Arsenal: Sally Serotta

It is a little weird to be one of the few guys that shows up to a triathlon on his road bike. Most people have a supremely decked out time trial or triathlon bike that cost a small mountain of cash. My cash usually only amounts to a small mole hill so there were no sweet TRI bikes in my sights for the longest time until...

Paul got a new Orbea Ordu! Which freed up his old bike Sally the Serotta for sale to...me!

Needless to say, Paul hooked me up with a killer deal and I cannot thank him enough.

Thank you Paul!

Paul has always called Sally, "Sally", for as long as I have known him, so her name will be retained under my care too. Sally and I had our first true ride at the SC Half Ironman distance triathlon where we blasted through the field on the bike portion.

Ride Sally, ride!

P.S. Yes, those are 650 wheels.

My new girl, Sally.
Photograph by Paul Kannady.

Edits: Westview

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.

Nonsense: What The Chuck?!

Chuck Bolte represents the Augusta Cross Coalition.
Photograph by Chuck Bolte.

I know, I know. The blogging of late has been bizarre and unfamiliar. What is this nonsense about beauty queens, T-shirts, and television shows? Quite a deviation from the typical ramblings in which I partake, but sometimes, a break from the typical is necessary. So, what the Chuck has Chuck really been doing these past few days?

Well, I can tell you exactly what I did for the dates of August 26th to September 6th because, for no apparent reason, I began jotting down training notes for those dates. For these 12 days of training, my goal was to increase my running mileage from previous weeks and to focus on doing two events a day. Typically, I run twice a week for a total of 10 miles and I normally only focus on doing one event each day. My calculations show that, from August 26th to September 6th I spent 8,900 meters in the pool, 220 miles on the bike, and 43 miles with the running shoes laced up and seven of the 12 days were two-a-days. I felt like the training was going well until the evening of September 6th when I experienced muscle cramps in my legs as I walked up the three flights of stairs to my dorm room after a ride with Drew Jordan.

In response to my ailing over trained body, I took the 7th to the 9th of September off from training and focused on work and painting a new T-shirt.

Hopefully all of this training will payoff in my upcoming scheduled events; the Greenwood, SC Half Ironman Triathlon on September 30th and the Army 10 Miler in Washington, DC on October 7th.

If you are the type of person that is into praying, pray for me, but, more importantly, pray for Vegan Matt, loyal cyclist and user of the adjective “jam”.

Vegan Matt was commuting to his morning class on Central Avenue in downtown Augusta last week when a car suddenly pulled out in front him from a side street. Vegan Matt suddenly had to make a quick decision, lay the bike down and take one for the team or T-bone the car at 25 miles per hour. Fearing that impacting with the car may result in an untimely demise, Vegan Matt laid his bike down in a valiant attempt to scrape up some road pizza. Unfortunately, Vegan Matt ate almost no pizza, but dislocated his hip, sprained his knee, and sprained his ankle. After a short stint in the ER, Vegan Matt was awarded a new set of crutches and an excuse to sit on his couch at home for hours on end.

Not a place he wants to be.

Let us hope that Vegan Matt is back on the bike in no time!

Finally, while riding the “Ghetto Loop” on Thursday the 6th of September, the AJBW group ride witnessed an event that was immediately added to Nate Zukas’ top five wildest things seen while riding a bicycle.

As the group pedaled to the top of Damascus Road to its intersection with Wrightsboro Road we saw two police cruisers attempting to box in a black Monte Carlo that was stopped in at the traffic light hanging over the intersection. While the police cruisers were maneuvering, the driver of the Monte Carlo motioned with his hand that he was going to cooperate with the law and pull his pimped out ride over, possibly onto Damascus Road.

Psych! Instead of politely pulling over as prompted by the police officers, the driver of the Monte Carlo nosed into the opposite lane of traffic ahead of one of the police cruisers and punched the gas, tearing through the red light and speeding off down Wrightsboro Road. Immediately, the police cruisers hit the lights and sirens and sped off in hot pursuit.

It was like COPS without the TV!

Nonsense: A Hero In Question

When my father told me over the phone that one of my favorite TV shows, Man VS. Wild, is staged/fake; I did not believe him.

Bear Grylls, the host of the show, is one of my most beloved heroes. He would never stage/fake his accomplishments.

After conducting some brief research I found an article from The NY Post and another article from BBC News regarding this topic. The information found in both of these articles supports this staging/faking claim.

This news is all very disturbing to me.

My Bear Grylls inspirational poster has been taken off of my wall and he is no longer listed as one of my heroes on my Myspace.com profile.

Hero work has been left to Frank Bainimarama and Merlin the fish.

Snapshots: The Chuck Chuck T-Shirt Factory

T-shirts by Chuck Bolte.
Photograph by Chuck Bolte.

Nonsense: YES!

Nonsense: Nate! Nate! Nate!

Nate! Nate! Nate! by Chuck Bolte.
Photograph by Candace Zukas.

The Georgia Cup Series Augusta road race was held on August 18th and 19th in downtown Augusta and on the hills of Fort Gordon. My friend Paul and I attended the criterium on a muggy Saturday night with a few friends from AJBW to support Nate Zukas and other local riders participating in the criterium. Nate tried his luck in the 60 lap PRO criterium, but was only able to hang on for 35 laps before dropping out of the intense "NASCAR on bicycles" race.

Still, we had a slap on the back and a cold beer waiting for him on the sidelines.

The Augusta Criterium.
Photograph by Chuck Bolte.

Arsenal: OMFG!!!

After four weeks of pursuit bars on back order the moment has finally arrived!

Giant Bowery: $500
Custom paint job: $275
Brooks honey leather saddle: $152
Brooks honey leather bar tape: $79
Pursuit bars on back order for four weeks: $55
Eating Nate's ice cream sandwich while he puts my fixie together: Priceless

Chuck and Nate assemble!
Photograph by Ethan St. Martin.

Too beautiful for human eyes.
Photograph by Ethan St. Martin.

OMFG!!!
Photograph by Ethan St. Martin.

Journeys: Hiawassee

Yes, in Georgia, there is a town that goes by the name of Hiawassee.

The town of Hiawasse is the home of the Georgia Mountain State Fairgrounds, which is the home of the Summer Sizzler International Distance Triathlon, which is the home of my second triathlon of 2007. The race was supposed to begin at 0800 on Saturday morning, but rescue crews postponed the event for a short time because a dense fog made it impossible to see the lake in which we would be swimming. With chattering teeth and hard nipples I tread water all through the postponement trying to stay warm.

At exactly 0830, 104 humans were loosed like arrows from a bow into the water, arrows that kicked and punched each other in the face as they raced for first place.

On the last mile of the 23 mile bike portion of the triathlon, something very scary happened to me. I passed a 14 year old girl named Katie June. I was scared, because the fact that I had just passed her meant that she had been kicking my ass for the entirety of the event prior to that moment.

Exactly two hours after I began the swim, I finished the triathlon. I had no idea where I had finished in the field, but I was more interested in free pretzels and Gatorade anyway. Once I had cooled down, I removed all of my gear from the transition area, attempted to rinse sweat and lake water out of my hair, and watched other competitors finish the race.

The awards ceremony was started before the final results were posted and before everyone had finished the race so that the award winners could get started on their journeys home as soon as possible. Yes, even though I still had know idea how I had placed, I did put on my Andy Jordan's Bicycle Warehouse in anticipation of another top three age group placing. Cocky, I know.

I quickly found out that I did not place in the top three in the overall male category, which did not surprise me, but I still had a chance to place in my age group, male 20 to 24. So, the time came and only one name was called for the male 20 to 24 age group and the name was mine, Charles Bowlay. As I, the only competitor in my age group, sauntered to the front of the crowd to retrieve my medal, the crowd turned its attention to the finish line to cheer on a 77 year old man who was just finishing, so I furtively snatched my medal and quickly ducked out of sight while they were distracted.

Not only did I get first place, but I got last place too.

As for Katie June, she won the overall female category, and yes she really is 14 years old.

Overall results are here