This race started like all the others..... late and with piss poor music. You gotta be kidding me...Pasty Cline for pre race music? Good lord that was a kick in the stomach.
The swim this time around was a 2 loop course for 1.2 miles. By this time around I was getting used to the gross water , poor visibility and cooler temps. Overall the swim went well with little issues. But I was sure tired coming out of the water. My arms just did not want to get moving. Wonder why? :)
The bike was tough. It's a road cyclists dream. The course was a 2 loop, very hilly and curvy course. Bike handling skills were a must for everyone. It takes you through the park on single lane roads that weren't closed off but did have very little traffic. Most sharp turns were marked but at mile 21 there was one corner not marked and that spelled the end for many riders. The event people totally should have marked the corner...it was wicked dangerous. With that said.....yes, I went down on the corner and somehow managed to drive ride into a ditch that saved my ass. I just rode the ditch as long as I could (Kurt....I was thinking cyclecross the entire time I was shitting my pants....CROSS RULES!!!!). At about 10 mph my front wheel kicked out and I endoed into the ditch. No major damage except for a bruised knee and some scuffs. The bike was ok but it just wouldn't be the same for the rest of the day. Unfortunately for the guy about 45 secs behind me his luck wasn't so good. He went down hard and ugly. I saw the entire thing and he skidded to a stop about 2 feet from me. The guy was a mess. I dropped everything and checked on him. His helmet saved his life and that's what they are supposed to do but his body was bleeding all over the place. I was joined by a couple of other people and we got him off the to the side of the road cause bikes were coming and it was a blind corner. No one would have seen us until it was too late so I sent someone to the beginning of the corner to yell for people to slow down. Doing a quick check of the guy you could totally tell he was in shock as he wanted to get back on his bike when that was the last thing he needed to do. An EMT who was racing stopped and started asking him questions like name, bib # and where he was. He did ok with the questions but then came the biggie..."who is the president?" He looks at me and says "I don't care...I'm freaking Canadian!" Hahahahahahaha...we all had a good laugh so I ask him who won the Canadians/Blackhawks game the night before. He gets all worked up and says he doesn't know because he's been staying in a tent for the past 3 days but don't tell him because he tv'oed the game and wants to watch it when he gets home. Hahahahahahaha....he's totally ok in my book. Needless to say he never got back on the bike and was taken out of there by an ambulance. Poor guy.
Once back on the bike I took a huge step back and said to myself......just get me to my family and get me back to Pain alive. I never got back into my big chain ring and never hawled ass for the rest of the ride. I just lost all confidence in my bike and was worried that it would fall apart at any time. By the second time around on the bike course they had that corner where we went down marked up like a blue light special at the K-mart. There were ribbons, spray paint and even a police cruiser there now. You could tell it was a bad corner because there were water bottle all over the place that launched off of peoples bike.
The run was interesting. Again it was another out and back but twice through this time. By the time I got on the run it was about 90 degrees and the rain mixed with the mudd on the trail made for a nice sauna. The first loop was just getting my legs going as I did not run with anyone and as I knew my goal time was shot from the issues with the bike. The second loop was great. I got hooked up with this guy Mike from Columbus. He knew about my cousins coffee shop there so that gave him some cool credits.
The run course was very hilly. Not really any flats sports and some of the hills were long and painful. I could hear someone behind me running at the same cadence as I was so that kept me going and by the turn around the guy was yelling at me to keep killing the hills. I told him to hang on til the finishline as we were running at about a 7:15 pace. I could hear him fading off a couple of times and would motion for him to get up beside me and keep pushing. A few f bombs were exchanged but each time he would crawl back up onto my heels. We hit the final stretch and he said go ahead. Screw that shit... this guy just busted his as and I'm not going to show him up. I told him to get his ass up with me and we finish this damn thing off together. It was a good feeling having him next to me when we finished. You could tell he was wiped but very very happy with his run time. Thatta boy.
Post race was the same as the other races. Grab a water, soak in the creek and talk shop. I really enjoyed this part.
Once done with the soak I grabbed my bike, said my goodbyes to my rack mates and loaded up the Edge for a 2 hour drive to Yellow Springs, OH to see the family. It was great seeing them all. Very very good people and I just love Yellow Springs....reminds me of Mayberry. Teresa gets me a beer and there was some awesome guack that was made. All the girls totally took care of me and got me back to feeling normal. The food was awesome...thanks Tommaso. My 9 year old cousin William joined me for a game of Cornhole and we rocked the world. Too bad we couldn't hit that board to save our lives but man that was fun. Thanks to Jason for driving me to Jo's house as the beers were a little too good that evening. I stayed at my aunts house that night and got some great sleep. Sooooooo good!!!!!! Thanks Jo and Rocky. Rocky is her German Shepard who was just a joy to be around. Next time Rocky I won't try and give you a heart attack while playing Kong. The next morning it was off to Dino's Cappachino's, my cousins coffee shop. Dean....those pastries were off the chain. Thanks my man.
My final stop for the trip was a night at Dean and Sheila's in Columbus and of course Wings was our dinner spot. Ending the night watching the Celtics game and drinking Scotch w/Dean and Sheila was a great way to end an eventful week. Thanks again everyone.
Race Recap-
Overall I was glad to do the race but will probably never do it again. The race organization was poor to say the best. There were no bathrooms on the bike course and no water hand ups. Just a water refill station where you had to stop and refill your own water bottle. The blind corner was the nail in the coffin. They could have someone seriously hurt on that corner. Having it marked the second time around was good but that didn't help a lot off people from getting hurt. The post race massage was a joke as the massage therapists we not all that great. Totally not worth the $$$$ spent by me. They ran out of cups and water on the run course....who does that!!!!!!!
My biggest issue was the music during the event. It was just absolutely horrible. There was never any upbeat fun music just back woods folk music that killed the possibility of a great mood for the event. If another company took the same concept of the event I would do it again but I'll never do another race that was put on by this race company.
Next up is the Prairieman 1/2 IM in Sept....should be nice and hot by then. :)
The swim this time around was a 2 loop course for 1.2 miles. By this time around I was getting used to the gross water , poor visibility and cooler temps. Overall the swim went well with little issues. But I was sure tired coming out of the water. My arms just did not want to get moving. Wonder why? :)
The bike was tough. It's a road cyclists dream. The course was a 2 loop, very hilly and curvy course. Bike handling skills were a must for everyone. It takes you through the park on single lane roads that weren't closed off but did have very little traffic. Most sharp turns were marked but at mile 21 there was one corner not marked and that spelled the end for many riders. The event people totally should have marked the corner...it was wicked dangerous. With that said.....yes, I went down on the corner and somehow managed to drive ride into a ditch that saved my ass. I just rode the ditch as long as I could (Kurt....I was thinking cyclecross the entire time I was shitting my pants....CROSS RULES!!!!). At about 10 mph my front wheel kicked out and I endoed into the ditch. No major damage except for a bruised knee and some scuffs. The bike was ok but it just wouldn't be the same for the rest of the day. Unfortunately for the guy about 45 secs behind me his luck wasn't so good. He went down hard and ugly. I saw the entire thing and he skidded to a stop about 2 feet from me. The guy was a mess. I dropped everything and checked on him. His helmet saved his life and that's what they are supposed to do but his body was bleeding all over the place. I was joined by a couple of other people and we got him off the to the side of the road cause bikes were coming and it was a blind corner. No one would have seen us until it was too late so I sent someone to the beginning of the corner to yell for people to slow down. Doing a quick check of the guy you could totally tell he was in shock as he wanted to get back on his bike when that was the last thing he needed to do. An EMT who was racing stopped and started asking him questions like name, bib # and where he was. He did ok with the questions but then came the biggie..."who is the president?" He looks at me and says "I don't care...I'm freaking Canadian!" Hahahahahahaha...we all had a good laugh so I ask him who won the Canadians/Blackhawks game the night before. He gets all worked up and says he doesn't know because he's been staying in a tent for the past 3 days but don't tell him because he tv'oed the game and wants to watch it when he gets home. Hahahahahahaha....he's totally ok in my book. Needless to say he never got back on the bike and was taken out of there by an ambulance. Poor guy.
Once back on the bike I took a huge step back and said to myself......just get me to my family and get me back to Pain alive. I never got back into my big chain ring and never hawled ass for the rest of the ride. I just lost all confidence in my bike and was worried that it would fall apart at any time. By the second time around on the bike course they had that corner where we went down marked up like a blue light special at the K-mart. There were ribbons, spray paint and even a police cruiser there now. You could tell it was a bad corner because there were water bottle all over the place that launched off of peoples bike.
The run was interesting. Again it was another out and back but twice through this time. By the time I got on the run it was about 90 degrees and the rain mixed with the mudd on the trail made for a nice sauna. The first loop was just getting my legs going as I did not run with anyone and as I knew my goal time was shot from the issues with the bike. The second loop was great. I got hooked up with this guy Mike from Columbus. He knew about my cousins coffee shop there so that gave him some cool credits.
The run course was very hilly. Not really any flats sports and some of the hills were long and painful. I could hear someone behind me running at the same cadence as I was so that kept me going and by the turn around the guy was yelling at me to keep killing the hills. I told him to hang on til the finishline as we were running at about a 7:15 pace. I could hear him fading off a couple of times and would motion for him to get up beside me and keep pushing. A few f bombs were exchanged but each time he would crawl back up onto my heels. We hit the final stretch and he said go ahead. Screw that shit... this guy just busted his as and I'm not going to show him up. I told him to get his ass up with me and we finish this damn thing off together. It was a good feeling having him next to me when we finished. You could tell he was wiped but very very happy with his run time. Thatta boy.
Post race was the same as the other races. Grab a water, soak in the creek and talk shop. I really enjoyed this part.
Once done with the soak I grabbed my bike, said my goodbyes to my rack mates and loaded up the Edge for a 2 hour drive to Yellow Springs, OH to see the family. It was great seeing them all. Very very good people and I just love Yellow Springs....reminds me of Mayberry. Teresa gets me a beer and there was some awesome guack that was made. All the girls totally took care of me and got me back to feeling normal. The food was awesome...thanks Tommaso. My 9 year old cousin William joined me for a game of Cornhole and we rocked the world. Too bad we couldn't hit that board to save our lives but man that was fun. Thanks to Jason for driving me to Jo's house as the beers were a little too good that evening. I stayed at my aunts house that night and got some great sleep. Sooooooo good!!!!!! Thanks Jo and Rocky. Rocky is her German Shepard who was just a joy to be around. Next time Rocky I won't try and give you a heart attack while playing Kong. The next morning it was off to Dino's Cappachino's, my cousins coffee shop. Dean....those pastries were off the chain. Thanks my man.
My final stop for the trip was a night at Dean and Sheila's in Columbus and of course Wings was our dinner spot. Ending the night watching the Celtics game and drinking Scotch w/Dean and Sheila was a great way to end an eventful week. Thanks again everyone.
Race Recap-
Overall I was glad to do the race but will probably never do it again. The race organization was poor to say the best. There were no bathrooms on the bike course and no water hand ups. Just a water refill station where you had to stop and refill your own water bottle. The blind corner was the nail in the coffin. They could have someone seriously hurt on that corner. Having it marked the second time around was good but that didn't help a lot off people from getting hurt. The post race massage was a joke as the massage therapists we not all that great. Totally not worth the $$$$ spent by me. They ran out of cups and water on the run course....who does that!!!!!!!
My biggest issue was the music during the event. It was just absolutely horrible. There was never any upbeat fun music just back woods folk music that killed the possibility of a great mood for the event. If another company took the same concept of the event I would do it again but I'll never do another race that was put on by this race company.
Next up is the Prairieman 1/2 IM in Sept....should be nice and hot by then. :)
1 comment:
Sounds like a poorly organized race, glad you got to spend time with family though. Matt and I are probably doing PrairieMan..it's going to be H-O-T :)
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