Harvest Moon 1/2 IronMan

http://www.racingunderground.com/harvestmoon.html ! did this race in 2003 and suffered mightily. That's to be expected of course. RMTC had 8 contenders plus Katrine running on a team. It was damn cold @ 6am. Darin promised to warm things up for us. ! did my part for all the swimmers behind me. ! was fairly pleased w/ my swim until Mary announced, w/ great disgust. that she had the worst swim ever. It was a minute faster than mine. As expected, my feet were too cold after the swim to be affected by the barefoot run across the parking lot. ! had advised Len prior to the start that putting on his bike gloves would only cost him 5 seconds. He started in the same wave as me. ! was sitting in T1 battling my gloves when he sprinted by to the bike mount line. ! got there just behind him and got rolling a bit faster. Last time ! was 76th fastest on the bike so ! wasn't expecting him to hang on. @ mile 29, just before getting off I-70 ! blew by Mary on her little red Kestrel. ! was now 5 minutes ahead of her and closest to the finish of the whole team. ! was flying. It seemed like there was no wind. ! was in the upper 20s from the start of I-70 until the hills returned prior to getting back on Quincy. My computer says ! averaged 21.2 for 2:36:01. That's 11 minutes faster than last time. And ! managed to do something !'ve never done before. ! wet my pants. @ 36mph the last time. My shoes went in the laundry last night. Thru T2 no problems. ! did an 8:11 1st mile on the run. ! was hoping for a 9 minute average pace since !'ve run that distance twice recently a bit faster. Barely 1/4 mile out my triceps were chafing. Ouch. ! could have lubed them in T2 but ! had no inkling. Then about 4 miles out my inner thighs were chafing just below the shorts. That's a problem ! have due to my huge and powerful leg muscles. This was well after Mary came zooming by. All the while my quads were cramping. The GPS told me all my miles were in the 9 minute range except 3. 2 of those were 8s and mile 12 was 10:29. That's just running time. ! ran all but ~1/4 mile. When ! wasn't running ! was stopped to stretch or drink. !'d have stretched more but there is almost nothing to hold onto out there. @ the turnaround they had vaseline. ! applied enough to my thighs and arms to get a date in San Francisco. As ! left ! saw Steve "bastard" Lynn approaching. He was yelling some rather nasty bits of "encouragement". Mostly what ! noticed was his outfit. He had the RMTC kit w/ the collectable blue shorts. His knee was taped up w/ baby blue tape that clashed badly and he was wearing a red doo rag. ! had the yellow run cap to complement my outfit. And to hide my unruly hair. 2 minutes behind Steve was Michael and another 5 back was Len. A couple miles later Michael had passed Steve and was talking to me. He wasn't enjoying the run much. ! reminded him it's all in the attitude. While he may not have realized how much fun he was having @ the time, looking back now it was a blast. And off he went. Steve was still back there and gaining. ! pulled over @ the bus stop and stretched. The bus never came. Steve stopped to rest. ! had taken off. ! had to cross the line 5 minutes before him to beat him. We ran together a bit. ! kept an eye on Len since he was getting uncomfortably close. Next to last aid station ! walked off when ! saw Len walking. The next time ! looked he was running again so ! had to pick up the pace. ! got to an 8:00 pace for almost half a mile before ! cramped up again. Backed off an held it steady. Just before ! hit the last aid station ! heard Siri Lindley announce Michael was finished. W/ just over a mile to go ! was tantalizingly close to the finish. Around one curve and the trail turned dishearteningly away. ! was 1/4 mile from the pavilion and running away from it. And Len was closing. ! kept pushing. It hurt like hell. Len came by and ! was done. A bit more walking then the final push to the finish. The last 300 yards was just gutting it out. 50 feet to go ! saw Katrine. She jumped up and hi 5'd. All ! could think about was how great her hair looked after the run she had just done. My hair wasn't allowed out from under my cap. After drooping on 2 high school kids ! staggered down to the water and waded in. Nearly lost my shoes in the mud. ! burned thru 6037 calories plus whatever ! cooked during the swim. Much later ! was preparing to leave when ! saw Sybil @ the finish chute. She had 2 friends out there still. She asked me to cheer them in while she wandered off somewhere. The guy was 1st. ! was uninspired. The lady was 57 and cute she said. ! waited. It was getting close to 8 hours and there she was. ! confirmed that she was Sybil's friend then started cheering for her. This was a 57 yr old lady who had been out there for 8 hours and she turned on a sprint that ! couldn't follow.
Club results:
Michael De Seguin 5:28:13 91st 2nd age group
Mary Cary 5:30:36 94th 6th age group
Steve Lynn 5:36:55 100th 3rd age group
Len Thomas 5:39:04 105th 12th age group
Me!! 5:40:14 over 11 minutes faster than 2003 110th 13th age group (or as Darin told me 63rd of 24)
Sybil Praski 5:51:46 130th 6th age group
Brian Cary 6:09:35 150th 20th age group
The mysterious Jennifer Chudy 6:22:57 170th 10th age group. She beat me by about 40 seconds 2 years ago. Some people say they know her. ! never saw her as far as ! know.

Next up Jenna's Hawaii fundraiser http://www.rmtriclub.com/jenna.htm Be there or be square.

Then 'cross season starts on the 8th. http://www.americancycling.org/ Mud, Sweat and an excuse to drink beer.
Doug!!