Woodsmith Farm

This weekend was the final race in the Naked Pizza series.  The Susan Bradley Cox Tri for Sight triathlon was an 800M swim, an 18.5 Mile bike and a 4 Mile run.  The race was based near the UK stadium with the swim in the UK Lancaster Aquatic Center, the bike through Chevy Chase and out Delong, and a run through the UK Arboretum. 

Despite being terrified of water I can't see the bottom of I've decided that I like open water swims better than pool swims.  I can't seem to get my swim time right so I keep getting stuck passing people which really kind of sucks in a race.  My left goggle was leaking so I had to stop to fix that.  I got bashed in the head twice, I bashed into someone else once, one woman swam down the center of the lane before I finally said oh well (or something like that) and passed her anyway, and I came up gasping after getting splashed several times.  Finally in the last 200M I could just swim.

Despite the swim issues, the Lancaster Aquatic Center was awesome.  The poolwas HUGE and the water crystal clear, cool and beautiful.  I did get to talk to a nice lady that went in right before me.  It was her first tri and she had a goggle malfunction with only about 5 people in front of her.  We couldn't figure how to get the darn strap in right so I suggested tying a knot in it which she did and we both breathed a sigh of relief as she slipped her goggles on.  She started the triathlon adventure to get her mind off something that happened in her life and it would have been the pits to get sidelined before you started because of goggle problems.  She thanked me several times before dropping into the water.  I saw her on the run as well so it was great to see her completing the race.

It was a pretty good trot from the pool to the transition area...wondering if the top ranked people took shoes as my toes were feeling the rocks.  The bike was an open course so there was traffic, but every intersection was well managed and traffic was stopped for us and it was pretty cool to have so many people cheering us on.  I went back and forth the entire bike with #60.  In trying to motivate his younger and better in shape self I said, "you are stronger and faster than I am, so I shouldn't keep passing you".  I left off the younger part.  He did pass me toward the end and stayed ahead.

I fell apart on the run because of side cramps, but in between the 5 times that I stopped to deal with the cramps, I felt really good.  Out of 17 in my age group I still managed to place 3rd on the run and 5th overall.  I thought #60 and I were going to play the passing game again on the run as I stopped to bend over with a cramp, and I said so as I passed him after the cramp went away.  I did manage to stay in front of him and after the race he came up and shook my hand and we laughed at how many times we passed each other.  I have another guy that I call the blue guy that I seem to do this a lot with as well.

So the race was fun and I'm happy with my 5th out of 17 in my age group placing. Dad has a 1991 Cannondale road bike headed my way so it will be interesting to see how much of a difference that makes in my future bike attempts.  I picked up a Kenetic Indoor Road Machine in preparation for the wintertime blues. The next race is the R.J. Coreman Duathalon which is a 5K run, 16 Mile bike and another 5K run.

More Tri for Sight Photos

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