The Mother of all Recaps

This is the Recap to end all Recaps. So many races. So many parties. So many pictures. This is insane, and long.


May's totals:

Swim: 8200 meters, 4 swims, 2050 m average, 1 sprint triathlon
Bike: 213.5 miles, 10 rides, 1 sprint triathlon
Run: 75.4 miles, 14 runs, 4 races
Strength: none, gotta do that sometime.
Yoga: 3 sessions, 30 minutes each

Wow is all I can say. Four races in total, plus the monthly half marathon and an Aquathon on 6/1. This was insane. The races included a mud run, small local 5k where I finished in 13th place, a sprint triathlon, and a foxhunt (race report below). Plus I did complete the May half marathon on the treadmill (report also below). All that and 213 miles on the bike? And a bag of chips?

Foxhunt 5k on 5/26/11

In the foxhunt races, we all chase after a fox. In this case, the fox was very fast. And it ended up being more of a skirtchaser, where all of the women left three minutes before the men and we had to catch as many as we could. This was supposed to be a small race, only 30 people signed up before me. We ended up with about 120 people total. I knew the roads well, so my goal was to win. Then the actual fast people signed up.


I started out in the front on the inside. I took off like a rocket. Again, planning to win. So I kept up with the actual leaders (hint: that was a big mistake). I stayed in 5th place for the first half mile or so before the wheels started to fall off. Actually it felt like my arms were going to fall off. My forearms started to really hurt. That's never happened before from running. And I was still less than a mile in.

By about .8 miles I was completely dry. Lips chapped, very thirsty, started sweating then stopped sweating, and that's when I got scared and started walking to catch my breath. I thought I had properly hydrated before starting so I didn't carry any water with me. For a 5k I really shouldn't need any. But I didn't count on the really high humidity. It sucked all of the pre-race lubrication out of me. Thankfully there was an aide station around the halfway point.

This course was an out and back with a lollipop at the end, so we circled a few blocks around this one large restaurant (Player's Retreat) and headed back to the finish line in downtown. This became more of a run/walk as my abs started failing in more painful ways. After turning off of Hillsborough st, there was only a couple of blocks to the finish, and thankfully the finish chute was downhill. So I did manage to muscle up a pretty decent kick at the end.

Finished with a time of 23:43. The winner finished in 16:39, which I don't even think is a legal time for a 5k. Holy Methamphetamine that's fast. I managed a 7:40 pace, finished 37th out of 82 men with no age group breakdown. I was really hoping for a 20:xx or 21:xx finish time, but after burning out in the first mile that was off the table. I mean my forearms hurt! strange. 7:40 is fast enough. It was also my first time racing at night, which I found out is not as much fun as you might think.


They had a good block party at the finish line, with free beer for the racers. I was sold.


Saturday - EG's Birthday Party

As of Tuesday our little Evil Genius has been reeking havoc and destruction for four years. Saturday we had the birthday party. You can only imagine how much havoc/destruction/general evil there was. It was awesome.


We had about 10 kids over, including some of my friends from work with their kids, and some of EG's friends from school. We turned on the sprinklers in the backyard and everybody went nuts. I had a few beers. Nothing is better than a cold brew on a hot day with good friends. There was cake and ice cream.

Sunday - May's half marathon

I am still plugging away at my half marathon every month plan. May's journey to 13.1 was uneventful. I ran it on the treadmill, got it up to a 7.5 speed and just held on. Ran 7 miles, then refilled the water bottles and ran another 6.1 to finish out the 13.1 total run. Finished in 1:45:19, which is my fastest time to date.

I really felt great the whole time going through this one. It was speedy, sure, but I never lost breath control. Legs never felt abused or worn out. This was really cool.

Monday was Memorial Day?

Saturday I missed the weekly long bike ride thanks to the party. So monday I made up the long ride, 42 miles in 2 hours. It was cool. Felt great.

Kelley and I went out for BBQ for dinner that night. It was romantic and wonderful. Our niece Kaileigh is staying with us for the summer, which I am very excited about. We love having her over, it's a built in babysitter for 2 months. And she's generally wonderful to have around anyway.

Tuesday had the normal double down. 4 mile run over lunch, 27 miles in 1:15 on the bike.

Aquathon #1 - 6/1

This is a race that I've been looking forward to all year long. It's old school. None of the distances are accurate, but everybody follows the same course. Just get out and do it. This is a series of three races going down on the first wednesday of June, July, and August, so they are all going to be in the heat.


This one had a half a mile swim in Harris Lake followed by a 2.6 mile run; it was in Harris Lake state park.




The girls look ready to race, don't they? The swim was way too crowded. All 66 competitors started at once. It was a waist deep start, one wave, so everybody was just churning in the washing machine. I didn't get kicked in the head, but I think I did swim over several other people.


I started out near the front but not in the front. My goal was top 20 here, not to win. I figured there would be some fast folks out there. I needed to pace my way through the swim and kick some ass on the run.


I got churned over a few times on the swim. It was a 2 lap triangle swim, we did not have to exit the water between laps. So the turns were short and fast. I'm not a very fast turner, so I ran into a lot of other people trying to make those. I came out of the water in 14:50, which is a 1:51 / 100m pace. That's pretty slow, I was hoping to be around a 1:40 pace or faster.

Transition time was 40 seconds. Out of the water, step on a towel, throw on the running shoes (no socks) and a running hat and take off.

The run came out of the TA onto a road, then turned onto a gravel access road - really double track gravel trail. the end of the trail had an aid station and turnaround, then the finish line was back on the road. This same access road was abused in the Triangle Triathlon that I ran last summer, and once I got on it I remembered how hard that run course was.

Stupid gravel double track. There was never a solid level footing to land on. Every step came down at a different angle. Made it really difficult to establish a steady pace. It also took a lot longer than I expected to get a rhythm established after coming out of the water. So the run ended up being harder than I expected.

Total distance was around 2.6 miles of running, which I should have been able to knock down in about a 7 minute pace. Instead, I finished the run in 21:16, or an 8:10 pace.



Total time for the race was 36:44. I finished in 31st place out of 66 runners, 19 out of 26 men, and 9 out of 10 men 30-39. Overall it was not a bad finish place, just a really competitive field. This is a series of 3 races, and I still finished in 19th place out of the series athletes, getting two points in the series competition! Only the top 20 series racers got points.


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So that's a truckload of racing and one motherload of pictures and recaps. Thanks for sticking through to the end. If you are unsure what to comment on all that, feel free to use this template:

Holy crap your forearms?
Holy crap you got drunk at a 4 year old's birthday party? (hells yea)
Holy crap a 1:45 half marathon is fast!
Holy crap that seems like a fun memorial day.
Holy crap an aquathon seems like a real challenge! you still nailed it.

Come to think of it, I could have made that the entire post; it would have been much faster.