Luray Race Report

Going into the Luray International Triathlon, I knew it was going to be a challenging course. Also I knew this would be my B race. What is a B race you might ask? To be honest, I can really only give you a minimal explanation. It is not an A race, that is for sure. It is more of a training race and I suppose the B race is supposed to have less pressure to reach specific goals and is supposed to require slightly less effort than the A race. That said, I am still a newbie so when my coach told me that Luray would be my B race leading up to the Williamsburg A race, I nodded to show my understanding but I don't have precise measurements to differentiate between an A effort and a B effort. Is there a particular pace on the swim, bike, and run for a B race versus my A race? Maybe 20 seconds per mile slower on the run for example? I really have no way to quantify it this early in my triathlon career. I decided my goal for this race would be to not be last in my age group and to feel good at the finish.

Before I get into the blow by blow of the race, I have to tell you a little about our stay in New Market. We had to stay in New Market because all of the hotels in and around Luray were booked when I started looking to make reservations. Our hotel was about 40 minutes from the race venue. When we finally arrived after getting my packet and scoping out the swim, bike, and run course, the lady working the front desk asked us if we were here for the 50-Mile Yard Sale. I told her no. We were here for the Triathlon. Then I said, 'a 50-yard yard sale sounds like fun though.' She corrected me. It was 50 miles of yard sale. Interesting.

She also said there was another event nearby that was causing all the hotels to be booked. There was a Hazzard Reunion. As in "The Dukes of Hazzard." Ah. Now we know why we saw three General Lee's parked at a roadside diner on our way through Sperryville. Who knows what goes on at such an event. One can only imagine. There would be the General Lee cars of course and I am guessing some sort of Daisy Duke contest, lots of rebel flags (we confirmed that when we drove by the event site), and maybe some bluegrass music and fireworks. None of it made much sense to us. Maybe my cousin John can tell me about what goes on at such an event. I am not sure if he has ever heard of it either but if there is anyone that I know who would know, it is him. If you are reading John, please enlighten us city folk.

After we checked in, we decided to order some pasta and have it delivered to the room. Unfortunately, the person taking the order thought I wanted plain pasta with absolutely no sauce. I guess in my efforts to make sure that there was no meat in the sauce, she decided I meant no sauce at all. I am not sure who would eat such a meal but that is what was delivered. So off I went in the car in search of spaghetti sauce. After a trip through town, I found some at a small market, came home and used the in-room microwave to heat up the sub-par meal. It was better than nothing I suppose.

On race morning, I was feeling pretty relaxed. We checked out about 5:30 or so and made our way to the venue. I got my bike racked on the end and started to lay out my stuff and then stood there staring at it for a while to make sure that I had everything to my liking. Here are a few pictures of me in Transition.


After getting all setup, it was time to face the music and head on down to the lake for a swim warmup. I swam out to one of the buoys, tread water for a little bit, and then swam back. The water was quite warm and there was no current to speak of in the little lake. After my warmup, I got out and listened to the pre-race announcements. We had the National Anthem and then it was time to start.

I was in wave 2 with red swim caps. Each wave had a different color swim cap. Right before the 1st wave of green swim cap racers got in the water, I saw the surgeon who operated on my knees. We shook hands and wished each other luck. He was in the first wave and I knew I would not see him on the course. He was 10th overall at this race last year so he would be long done while I was still sweating it out on the run course.

Here are a few pictures of the swimmers mulling about before the race. I am actually in all of these pictures. You may have to click on them to see the bigger versions but I am there.



Notice in the above picture the stairs in the background. After the swim, we had to run all the way up those stairs to transition to get on our bikes.
In the above picture I actually have my hand up in the air and am waving to Melissa who took all these great photos. I am in the last group of 10 guys at the top left part of the picture.

Right before my wave was to start, another red-capped racer said to me, "why do I do this. Right before every race, I ask myself this. Why am I doing this. Swimming is definitely not my best sport. I am not terrible but sometimes I wonder." I assured him that when he got settled on the bike, he would be having fun. Besides almost every swimmer who says they are slow or a terrible swimmer is faster than me.

And then we were off. The mayhem begins. Open water racing is a contact sport. I was punched, kicked, run over and otherwise jostled during much of the race. Here are some pictures showing the beginning of my wave.

Overall, I would have to say the swim was hard. I found myself taking frequent breaks and slowly getting left behind by everyone else in my wave. It was not long before some silver capped racers who started 3 minutes behind me caught up to me and started running over me. After a while, the white capped swimmers caught up to me. They were mostly women who seem to be more polite in general and tended to not run me over. I could see a few red caps in my vicinity but I was afraid I was falling way behind my fellow 40-44-year-old men. Since my goal was to not be last in my age group, I knew I just had to keep one or two red caps in site as I was sure I could make up the time on the run if I stayed somewhat close.

When I exited the water to run up the stairs, I was among a lot of women. The women were at least a couple of waves behind me so I was already fading in the race and it had barely begun. In the end, my swim time was really not all that bad for me. Here is a picture of us running up the stairs. I am in there behind all the women.

Once back in T1, I quickly put on my shoes, socks, and helmet and took off on the bike. The bike course was going to be tough- I knew that. Melissa and I had driven the course the day before and made note of all the hills. As I made my way along the course, I passed a few people at the beginning but after that I was mostly being passed. Occasionally, I would hear what I thought was a car coming up the road behind me. But when the vehicle passed me, I saw that it was not a car at all. It was a biker with aero wheels flying by at breakneck speed. I felt like I was standing still when these guys would speed by with their loud wind-breaking bikes. As the bike portion of the race continued, I continued to mostly get passed by other riders. The course was a lollipop and we had to do the round part twice. No doubt the guys screaming by me were on their second lap.

I was starting to worry about my goal. No doubt I had a blast on the course as it was gorgeous and there was little to no car traffic. And since there was no double yellow line on much of the roads, there was no problem passing other riders. In Triathlon, going over the double yellow line is an automatic disqualification if an official happens to catch you. The rolling farmland made for a beautiful course. But I just could not keep up with these guys.

In the last 10 miles of the bike portion, I had slowed down quite a bit. I was spinning along in a pretty low gear, taking it pretty easy really. I looked at my watch and it said 10 miles an hour. Wow. It seemed like I was going so slow. There were several sections of the course that looked flat. But they were not. They were what we call, "false flats". It looks flat but once you have to shift down to a low gear, you realize there is nothing flat about it. Sure there were some nice downhills. I even got up to 41.88 miles an hour at one point. But they did not last. In the end I think I averaged 15 miles an hour.

I finally approached the final big climb. There were people at the top of the hill with horns and cowbells cheering us on. It was a great motivator and really helped lift my energy levels. I came into T2 feeling pretty pumped up. Melissa got a short video of me coming in.



T2 was a little shorter than T1. I took a shot of Hammer Gel and swished it down with some water, changed my shoes, put on my race belt and hat, and took off. I immediately passed some strollers who were taking their time easing into the run. Here is a picture Melissa got of me passing one guy. Not sure why I tend to make faces when I get my picture taken during a race.


After a few minutes of running, I glanced down at my watch. I was running a 7:10 pace. Pretty fast considering all I had done at that point. Of course, this out and back course was all downhill at the beginning and then all uphill at the end. Here is the elevation profile for the course.

I ran pretty well and I started to realize that while I had been passing lots of people, no one had passed me. I started picking people off one by one. Some of them had started in a wave behind me, caught me on the swim or bike, and now I was catching them on the run. In Triathlon, we all have our ages inked onto our calf. That way, when someone passes you or you come across someone on the course, you know if they are in your age group or not. I started counting whenever I passed someone in my age group. 1, 2, 3, etc. I think by the time the race was over, I had caught 12 people in my age group on the run course. I was hurting on some of the hills but was motivated to keep going to see if I could catch more people in my age group. Melissa snapped this final picture of me running in strong at the end. Yes. I passed that last guy and absolutely no one passed me on the run course.


In the end, I had a great time, did well for my first race at this distance, and felt good about the whole thing. Yes, I am slow in the water, and yes I am slow on the bike. But I have room for improvement and I still have my run as my strength.

My times were as follows:

1500 Meter Swim - 38:55
T1 - 2:38
26 Mile Hilly Bike - 1:41:56
T2 - 1:39
10K Hilly Run - 49:56
Total - 3:15:03

I ended up 272 out of 388 overall and 58 out of 74 in Men 40-44. The most interesting thing to me is that the next fastest run split was the 24th place person. All of the people who beat my total time between my 58th place and the 24th place person had slower run times than me. I am hoping that this trend holds true for my next race. Perhaps I can catch even more people on the 13.1 mile run.

Thanks again to Melissa for supporting me, cheering me on, and taking pictures. I can still see Melissa cheering me on. It is always so uplifting.

Well, I have a 75-minute zone 3 ride followed by a 20-minute zone 3 run to knock out before work tomorrow so I better hit the bed. 4 AM will be here soon. Thanks for reading.