- Friday 5pm: 250m swim 5 mi. bike 1 mi run
- Sat. 7:30am: 1500m swim 40k bike 6.55 mi run
- Sat. 3pm: 40k bike 1500m swim 6.55 mi run
- Sun. 7am: 1.2 mi swim 55.5 mi bike 13.1 mi run
I was nervous about doing this weekend of races. The Triple T is actually 4 races in 3 days, covering roughly the ironman distance. It took about 5 and a half hours to drive down to Portsmouth, Ohio, where we were staying at the Ramada Inn. The Ramada had a decent breakfast spread, and very nice beds.
We drove down on Thursday, and the first race was at 5pm on Friday. That gave us enough time to be at packet pick up early on Friday, we were there right at noon. Then we drove the first 3 bike courses. To say they are hilly would be a gross understatement. This would be a tough weekend. A bite to eat at Pondarosa, which I haven’t been to since I was a kid, and should have kept it that way, back to the hotel to get our race stuff and we were on our way to the start of this adventure.
Everyone arriving at the race site on Friday was in good spirits. We found out the water temp. was only 56 degrees, so that squashed any ideas I had about skipping my wetsuit for such a short race. My friend Kelly decided to skip it. I was really glad I wore mine. The start order was determined by your race number, and as I was #319 out of 350 people, I was one of the last ones to start each race. Just before Friday’s race, it started raining. So we were all warned to use caution on the bike.
The swim was really really cold. I found myself screaming as I hit the water. We had a dry land start, 3 seconds apart or so. My feet went numb almost right away, and the water was brown and murky. Thankfully, it was over pretty quickly. The bike leg was pretty much straight up hill, then turn around and come back. I used caution on the downhill portion as it hadn’t been raining very long and was likely slippery. The 1 mile run was over very quickly too, and there was plenty of food after the race.
We packed up, and headed back to the Ramada. I had some trouble sleeping, I was nervous about tomorrow’s day of racing, plus I knew we weren’t coming back to the hotel between races so I had to be ready for the entire day.
Sat. morning was early. The water temp. hadn’t changed a bit, much to my futile hoping. It was still brown and murky, but oh well. I felt pretty good in the water. It was a two lap affair, requiring a trudge out of the water, around a cone, and then back in. I was warm enough for the second lap, but I think the cold water gave me a headache.
The bike ride was everything the race event folks promised it to be. Hard, harder, and hardest. Thompson Hill Rd. was the stuff of legends. I had my husband put a 12-27 rear cassette on my bike and I was sure glad he did. Thompson Hill Rd. is one of those roads that it would be terrifying to drive on. On a bike, it was like a San Francisco hill but longer. I was alternating between sitting and standing and my heart was beating in my throat. Not too long afterwards there was a very very steep downhill with volunteers that had flags and things to warn you to slow down. I heeded their warning. Apparently another competitor had not. The left hand hair pin turn at the bottom of the hill was also off-camber. Then there was an ambulance parked smack dab in the middle of the road. If I hadn’t slowed as much as I did, I would have hit it. I saw a bike on the side of the road and hoped the athlete inside was not too bad off. At least their bike was in one piece. The hills on this course never let up. You are constantly either going up or down. The only thing to get you through is the scenery is incredible, and hardly a car on the narrow twisting roads.
Coming off the bike, I started the infamous run. My feet were still numb, and they felt really weird to run on. They didn’t come back to me until about 2 miles into the run, and then for the rest of the run I had “pins and needles”. Since I had started nearly last, I also finished nearly last. I ran the whole run, which isn’t as bad as the trail half marathon on the Poto. It is a huge uphill until just before mile 3, then you descend again to the turn around at roughly 3.25 or so. I also took this run very conservatively, I had to keep telling myself to hold back so I could finish the weekend.
After the race, I downed a recovery drink, put on my long sleeved white shirt, and long lightweight pants, and waded back into the cold water. Then we ate and chilled out in the shade until the afternoon race. Apparently there were sandwiches after the race, but I never saw them. There wasn’t much food left at all when I finished.
Saturday’s afternoon race was bike first. I was hoping someone would be in T1 to help me put on my wetsuit, I was sure that was going to be hilarious. We started again, in time trial style start, one at a time in race number order. This bike ride was very different from the morning’s ride. Straight out and back on a road with very little shade and 2 major climbs that were about 2 miles in length, each. Going down sure was fun. Going up was a fairly slow process. Again, I saw that someone wound up in the ambulance on one of the descents. I kept thinking, wow. That’s awful. The highlight of my ride was the guy sitting in a lawn chair drinking a can of beer that said “way to go, beautiful”.
Putting a wetsuit on after biking was pretty tough, plus you have all that race adrenaline going. A friend had tipped me off to use grocery bags on my feet to get the wetsuit on, and it worked like a charm. I didn’t bother doing it on my hands, and it wasn’t too bad, it helps that I don’t sweat much. The cold water felt better, since I had just put a wetsuit on after biking and then ran in it down to the water. It felt refreshing. My second transition was slow too, but oh well. The run was the same, I ran conservatively and was able to run the whole thing. I finished the afternoon race about 12 minutes slower than the morning’s race. Again, no food left after the race, but we headed immediately back to the hotel to eat at Damon’s. I did have more recovery drink first though.
We all ate, and had lights out at 9:20pm. I still had trouble sleeping, but eventually I got there.
We were up again at 5am to load all our stuff in the truck and checked out of the hotel.
Everyone rolled into the transition area a little more leisurely than before. The race started late, likely because we were lazy in heading on down to the swim start. Again, I got to be the #319th person to start the event. The swim went pretty well, as I am used to swimming with tired arms, and me and my friend Kelly who started right behind me swam the whole way together, even going around the cone on the shore together, holding our hands up in victory.
This bike ride was brutal too. There is one long gruesome climb near the beginning I have heard is called Godzuella or something similar to “Godzilla”. It was appropriate. After that you got to go downhill for a bit, but then the relentless hills came back. I made it to the turn around / bottle exchange finally and was glad to see people stopped, taking their time, stretching, using the porta-johns, and seemingly not in too big of a hurry. My feet didn’t warm up until lap #2 of the bike. I ditched my jacket at the bottle exchange. It had been chilly that morning. Lap #2 of the bike was brutal. At a few spots, I wondered if I was going to “make it”. I also had the fun of playing “chicken” with a local kid. He was screaming down this hill on his hybrid style bike on the wrong side of the road, ho helmet no nothing. I was totally panicked and had no idea what to do. I decided I would head for the ditch if need be and held my course. At seemingly the last minute, he swerved around me. Whew. Then I was piggy-backing with this husband and wife team. The husband kept waiting up for the wife and I was chatting with him as he did so. It was nice to not be alone – for most of the weekend on the bike I was far and away the only one I saw. Finally I found myself on the last climb of the day. From the peak of this one, it was all downhill back to the park. I thought I was never going to get off my bike.
Then it was off to the run. Right when I started I saw some of the top guys finishing. Ugh. Oh well, I headed off to the run course anyway. It was more brutal than yesterday. I was able to run the whole first lap. At the second lap, I started power walking up the hills, and running all other parts. That strategy worked well. I also walked the aid stations to get water and a gel or two down. Almost everyone who passed me said “good job” or something similar. I spent a lot of time saying “you two” or other similar things myself. That was great. I even passed some guys and people who must have gone too hard the previous day. That felt pretty good. Everyone on the run on Sunday seemed to be in good spirits, taking it as it was, and there were some silly outfits going on. One guy had big white Elton John style sunglasses on, and another lady was wearing streamers in her tri-brief. Not to mention another guy in board shorts. I started feeling better and better on the end of run lap #2, and was able to pick up the pace. My friend Heather came out to meet me with half a mile to go and ran me in. She and her sister did the event as a team. They were great all weekend long. Finally I was done and I immediately put on my finisher’s t-shirt. Of course there was no food left for me, but I didn’t care as we were headed to the showers and then BW-3’s.
I was so glad to be done. It was really extremely tough. My reported bike average bike speeds were just awful. I was much happier with my swims and runs. The humor of everyone there couldn’t be beat, mostly at the absurdity of what we were doing. I also especially liked seeing a lot of my friends on the course. Amy, Cheryl, Ryan, my friend Heather and her sister Samantha, Kelly, Bruce, Rob, and even some new friends made the tough weekend fun, cheering each other on as we suffered.