done one mile long open water swim this year without a wetsuit, and that was just a week ago. So, I was a little short on swim confidence. About half way through the second loop of the double loop swim I began to worry just how deep this part of the lake was. The two loops were separated by a 150+/- yd dash before you waded back in. The run from the water to transition was about 300 to 400 yd's. I was hoping that we got extra credit for those two runs. The bike section had two 180 ft. climbs and the 10 K had two half mile sections on dirt trails through the woods. This was my first 10 K wearing a hat and glasses for the entire distance. The sun was out in full force after about the first 6 miles of the bike segment. Every time I came by the base camp area I got wet high-fives from my grandchildren that were enjoying my away time in the lake. Team Whetstone had a nice shaded picnic area that over looked the lake to enjoy while I was touring the countryside. Again, I was blessed with an advantage by having so much loving support out there for me. It's always nice to have an excuse to get our family together. I imagine that each of them are looking for a better excuse though. After the race I helped the grand kids cool off in the lake. Boy they needed that!! About 4 miles into the run I began to wonder "who in their right mind would sign up for a race twice this long?" Now it's time for 3 weeks of serious training and/or a mental check-up.

Tri the Parks photos

Big Daddy with his Team Whetstone grandkids!

As you can see, there are mostly caps out there. There weren't a lot of fans so we pretty much had our pick of where to stand and watch!

Right before Michael's start time we all yelled "Go Big Daddy!" at the same time. The people around him had blocked him from our view so he let us know he heard us.


This was the long run in between rounds of swimming that Michael talked about.



Rounding the curve out of the transition area Michael had to start the bike with a hill! Uphill!


I got a wave. Was that "Hey" or "No more pictures please"?

The run had a little bit on the trail. It was that soft rubbery track material and shaded.

Coming down that hill on the home stretch, Michael was going too fast for me to get a good pic so I got one when he slowed down across the finish line!

The grandkids "convinced" Big Daddy to go swimming with them after he finished.

Since there were so few onlookers, we got first pick at the shaded picnic areas!

And Michael got help taking his shoes off!

Michael took off his jersey while swimming and put it on Hagin. He obviously thinks it's cool to be wearing Big Daddy's sweaty nasty jersey!


They lined up all the winners for a group picture. That was a first.

Run Start

Bike Start

Big Daddy felt good enough to give us a thumbs up

Tri the Parks

Pictures and Videos coming tomorrow! Here's something to hold you over.

Tri the Pee Dee - In still life

Quite a bit of splashing going on!

Heading to T1 with some Team Whetstone trying to keep up in the background.

Great start on the bike - no slips or falls on the slick plastic mats!

Owen wants to be like his Big Daddy so he ran around during the wait.

And he's back. No course pics on this bike ride since it's an out and back.

Whoa, is that a smile? At me?!

Leading a pack across the pond...

Man, he must be feeling great to be giving us all these smiles! Maybe we're just good cheerleaders!

It was a small group of Team Whetstone this race, but we were loud!


Guess since Jackie wasn't there Owen got the sweaty kiss!

Ben, Michael, Rick, and Tim

Team Whetstone

Michael won a beer glass, I mean a root beer float glass! If you know Michael, you know you'll never see a picture of him getting an award without this look on his face. He always looks like he's wondering why everyone is making such a big deal. I do believe he had the most screams and cheers when his name was called, but we had to show how we felt - proud of our dad!

1st in Male 55-59

Michael placed 1st in his age group. We're SO proud of him.

Kickin' It in to the Finish

Run Start Tri the Pee Dee

Michael getting a GREAT start on the run.

T1

(I can't get the swim start video to download, so we'll just skip it for now) Here is a video of Michael in T1.

Michael had a little friendly competition with Ben O'Brian (who goes to church with Michael). Ben is also focused on in the video.

Nothing to be nervous about

Michael was nervous about his first 2009 Triathlon. He proved to have nothing to be nervous about.

Issues with Images

Ok, so if you can't see the pictures, don't worry too much. The blog is still working. If you scroll down you'll see that images in posts by Christi still show up. It's just the images in posts by Mary Beth that aren't working. I think that is a result of her computer crashing a little while ago. Whatever the reason, her images aren't showing up, but the blog is still working.

Michael hasn't done a triathlon in a while (though he's done a couple running races), but be patient because there's one coming up and we'll definitely be blogging about it! Thanks for checking up on him!