THE PATRIOT HALF IRONMAN - Hanna Wins!!

(Michael's Story)

We left Lexington Thursday after lunch and headed for Williamsburg, Virginia. Our intent was to get the 7 hour drive over early and be able to visit the race site on Friday. We made plans to visit the historical sites on Saturday after the race and were staying a few more days to enjoy an area that we had never visited before. I watched the weather channel more this week than all of my other viewings combined. The early projection of Hanna’s path was towards the Carolinas but it danced around in the Bahamas and kept deviating from their projections. We had hotel reservations for Thursday night so we went ahead with our plans. By Thursday night the revised path was projected to hit the outer banks of North Carolina and the Chesapeake Bay area, which is where we had just arrived. I kept thinking that cancellation of the race was a likely option but I had trained pretty hard and was not ready to give into that. I had received an email on Thursday morning saying that they were tracking the storm and would keep us updated on how it would effect the race. There was mention of changing the triathlon to a duathlon and that was disturbing enough that I didn’t even want to consider it. There were projections of 35mph winds with gust of 60mph. I have been riding on a day with wind gust of 25 to 30mph and I’m pretty sure that’s about all I could stand without being blown off my bike. I didn’t even give the roughness of the water a second thought and I don’t know about you but I seem to enjoy running in unique weather conditions. When we got to the hotel I didn’t even take my crate, bucket, bike and tri gear out of the car. I must have had a feeling of what was brewing. Mary Beth and her family had come up with us on Thursday. Christi and her little family were leaving on Friday to come to Virginia. Friday morning I went to visit the setupevents site to see if there was an update and found an email with the subject “Patriot Half Cancelled”. Man!! What a disappointment! I have never had a race cancelled before and only had threats that a tri might become a duathlon. So, I called Christi and Tim and told them of the news before they were to leave home. They decided to travel up anyway, to be with us for the weekend despite the storm. At least if we had to ride out the storm we would be together. After being upset with the race directors for a while I realized that if only one person, quite possibly me, was injured because of the storm, then that would have been too many. They made the right call. I know it and I’m thankful that they looked out for us because nuts like me would have been out there if they had not called it off.
Well why sit around the hotel and mope about it? We headed off to Colonial Williamsburg and enjoyed the next two days tromping around from site to site with ponchos and umbrellas. The wind gust probably never got over 40mph, where we were, but Saturday would have been a terrible day for a bike ride of even a mere 10 miles. Just as predicted the storm passed quickly and the weather was pleasant by midday Sunday. We toured Jamestown Landing for the next two days. As I observed the white capped waves of the James River on a calm day I was grateful that I wasn’t given the chance to swim it on a rough day. I would say that we soaked up just about all the American history that our, post seventh grade, minds could stand in those four days. I really do enjoy history. I love being with my dear wife and family. So, I would have to say that this was an excellent mini vacation. I’ll just have to continue my training for the Florida Ironman without the confidence that this half was to provide.

(Michael and Jackson, wearing his Team Whetstone shirt, checking out an excavation site at Colonial Williamsburg)

Tri the Pee Dee: Michael's Story

My goal in going to Florence this weekend was to get more practice in going through the motions of the triathlon. I would like to enjoy the comfort of going from one event of the tri to the next like it's second nature to me. Well, it appears that I need a few more tri's to get to that state. The Setup events folks have done a great job on this sprint triathlon. It is a flat fast course, a spectator friendly set up and they have taken some of the challenge out of riding a skinny tired road bike on a sandy dirt road. My daughter, Christi, and youngest grandson, Owen, got up early Saturday morning to travel down to Florence with me. Tim Eichstaedt and Bob Carpenter were also there to represent the LRC. They, of course, did a better job of that than I did. My swim time was within 8 seconds of last year's. I tried again to push the bike harder which shaved 3:30 but this probably cost me the 1:44 increase on the run. My overall time was 1:49 slower. This is a result of my adding an extra leg to the triathlon. Usually it's S,B,R with T1 and T2 transition times. I modified this slightly when I came into transition and began to put on my shirt and helmet. HELMET!! I yell out "where's my helmet?" Like someone was really going to answer me. I look all around, assuming someone knocked it off my usual handlebar placement. It was nowhere to be found amongst the other outlayed equipment. Christi is standing nearby and I say to her "run to the car and get my helmet". Well, she was ready to go as I asked but Owen is strapped to her chest in one of those papoose things. I take off by her and she does a great underarm toss of the car keys. Through the rows of cars I go with my biking shoes on to yes, the next to the last car in the lot. There sits my helmet in the back of the car right where I sat it to put the race number on. Then it's a dash back to the transition area to finish the standard T1. Christi made a nice catch of the keys as I came back by her and Owen. By the way, Christi got a nice action photo of T1A. You all know how us stopwatch freaks can be so you can bet that I timed my T1A sprint out of the transition zone. By the way nobody beat my T1A time of 2:32 on Saturday. Well, last years T1 was 1:18 and this years was 4:24. With the 2:32 dash and probably :30 in a total funk, I'm back to my 1:18. So, I netted a 1:28:01 triathlon and a 1:31:07 quadrathon. As I'm packing up my gear to head home after the race, some smartelic yells from the transition area "Hey, did you remember your helmet?" Thanks Tim.

Tri the Pee Dee - Finish

This is what Owen got to do the whole time. He really was a good little boy!

Bob, Tim, and Michael

Michael with his photographer, Christi (me), and Owen

Tri the Pee Dee - Run

Yes, this is a smile. I don't know if he was smiling because I was cheering for him or because Owen was cheering for him (crying). If I screamed, Owen screamed. I told my dad as he passed that Owen was cheering for him too and he said he could hear him.

Our view of the run across the pond. It was nice to be able to see him in more than one spot on the run. I yelled "Go Big Daddy" so he would know it was me yelling for him way over there, but he said he could hear me like I was standing right there with him.


Finishing strong. He did great! Beat last year's time... But I'll let him tell you by how much.

Tri the Pee Dee - Bike

I'll let Michael tell you why this picture is where it is in the sequence. His story will be posted soon.



And for those of you that have been to Pee Dee, you know that this road has caused many bike wrecks from the thick soft sand. This looked like it'd be a solution and was for some. But as soon as Michael passed, a guy slipped on it (having rained all week everything was slick) and got his head hit by a following biker. Good thing he was wearing a helmet. Really good thing!

I recommend this all red outfit for every race! It was so easy to spot him in it!

Tri the Pee Dee - Swim

Michael is #220, in the middle of course. He may not admit it, but one of his favorite inspirational tri songs started to play right before his swim time. (Eminem's "Lose Yourself")


For those of you that haven't been to the Pee Dee tri, this is one half of the pond they swam in and ran 3 loops around.
It was quite foggy this morning.

Kids' Triathlon

After Michael's Tri Latta triathlon we played around for a while and then headed back to Huntersville. The kids had all signed up for races of their own. Hunter, Peyton, and Hagin did the triathlon. Olivia and Jackson did the fun run.

Hagin was worried about his pink swim cap until Big Daddy convinced him that he has pink caps from some of his races too.

Hagin was so excited about this race! He never stopped smiling!

Hunter was doing good. (You can tell by the expression on his face!)

Peyton looked so embarrassed that we were all cheering for him. But that's what Team Whetstone does!

Jackson just loved running his race! As soon as he crossed the finish line he said, "gain?"

Little miss Olivia did great too. And to my surprise the other 4 girls in the fun run were wearing dresses too!

What a crew! These kids did so well and had so much fun!

Tri Latta: Michael's Story

The Latta Plantation is just above Charlotte, NC and is a beautiful venue for a triathlon. I participated in this event last year but I went with a different philosophy this year. I decided to once again try to relax and take it easy on the swim. This showed by 1 1/2 minutes added to my swim time. Of course, you always wonder if they accurately measure a swim course. I was determined to push harder on the bike course to see if that affected my run time. We had a very early in the morning start time of 6:30 which seemed almost too early for my cheering section. The water temperature was 89 due to the excessive heat the previous week so no wet suits were allowed. The extra effort on the bike improved my time from last year by 3 1/2 minutes. However, my swim time was 1 1/2 minutes slower. So I ended up with about a 2 minute improvement. The extra effort on the bike didn't seem to affect my run because I ran within one second of last year’s run time. I reckon I need to continue to push harder on the bike! The run was all on trails. There were two lane ruts with people running both ways so passing required planning and guts to keep from running into someone head on. The exit from the swim was, once again, an uphill climb. That's one thing I look forward to in Florida is less than a hundred foot climb out of the water. The bike course was truly "gently rolling" -- you know what that means! I ended up finishing just above half way in my age group, 14 out of 29 which I'm pleased with. As usual, I was below average on the bike and above average on the swim and the run.

My race was early in the morning then later that afternoon we went into Huntersville for the WAM Kids Triathlon. Three of my grandsons (Hunter 8, Peyton 7 and Hagin 4) participated in their first triathlon and another grandson (Jackson 2) and granddaughter (Olivia 3) participated in the fun run (only because they were too young to do the triathlon!). I think the highlight of their day was getting body marked like "Big Daddy". It was an exciting weekend for the whole family. I hope one day to be like my grandson Hagin who is only four years old. He was so excited to do his triathlon that he literally had a smile on his face all through the swim, bike and run! I'm already like my other grandson Jackson who is two. When he crossed the finish line of his run the first thing he said was "AGAIN"!!

Once again I would like to thank everyone who has helped me train and cheered me on. It's now time to get serious and settle in to a real training program.

Tri Latta: Run

A booth was giving out jump ropes so all the kids got one. Jackson's trying to figure it out...

Hunter taking care of the newest member of Team Whetstone, Owen.

Here comes Michael starting the run.

The group held out their hands for high fives as Michael passed by.

Poor Jackson was so upset that his Big Daddy missed giving him a high five.

So Grandma made sure he was up at Big Daddy's eye level the next time he passed. Jackson got his high five that time!


Chatting with the kids as he cools down and eats a bit. This race wasn't near as hot as the Rock N Rollman. And of course he was finished by 9am, which helped!

Tri Latta: Swim to Bike

Hunter and Jackson having fun while waiting on Big Daddy to finish the swim.

There's Michael coming out of the lake (in the blue cap) with the No Swimming sign right behind him.

This is a rarity. Half of Team Whetstone made it to transition to cheer Michael on to the bike.

And off he went.

Tri Latta: Getting Ready and the Swim

Saturday, June 14th, Team Whetstone headed up to Huntersville, NC to see Michael compete in the Tri Latta triathlon.

Jackson wanted to help with Big Daddy's bike!

And wear his swim cap too.

Wishing "fast and stuff" from Team Whetstone

Michael's looking at the camera. Two races in a row!

Michael's wave is to the right headed out. The patches to the left are coming in.

Rock N Rollman Run to Finish

Starting the half marathon...

Michael gave high fives as he was passing this gang and then said, "Who's gonna run with me?" So they all turned around and started running with him!

Michael's 3 oldest grandchildren, Hunter, Peyton, and Hagin, and son-in-law Kevin, joined him to run to the finish.

Michael knows how to push it at the end of a race; I didn't think those boys were gonna keep up with him!

The blue water towel you heard about. Michael said he wore it almost the whole run. And he kept it on after he finished too. (The kids thought he looked silly.) But it sure was a hot day for a half Ironman!

And the traditional finish kiss. That's love there. He was pretty dang sweaty after all that!!