Well it has been another long break from blogging and figured I needed to get back to it. It’s been full of the normal reasons not to write everything up, kids, work, and life getting in the way. Since the Leprechaun Run, I had the Bucks County Half Marathon on 4/14/13 and finished in 1:32.45, good enough for 21stoverall out of 580; 4th in my age group, and 16th man overall. The race was in Tyler State Park not to far from home. I never even realized that park was that big and that tough inside for running. It looks like the training is coming along nicely, and the bike is finally getting miles on the road. I am still lugging around some extra weight, so I need to clean up my diet big time. I still am not a huge fan of the pool, no offense swimmers, but I get in and train so I will have a good day and not sink!
Black Bear was this past weekend, May 19th, up in the Pocono's area at Beltzville State Park. I woke up super early, 4am, to get myself together and make the ride up to the park before the traffic got too bad. I hit the road by 430 and arrived at Beltzville State Park by 550am. The ride up the weather was terrible, raining, chilly, but not much wind. Once I arrived, I checked in, found my rack for the bike, and looked over the swim exit. CGI runs the event and they have a nice smooth operation. Stephen Delmonte, from DelMo Sports, was the MC during the event trying to keep everyone up to date with weather conditions, water temperature, and needed items from panicked triathletes...my favorite was the person looking for a helmet!
This was my first triathlon of the season, so was anxious to see how it would go. I was using the day as a training day, not a racing day, but I still wanted to have a good day…ie no injuries, practice nutrition on the bike, workout the bugs for transitions, break in a new race top and shorts, do a tough bike course, and have a good run off the bike. While waiting for the swim, Stephen kept reminding us of the descents on the hills, it is the Pocono Mountains after all, to be in control since it was raining and did not look like it would stop during the race.
The swim was a nice rectangular swim with different turn bouys for each distance of race, sprint, olympic, and half ironman distance. I was in the 4th wave to go in to the water, so it was not too crowded. The water was cold! They claimed it was 64 degrees, but it felt much colder than that. I had an OK swim with a time of 29:24, under my 30 minute goal. I always say I am not the fastest swimmer, but just want survive and hot get injured by a flying elbow, foot, or hand.
Transition one was a tough one for me. For some reason I was having trouble with my wet suit and getting it off. I already had my race top and heart rate monitor on so that saved a little time. Pulling arm warmers on a wet body is also tougher than I remembered. I was still ok with a 3:37 time for T1, but this was why I wanted a training race…to work out the kinks.
Off to the bike course. Overall the course I am sure is beautiful with nice views and fast drops. Unfortunately, it was raining/drizzling so you needed to be focused on the road and look around too much. I made sure on the down hills I was in control…I know it cost me time, but I saw some road rash on a few guys on the run and it was worth it. I was having a problem with my Garmin 910 and getting it to show my splits correctly. After fooling around with for a few miles, I just reset it to bike only mode so I could see my distance, MPH, time, and heart rate...no big deal since I wanted a training race…to work out the kinks.
Transition two was a little better. I only needed to get socks and sneakers on, helmet off/visor on, water bottle holder on, and reset Garmin for running. T2 time was again ok for me 2:53, but this was why I wanted a training race…to work out the kinks.
Off to the run. The run was a really nice run. It was on a wide trail, no single track. If it wasn’t raining I am sure I would have appreciated the shade canopy the trees made. The run was nice, with a few tough sections. At one point we ran across the overflow area for the Beltzville Dam, pretty cool view. We even headed down a trail section to the bottom of the Dam, but we had to come back up, so that was a lung burner right around mile 3. The payoff was running across the Dam, which it usually closed to all traffic. The views were awesome out across the Lake. You then doubled back the last mile through the shade canopy. Here I remember passing 2 guys in my age group, I had no idea that would payoff. I finished the run nice and easy.
Results:
2:46:09--64/227 overall--3rd in AG
I have suffered through 1 injury that was significant. Back in April I stepped into a hole at a field where Kristina was playing. It was a deep hole, and luckily I did not break my leg. Anyway I had 2 small cuts on my right leg. When I finally got home, I cleaned the cuts, put Neosporin on it, and covered it with a band aid. Each day it seemed to get a little more red. So I would put more Neosporin on it after cleaning it. One day turned to 3, then 5 , then I stopped swimming because it was really gross and oozing a gold colored liquid. Finally I saw a doctor and he gave me Cephlax antibiotic. After 3 additional days it was still gross, so I called my family doctor and went in for a visit. When the doctor looked at my leg she said right away I was going to the ER! She thought it could be MRSA. I was thinking they might have to cut my foot off if it was MRSA and not able to be controlled. I thankfully was only in the hospital for 28 hours. Six doses of high powered antibiotic through an IV, and the Infectious Disease Doctors come in and tells me it is Contact Dermititis and to put hydrocortizone cream on it and it will be gone in a week...and no Swimming but biking and running ok.
