Nonsense: SC Half

Polar bears.
Photograph by Paul Kannady.

Well, I was writing a very in depth post that described my participation in the SC Half Ironman distance triathlon, but, while I was typing, my Firefox web browser decided that it was ready to punch out for the day and go home. I lost all of my work, so now I will be short changing all of my readers.

My TRI geek buddy, Paul Kannady, and I went to Greenwood the night before the race and stayed in an Econo Lodge that was not very far from the race site. I had a lovely dinner at Outback Steakhouse that night and then dozed off into a peaceful slumber, dreaming of swimming, biking, and running. Well, I was dreaming until the little black insects that I was sleeping with started crawling on my face and woke me up. I suppose the Econo Lodge cannot be consider a "roach" motel, because there were no roaches crawling on me. Maybe if I had gotten one of the $59.99 rooms instead of the $49.99 rooms I would have been blessed with roaches.

Nope, just lowly un-named little black insects for me.

When I stepped outside at 0500 on Sunday morning, it was cold. So cold that I stepped back inside to mentally prepare myself for the cold. Of course both Paul and I forgot to pack jackets, but I was fortunate enough to have a long sleeved "SC Half" T-shirt that came in my race bag that I picked up on Saturday.

It kept me warm while I set up my transition area.

Unfortunately, triathletes do not swim in long sleeved cotton T-shirts, they swim in wetsuits when the water is cold. If you are me and you do not have a wet suit, then you still have to swim in your little bitty lycra TRI shorts. The big orange ball in the sky peeked over the horizon just before the start of the race to perk my confidence that I would not freeze and drown during the 1.2 mile swim.

Bang! And they are off!

And so we were. All 500 of us TRI geeks. I was in the third wave and decided that I would swim on the outside of the pack, because I know that I am a slow swimmer and I did not want to get punched in the face. The swim went exactly the way I wanted it to. Slow and easy. After 44 long minutes I climbed out of Greenwood Lake and raced off to the transition area to mount my new TRI bike, Sally the Serotta.

Chuck in transition.
Photograph by Paul Kannady.

Sally and I killed the bike portion of the event. At least, we did in my opinion. Sally and I averaged 21.8 miles per hour over the 56 mile course, turned in the 36th fastest bike split, and we were only passed twice. That is a good Sally.

After two legs of the event, things were going just the way I had envisioned them the night before with little black insects crawling on my face. Then I arrived at mile 7 of the run. I did not feel anything close to an energy bonk, but my calves and quads decided that they had had enough and demanded that I start walking through every aid station. And, eventually, walking up all of the hills. My sights had been set on running no slower than a 1:30 half marathon, but that dream was shattered as I watched countless other triathletes breeze by me like I was standing still for the next 6 miles.

When I finished after 5 hours and 18 minutes, some old man gave me a medal and Paul took a picture of my crotch.

Number 64.
Photograph by Paul Kannady.