Seventh triathlon is in the books

darsh11

Lucky Number 7- A Tri 2 Remember for a cure for Alzheimer'sDisease

This triathlon was like no other I have done. Let me set the stage. Picture a long country highway, Highway 129 in Jefferson, GA heading toward Athens,GA. Now picture a private catfish farm with about 10 acres of land and 5 catfish ponds. The transition area was in tall grass not in a parking lot and 250 crazy people like me about to do a triathlon. Now the stage was set for an interesting triathlon. I got there early, which is my normal time, and got to park in the field very close to transistion. I set up my area and started talking with the ladies around me. One girl arrived and started putting her bike on the rack. All of a sudden we heard words of profanity coming from her mouth. She had stepped in a massive fire ant mound that was directly under our bike rack. Not cool. So we flagged down an official and he moved us to the front rack. What could have been very painful ended up being to our advantage for the run and bike. So we finished setting up our area and moved to the largest catfish pond called "Crow's Lake". It is kind of a joke because the people that own the property have their own street. Noone else lives on the street. Anyway we had to walk on this gravel path for about 1/4 mile to get to the swim start. Ouch. No flip-flops, no socks, just my bare feet and lots of pointy rocks. We get to the swim start and we have to make our way down a nice wood chipped covered hill and then into a nice rocky shore line to the "lake". The only redeeming quality about this "lake" was that it was cooler and that the swim was a straight shot there were no turns for me to get off course with. The horn went off and I swam my fastest swim of 10 minutes. probably because I only had to go from point a to point b. I got out of the water and slipped on their boat ramp. I think this is when I cut my toe, but I did not feel anything.

Off to the bike, we had to run through the grassy field and make it to the actual road before we could mount our bikes, good thing because I don't think my bike would have made it through the grass. We turned left on Highway 129 and began our 15 mile ride. 7.5 miles of sheer boredom before I could turn around and start heading back. There was nothing to look at but pine trees and road. It was kind of like traveling I-16 to Savannah. It was fast though. It had some small hills, but I did not change gears the entire ride. I did the bike in just under an hour so I was averaging speeds of 16 MPH which is pretty good for me. I am trying to build up to 18 mph. I did miss the big declines of my other races where I could coast at 25-30 MPH, but this worked as well. I was afraid of not being able to clip out of my pedals so I slowed down way to early and had to run a little more back to transition.

I got back to transition and put my running gear on. What I really needed was hiking boots, and a compass because I was now going on a 3.1 mile hike through the property. They had mowed a 10 ft trail all the way around the property. I got to go on gravel, grass, dirt, wooded areas, and cross over a creek. There was yellow caution tape to keep you from going off course. In my mind I kept seeing the scene from a horror movie where something creepy jumps out of the grass or from behind a tree. I was so worried about slipping on mud or tripping on tree roots that the run seemed to take forever. I wouldn't have minded going through the woods if I was there to hike and camp, but I am not a cross country runner so it just made the run that much longer.

I got to the last dirt road to the finish line and I crossed the tape at 1:56:20 a new personal best for me. I am not fast but I do finish. This is not a triathlon I will do again. It benifited a great cause, but the trail run pretty much sealed the thought that this was not for me. Maybe next year I will just donate to the cause and find another race.