Try-athlon

OK, I've been promising the triathlon story for a couple of weeks now so here goes. For those of you just tuning in, for some reason which I can no longer recall, I decided to participate in an athletic event a couple of weeks ago called the Riverbend Challenge. This was no ordinary triathlon. It involved running, biking, paddling, rock climbing, military style obstacle courses and I think some sort of pentagon sanctioned psychological torture. I don't know, I never made it that far.

My training for this event included lots of swimming, a little running (very little), some biking, rock climbing and lots of worrying whether I had my affairs in order in case I didn't finish the race.

One thing I knew going in was that I have never performed well in extreme heat. I'm usually in better physical shape in the winter when I can get more exercise without overheating. That is also why I choose to do most of my exercising in the pool. The race was in early June and there was a good chance that we'd have not-so-hot weather for the 10am start time. Wrong. It was 98 degrees with high humidity and a heat index of over 100 degrees - the hottest day of the year to be exact.

It's OK I told myself. I'm used to exercising while wearing a heart monitor so I know that the top end of my training zone is around 168 beats of the old ticker per minute. My plan was to just keep an eye on my heart rate and if it started accelerating like popping corn, I'd just slow down.

My team members, Brian and Sue and I had agreed that our goal was just to finish the race, not to try and be hyper competitive. That laissez faire attitude disappeared about two minutes into the race. The first task was to run to a large grassy area in Coolidge Park and find our team number (103) among all the other competitors numbers. They were attached to little white markers driven into the ground with roofing nails. We had an advantage over the individual racers since there were three of us looking for just the one number. You had to find that number before you'd be allowed to begin the actual running course. We divided the grassy area into three zones for efficiency and started our search. We were getting frantic seeing just about everyone else heading away on the running when Sue's husband, Joe (one of the guys I kayak with) found our number. Off we ran and within a couple of hundred yards my heart rate was a steady 185. GRRRRRRR. That's about where it stayed except for when it approached and sometimes exceeded 200. I gave it my all and watched my team mates get smaller and smaller as I struggled to catch up with them.

About two thirds of the way through the running course I encountered the obstacle course. The good news was only a couple of people could go through the course at a time and there was short line so I got a bit of a breather. The bad news was there was no shade and the line was moving rather quickly. It was, after all a race. Brian and Sue waited for me to finish so we could all start together again. We were together for maybe 3 feet and I told myself I'd catch up when we got to the biking portion of the race.

As I approached the end of the running portion where my trusty recumbent bike waited I noticed there weren't many other bikes left in the racks. This of course meant we were near the back of the pack.

As I expected I did catch up and pass lots of bikers in that portion of the race. Brian and I had the only recumbent bikes in the race and it was nice to pass people on regular upright bikes, especially going uphill because recumbents have been given a bad rap for supposedly being unable to climb.

The 17 mile bike race was brutal, crossing multiple ridges in heat that by then must have surpassed 100 degrees. At one point I stopped and refueled by eating a small baggy of peanuts and soy-nuts I'd brought along just in case my blood sugar felt like it was crashing. Within a couple of minutes I was climbing another ridge and passing bikes again. I really felt like I was over the hump and would be in OK shape for the rest of the race. Little did I know what was about to happen. My calf muscles began to cramp and twist into shapes I'd never seen on my legs before. For the next thirty minutes I pedaled, rubbed, groaned and panted my way back to Coolidge Park where I knew another couple of miles of running awaited before we'd begin the rowing portion of the race in the Tennessee River. I was beginning to worry again. My heart rate was a constant 195.

As I got off my bike I knew I was in trouble. Why was everyone looking at me like some sort of zombie? Had I turned purple or something? Apparently, I had.

Angie and Brian helped me to the curb where I found I couldn't talk and was having a hard time focusing. An ambulance drove by taking another participant to the hospital with heat stroke. Brian and Sue waited, a little impatiently, for me to either die or get up and run. Fortunately for me, one of the race organizers came by and saw my condition and threw a cold towel over my head and told my team members to continue on - I was through. A TKO - I couldn't have asked for a better outcome at the moment!

As I slowly regained my strength I became ravenously hungry and devoured two turkey sandwiches like they were air. Eventually I was able to get my strength back enough to see Brian and Sue paddle in from the Tennessee River, drag a couple of concrete sacks around and climb the rock wall before running across the finish line. I would have liked to have been with them but I was equally happy to know I would be home napping in an hour.

I posted a few pictures from the race as well as some pictures from a kayaking trip I took with Brian, Joe and his son Reed the following Friday. A couple of the pictures were taken by Dee at ocoeephotos.com. I highly recommend having them document your trip if you ever make to the Ocoee river for a raft trip. ¶ 8:19 PM