Colonial Area Triathlon Club

sonnylowe · Joined: 22 Jun 2008 Posts: 187 Location: Williamsburg, VA

Hey guys, anyone else doing Eagleman this weekend?

Looks like the weather is going to be great: low 80s and overcast, might make for a fast day...relatively speaking Smile

vmitriathlete · Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 6:37 am Post subject:

Good luck Sonny! Have fun.
_________________
Chris Wells
2009 Treasurer Colonial Area Triathlon Club

sk2a2005 · Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 4:46 am Post subject:

Best of luck, Sonny. You'll rock it for sure!!
_________________
Susan O'Neal
President, Colonial Area Triathlon Club
sk2a2005@cox.net

sonnylowe · Joined: 22 Jun 2008 Posts: 187 Location: Williamsburg, VA

Thanks for the well wishes...

I'm here and all checked in. I'll rack my bike this afternoon and then head back to the hotel for some rest. Looks like the weather might turn out okay tomorrow...I'm keeping my finger crossed the rain holds out!?!? Either way the temps will be mild, low to mid 70s, so that's good!!!

I'll file a full report when I get home...

vmitriathlete · Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 7:34 am Post subject:

Sonny,

I saw your race results. Awesome swim and run and with an overall finishing time under 5 hours you have got to be happy. I'm impressed!

Take it easy. You deserve it!
_________________
Chris Wells
2009 Treasurer Colonial Area Triathlon Club

sonnylowe · Joined: 22 Jun 2008 Posts: 187 Location: Williamsburg, VA

Thanks Chris,

It was a good day...I missed the timing mat on the bike exit so my bike split is all messed up. I was thrilled with coming in under 5:00:00, it was a goal for the day. I had a bad bike segment, I'll give full details in my race report (coming soon).

Big thanks to Brian for volunteering, a bigger thanks for the support and pictures...you're the best!!!

Sonny

sonnylowe · Joined: 22 Jun 2008 Posts: 187 Location: Williamsburg, VA

Eagleman Race Report:

Well I’m finally getting around to writing this...

Since this was my second HIM let me first compare the two events, venues, cities, and experience.

My first HIM was Providence RI last year. I would give it a 9 out of 10 rating. I loved Providence and the surrounding areas, like Newport RI. It was more than just a race weekend it was a mini vacation, and the area allowed for this. The city was clean and the people were pleasant. Lots of places to check out, eat, shop, site see…whatever. There was a lot to do in and around the city. I would go there again to simply vacation/visit.

The race: Well that was a total pleasure as well. Everything went smooth from check in, to bike drop off to the after race meal…I simply loved it. I was a great first HIM experience. I really liked the venue where they had the Expo, also liked the Expo. There was a lot of Providence HIM stuff for sale as well T-shirts, tech shirts, sweatshirts, hats, you name it. The coolest thing about the race was running up the sidewalk to the state capital building, what a back drop for a race finish…WOW!!!

The entire weekend was a true pleasure.

Eagleman: This race gets a 7 out of 10 (it would have been a 6 if not for Zia’s Pastaria in Salisbury). The town of Cambridge left a lot to be desired. I thought it would be this little quaint area Suzan and I could walk around and check out, but turns out it wasn’t. Maybe we didn’t give it a chance, but either way we were both a little disappointed.

The venue for the Expo was a pavilion in a park or something!?!? It was fine I guess, but nowhere near as nice as RI. The Expo left a lot to be desired, very few vendors (could be due to the bad economy), and little to no Eagleman memorabilia. This was really disappointing as you would think a 20 plus year old race would easily top a first year race for this kind of stuff!?!?

The race was well organized and everything went smoothly right through the end of the race, as with most races the volunteers were outstanding, especially at the swim start ;-) The transition area was a swamp from the rainfall the night before, and left most everything muddy…not much fun when trying to setup. The race location was okay, not very picturesque like RI but nice nonetheless.

The after race meal was black beans, rice and pasta…not sure why you serve pasta after a race, I would have preferred more choices with protein…I should have eaten more beans…

I liked the race, I did well, I for the most enjoyed the relaxing weekend (not much to do in Salisbury). Would I Do eagleman again, maybe, but most likely not.

Now for the race:
The swim was a point to point loop around a patch of land that poked out into the river (I think it was river!?!?). I must say although you could not see one end from the other, I really liked the swim. The water was very calm, no current as far as I could tell, and a very comfortable although almost too warm 70 something degrees. I planned a 35-minute swim and hit it almost right on the button. The only problem I ran into was about 5 minutes into the swim I got hit right in the face by a jellyfish. The sting was brutal; it stung like hell and I could think was “this is going to suck if it stings all day”. After ten or fifteen minutes I did even know I’d been stung, I was completely over it and jus then “splat” another one hits me in the face again, not as bad this time though. By the end of the swim I was fine. The exit from the swim was small but very clean and easy to navigate. We were told at the race meeting there would be Fire Dept volunteers there to spray/clean us off!?!? Well if they were, I missed them, my ass stayed salty and sandy through out the rest of the day. I really didn’t like being told something and then it not happen…

T1 went pretty well although I didn’t prepare it as well as I should have. My shoes were closed, my helmet had fallen off my bike, and my glasses were at least one or two spots over from mine. Either way it was still fairly quick (middle of the pack).

The bike portion of the race worried me the most. It was where I planned to make up the 10 minutes I needed to break 5:00:00. I’d never trained or raced on a flat course and was concerned how I would deal with it, mentally and physically!?!? Well the first 35 miles or so were great. I was averaging close to 23 MPH. Banking lots of minutes along the way. Then we turned onto the road from hell!!! The wind in our faces must have increased 4 or 5 fold. I went from a comfortable 23 MPH pace to struggling to stay around 19. This lasted quite a few miles and in my head I could calculate all those banked minutes disappearing…

As if this wasn’t bad enough just as we turned away from the monster head wind (still didn’t have tail wind) both my hips (or should I say my butt cheeks) simply gave out. It was like a light switch went off. The pain in my ass (literally) was almost unbearable. I was warned about staying in the tri position too long without getting out of the saddle and stretching, but I didn’t heed that advice and I was paying the price!! I would say the pain was a strong 6 out of ten while in the aero position, 4 on the hoods and maybe a 2 while out of the saddle. So needless to say I spent the next 5 miles or so switching between the 3 positions. Most of the time I was out of saddle since it was the most comfortable position.

As I got closer to the 50 mile mark I realized I’d lost a lot of time and was on the verge of having a slower bike spilt here than Providence (2:43). I knew I had to suffer for the last 5 or 6 miles or any chance at a sub 5:00 hour finish was gone. So suffer I did. I managed about a 23MPH pace for the last 6 miles or so, it was hard and I was truly worried about whether I’d be able to run or not. But without a good bike split the run wouldn’t matter anyway, so I just pushed it. I finished with a 2:41, nowhere near what I wanted and I was now in the hole for the run!!!

T2: T2 was fast, I got out of my cycling shoes and into my runners quickly, and it was out on the run course before I knew what happened. I was 6th fastest in T2 for my AG…

The run: I had put myself in a pretty big deficit for the run. As mentioned I’d hoped to bank the ten minutes or so I needed on the ride and just do a decent run split, maybe a couple minutes better than RI (1:46). Well after exiting T2 I tried to figure out what I needed to still finish under 5:00 hours. The best I could tell I needed to go under 1:40. With RI being 1:46, and my best ever (stand alone) half marathon being 1:33:30 I knew it was going to be a tough run, and with my hips still hurting it could get bad really quick. I decided I would just go as hard as I reasonably could and see what happened. I tried to pace myself the first few miles but quickly lost track of the pace, I am way too used to Garmin doing that for me. My hips gave me problems for the first few miles, but with each step they got better and better. By mile 5 I wasn’t even thinking about them anymore.

I decided the best thing to do was check my pace at the half way point. I needed to be less than 50 minutes to have a chance at a 1:40 run split. I was somewhere around 47 minutes…I thought wow, this could still happen. I still tried to calculate my pace with very little success. So at the 10-mile mark I knew it would be easy. I hit 10 miles somewhere around 4:30-4:31…something like that. I figured if I held an 8:00 pace I was good to go.

Believe it or not I was feeling pretty damn good at 10, and thought, what the hell, this is no time to cruise. I started pushing a little, then a little, then even more.

I crossed the finish line at 5:32:30 (I started 38 minutes after the clock started). It was PR, it was a sub 5:00 HIM, and later I realized it was half marathon PR as well (1:33:11).

Even with the problems on the bike (I lost as little as 5 minutes, maybe more like 10), the day turned out to excellent. I was very pleased with time, and overcoming the adversity of the bike split to still do well.

Here are my official times:

SWIM:
35:32
SWIM TO BIKE TRANSITION:
2:21
BIKE:
2:41:34
BIKE TO RUN TRANSITION:
1:54
RUN:
1:33:11
FINISH
4:54:30

sk2a2005 · Posted: Wed Jun 24, 2009 12:30 pm Post subject:

Great race report and CONGRATS on a phenominal race!
_________________
Susan O'Neal
President, Colonial Area Triathlon Club
sk2a2005@cox.net