2017 Charleston Sprint Triathlon Series - Race 1 - 5th!

Hey guys!

So I finally had a race this year! Woot! It went fairly well. I mean... I didn't die. I finished 5th. And got some great fellowship with other athletes. Doesn't get better than that right?

(Caveat: there is no funny vlog with the kiddos for this race. However, we're hoping to capture more of these priceless moments in races to come!)

So it was the first race of the 2017 Charleston Sprint Triathlon Series. It's a great group of 5 races. This year, I was considered a "Defending Champion," even though I won the series in 2015 and not 2016. They did this for me as a courtesy, because I was unable to compete in 2016 (save for the first race, just for fun). Aren't they NICE?!?!?!? Man! (I knew it would be tough to win today, because some pretty fast guys have been racing in Charleston lately. But I'm always out there to go my fastest!)

So the morning began by me sleeping a half-hour through my alarm clock. Marian kicked me out of bed in a flurry and helped me get out the door in a record 8 minutes. On the way, my morning "movement" started to become somewhat... uh... urgent. So had to make a stop at a local hotel. TMI...?

Getting to the race, I was calm but slow. (Typical....) I did however, manage to finally squeeze in at least 5 minutes of swim warm up before the race. (Marian in the meantime was having a dickens of a time trying to get the slothful kids to the race. But literally 60 seconds before the horn blew, I saw Rianna run up to the edge of the lake and start waving wildly at me. WOOT!!)

Backing up 2 weeks before this... I had gotten my obligatory spring injury. This time in my hip. My run fitness was coming back very quickly, and I went on a 4 mile brick run one Saturday and managed to average 6:17 pace and stay very much in control. However, I strained a muscle of some kind in my left hip while on the run, and spent the two weeks leading up to the race hobbling around, wondering if I'd be able to race at all! So this was a bit of a question mark...

But with a little bit of encouragement from Marian, and a few little jogs to test the hip out the day before, I felt like it could handle the race. We would have to see.

So the horn blew and our elite wave took off! I'd been swimming a lot and was hoping that this part of the race would be "no sweat". The swimming part was just fine. The navigation part was HORRIBLE. I swerved and swayed every direction I thought possible. Pretty sure I swam an extra 100m across a 600m swim! (After the race, Jacob and several other guys I was racing with commented on seeing me way off in no-mans land..... it was THAT bad.) But somehow, I managed to swim a PR on the course. (It must have been short...heh)

When we got our way to bank and ran into T1, I knew this would be first test of the hip. Could it transition and run easily to my bike. I figured I'd know here whether or not I'd be able to finish the race. It held up with a little bit of pain, but nothing major. So I continued on.

I reached my bike, threw on my helmet and glasses. Then I ditched the glasses, because they were completely fogged. And I pulled my bike off the rack--

**CRASH!!!!**

--The bike rack completely collapsed in a heap in front of me!Fortunately, there was only one other bike in the heap (because of my swervy swim). I wanted to be courteous. So I layed my bike down and remove the pile of rubbish from atop the other bike. I probably lost about 30 seconds here. A bummer, but also it's important for me to not be a JERK at races. If I'm going to be a witness for Christ, then poor behavior like this simply won't do!

I ran out of T1 and got to work on the bike. There were guys out there to hunt down! I cranked my way around the lake and caught one guy in front of me. About the same time, two more guys come rolling by like a freight train. I upped my effort to try and stay with them. When we were out of the park, we caught up to Jacob, and he latched on to the pain train. I tried to go to the front and pull away, and the group just stayed with me. Then other folks would try to do the same, and we'd reel them back in. I did my best to keep distances as legal as I could here. It's difficult when you have a rotating crew of four guys riding together, all of them strong cyclists. We all wanted to be in the front!!

When we hit the turnaround, I saw George Moreno riding back already and saw that Miles Fowler (a friend who had beat me in the final race of 2015) was still about 30 seconds up on us. Ug... we still had some work to do. We upped the pace and rode over 26MPH back to T2, and Miles was just putting his shoes on as I ran up to rack my bike. I grabbed my race belt, took off and---

**CRASH!!!**

Ohhhh nooooo.... It happened again, I thought.

I looked back and, yes, a rack had fallen over. Fortunately this time, it wasn't mine. My heart went out to the poor soul who now had a large mess on his hands, and I took off on the run.

My hip in the mean time was protesting a bit, but holding up. The rest of my body was NOT happy with me. That first mile, I felt like doo doo. George was so far ahead, I couldn't see him, Miles was way down the road, and the guy I'd come into transition with was pulling steadily away. Nevertheless, I knew that I couldn't blow myself up on the first race of the year; ESPECIALLY with my hip. So I stayed within myself and kept it steady.

As I was coming around the lake, another guy passed me, putting me in 5th place. But then Rianna bolted out of the crowd yelling and screaming like a crazy fan and I threw my hand out to hi-five her as I started lap 2. THAT gave me some more spring in my step!

Plus, I could hear footsteps and breathing behind me...

But I DIDN'T look back! Instead, I ran faster. I picked the pace up, determined to hold whoever it was at bay from catching me. Then the footsteps and breathing got quieter. But I didn't slow. I ran the rest of the race like I was being chased, and I didn't quit. I ran to the end and crossed the line in 58:03 and 5th overall. A personal record for this course for me... HA. All of us guys in the top 10 were shaking our heads at how fast the race was. Way to start the season with a bang!!

It felt silly, to be setting PR's on the first race of the year. But I'm hoping that it bodes well for how the rest of the year will go. I really can't take any credit for it. I'm just thankful to God that I have the opportunity to feel His pleasure when I swim/bike/run and to be able to enjoy the company of great people and share Christ's love with them!

Me with teammate Brad Hipp

I am ALSO thankful for my wonderful wife Marian, who is my forbearing confidant and coach. She is SUCH an encourager; and she's SO wise about athletics. I would have quit or broken myself a long time ago without her.

....since the race. I have spent the last few days trying to recover my hip, which tightened up like a drum afterwards. I could barely walk by the evening. But I'm doing better on Wednesday, and doing some spins on the bike now. Next week, I should be able to bring back swimming (we do a LOT of kicking at practice). And then we'll see how that goes before I reintroduce running.

Until next time! Take care!