One Clydesdale’s Journey

And it was a sweet finish at that; a very, very rough race, but an oh so sweet finish!

First off, sorry for the absence the last 2 weeks. The weekend of the race was travel and last weekend the computer was hard down due to viruses and mal-ware. It’s all cleaned up now and I’m back in action.

So what can I say about the race other than the fact that it was hard!

Although truth be told; all in all the race was actually the easiest part of the whole weekend.

You see, we camped and I don’t camp! And I haven’t camped since my military days. Never liked it and I can tell you now that I got this out of the way I remember why. But my beautiful bride loves to camp, so I thought what the heck why not give it another try for her.

By day two I realized what we forgot to pack; a motor home!

We had a crap load of people next to us that partied all night long on the first night, even after it started raining. It then rained for the majority of the weekend. It did however dry out long enough for it to be dry for the race.

Oh yeah, the race!

The swim; was cold! I had a wetsuit that I rented, but that only helped so much. It was sleeveless and I thought that I would have preferred that. Before I make a purchase I’m going to rent a long sleeve one and try that out once.

The bike; was brutal! I did mention that they have a lot of hills out there?! Well they do!!!

Due to the construction and other factors that really didn’t matter in the end, they went back to the original bike course with its 1 mile climb right out of the gate.

I did everything that I could do to stay on the old grocery getter and make it to the top of the first hill. I had the top in site when I just plain ran out of steam and had to dismount and walk to the top. Three more hills just as bad as that one were still waiting for me further down the course. All of them got the best of me and I had to dismount.

I made up for it as much as I could on the down hill portions by topping out at 39.6 mph which helped pull my average up to 12.9. Hmm, I just missed getting that old grocery getter up to 40 miles per hour!

The run; I crashed! Poor nutrition will get you every time and for me it was this time. I’ve been trying to dial that part of my race in, but ended up not being that focused on it for the weekend and it cost me big time.

Final result was 2:01:21 just slightly over my goal, but all things considered I’m not disappointed with that time at all.

Later,
John W.
A Clydesdale in training